A study of the adequacy of the "Columbia Mental Maturity Scale" (CMMS) to the assessment of preschool children of low socio-economic level

Abstract

The Columbia Mental Maturity Scale (CMMS) was applied to 93 preschool children from 4 to 6 years old from Leme, a town in the State of S. Paulo, Brazil. All the children belonged to families of low social and economic level and were not are receiving assistance from any kind of program. The data indicated that the CMMS has many limitations such as the reduction of the IQ values with increase in age. The low results obtained with the CMMS do not necessarily indicate a cognitive deficiency but a decrease of the children's motivation or attention during the test.