[Applicability of the SON-R 2-8 in Children with Special Educational Needs and Children with German as a Second Language]. / Zur Aussagekraft des SON-R 2-8 bei Kindern mit kognitiven Auffälligkeiten und Kindern mit Deutsch als Zweitsprache.

Applicability of the SON-R 2-8 in Children with Special Educational Needs and Children with German as a Second Language The SON-R 2-8 is an intelligence test that allows a non-verbal assessment of the general cognitive abilities of children with difficulties or limitations in the field of speech and language development and communication. The validity of the SON-R 2-8 in children with cognitive impairments and children with German as a second language is examined with matched groups. It is shown that the SON-R 2-8 can differentiate well between normal children and cognitive impaired children and is suitable for use in children with German as a second language.

Sex Similarities and Differences in Intelligence in Children Aged Two to Eight: Analysis of SON-R 2-8 Scores.

The aim of this study was to investigate sex similarities and differences in visuospatial and fluid abilities and IQ scores based on those abilities in children aged two to eight. Standardization data from the Snijders-Oomen Nonverbal Intelligence Test for Children aged 2-8 (SON-R 2-8) were used. A representative sample composed of 965 children from the Netherlands and 762 children from Germany was examined. Small but significant mean sex differences favoring girls were observed until age four. At ages six and seven, boys achieved similar cognitive development levels to girls regarding all abilities assessed and outperformed girls on the Mosaics subtest measuring visuospatial cognition. Boys also displayed higher variability rates in performance. The distribution of IQ scores, with the overrepresentation of girls scoring above mean and the overrepresentation of boys scoring below mean in early childhood, altered with age towards parity between the sexes. The results suggest that girls tend to mature earlier with respect to cognitive abilities. During the course of development, however, the differences between girls and boys may become negligible.