Pei^amon 0021-9630(95)00138-7 J. Child PsychoL Psychiat. Vol. 37, No. 5. R). 563-568, 1996 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in Great Britain 0021-9630/96 $15.00 + 0.00 How Local is the Impact of a Specific Learning Difficulty on Premature Children's Evaluation of Their Own Competence? Marian Jongmans Institute of Education, University of London, U.K. Lilly Dubowitz Post-graduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital, London, U.K. James D. Demetre Psychology Division, University of Greenwich, London, U.K. Sheila E. Henderson Institute of Education, University of London, U.K, The aim of this study was to determine whether children's perceptions of their own competence levels reflected their actual strengths and weaknesses (Specificity Hypoth- esis) or transcended these (Generality Hypothesis). Harter and Pike's measure of self- perception was administered to 163 prematurely bom 6-year-olds with or without motor co-ordination and/or reading problems. Associations between children's self-perceptions and their scores on standardised tests of motor co-ordination and reading were assessed in three distinct ways. These analyses produced converging results: self-perceptions of physical competence were associated specifically with performance on the Movement ABC Test, and self-perceptions of cognitive competence were associated specifically with performance on the BAS Word Reading Scale. Our results support the Specificity Hypothesis. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. Keywords: Self perception, specific learning difficulty, prematurity, clumsiness Introduction Evidence suggests that by the time they enter school, children are capable of reflecting on their own characteristic behaviour patterns (Eder, 1990), compe- tencies (Harter & Pike, 1984) and sociometric status among peers (Howes, 1988). By 7 or 8 years of age, for example, school attainment and common interests, as opposed to mere contiguity and physical appearance, are used as a basis for the selection of friends (Dishion, 1990; Green, Forehand, Beck & Vosk, 1980). What is less well documented, however, is how children who enter school with some sort of difficulty perceive their own abilities and shortcomings. The present paper is concerned with children who enter school with learning difficulties in the mild to moderate range that are not associated with mental retardation. The frequently reported raised incidence of learning difficulties of this sort in prematurely born children (e.g. Van de Bor et al., 1993; Marlow, Roberts & Cooke, 1989) makes this population a convenient one for testing different hypotheses as to the relationship between actual and self-perceived competence. In the Requests for reprints to: Sheila Henderson, Department of Psychology and Special Education Needs, Institute of Edu- cation, 25 Woburn Square, London WCIH OAA, U.K. present study, two possible developmental scenarios will be explored. One possibility is that children with a learning difficulty begin with well-differentiated perceptions of their own abilities, and later changes in their perceptions occur only insofar as the initial difficulty has any impact on other domains. Eor example, children who have a specific impairment in motor co-ordination may view themselves as being relatively weak in activities involving motor skill, but as competent in academic and social pursuits. With the passage of time, the motor co-ordination difficulty may have a deleterious effect on academic attainment due, for example, to slow progress in writing skills. Similarly, lack of prowess in games and clumsiness at play may have an impact on peer relationships, and subsequently, on the child's percep- tions of competence in these domains. Thus, to the extent that self-perception is veridical, the percept may change to accommodate current strengths and weak- nesses (Specificity Hypothesis). A second possibility is that children's perceptions of their competence levels are not well-differentiated in the early years, so that a problem in one domain is over- generalised to encompass other domains. Over-general- isation may then serve as a self-fulfilling prophecy which may compromise a child's progress in several domains of school life from the start (the Generality Hypothesis). Since one would expect that secondary effects of the 563