Environmental influences on perceptual and motor skills of children from immigrant Ethiopian families

The purpose of this study was to examine environmental influences on percep tual and motor skills of children from immigrant Ethiopian families in Isra el in comparison with those of Israeli-burn children. The subjects mere div ided into groups based on age (6- to 8-yr.-olds and 10- to 12-yr.-olds) and length of time in Israel. The results of this study show that the perceptu al and motor performance of 6- to 8-yr.-old, less recent Ethiopian immigran ts is similar to that of the recent Ethiopian immigrants of the same age. A difference exists between those two groups and the Israeli-born children o f the same age. In the 10- to 12-yr.-old age group, there is a marked diffe rence between the performance of the two groups of Ethiopian immigrants. Th e difference between the less recent immigrants and the Israeli-born childr en is smaller for most tasks; however, the less recent immigrants' performa nce is still poorer than that of the Israeli children. These results are co mpatible with those of other studies describing rile difficulties encounter ed by children who had not studied in formal educational settings and those who have had that experience.