PERFORMANCE OF ISRAELI VERSUS UNITED-STATES PRESCHOOL-CHILDREN ON THEMILLER ASSESSMENT FOR PRESCHOOLERS

Objectives. The Miller Assessment for Preschoolers (MAP) is a scale th at can be used to evaluate preschool children with suspected preacadem ic problems. Before implementing the MAP in Israel, it was necessary t o determine whether the U.S. norms were applicable to the Israeli pres chool population. Method. In a pilot study carried out in Israel, the Hebrew version of the MAP was administered to 2 age groups of 30 child ren each. The scores of Israeli children were compared with the U.S. n orms on each of the MAP's 27 subtests, the five performance indices, a nd the total score. Results. There were no significant differences bet ween the Israeli sample and the U.S. standardization sample in either age group on the MAP total score; significant differences were found i n both age groups on the Foundations Index and on some specific subtes ts. Israeli children performed below U.S. norms on the Foundations Ind ex. Conclusion. These findings indicate that the performance of Israel i children overall in these two age groups is not significantly differ ent from the performance of U.S. children. If future research demonstr ates that these findings are stable across all age groups and for larg er samples, the implication is that the MAP can be administered and sc ored in Israel with the scoring methodology and normative information developed in the United States. However, because of the poorer perform ance of Israeli children on the Foundations Index, we recommend that s pecific Israeli norms be developed.