Luria's neurodevelopmental stages in relation to intelligence and academic achievement in kindergarten and first grade

Abstract

Theoretical models describing the relationships among Luria's (1973) Stage 3 neurodevelopment (perceptual‐motor or modality‐specific processing), Luria's Stage 4 neurodevelopment (more abstract or modality‐free integration of information from two or more modality‐specific areas), intelligence, and academic achievement were evaluated using structural equation modeling. Kindergarten and first‐grade scores of 230 children on the Reitan‐Indiana Neuropsychological Test Battery for Children Aged 5 to 8 were used to test models examining whether, as Luria's model suggests, achieving Stage 4 neurodevelopment is associated with initial learning of academic subjects. Although Stage 3 and Stage 4 were related in kindergarten and in first grade, they were more highly related in first grade, consistent with the theoretical claim that Stage 3's relationship with academic learning is fully mediated by an indirect path through Stage 4. Furthermore, neurodevelopmental factors appeared to be important in predicting academic achievement only as they were mediated through intelligence.