ABSTRACT
The nonverbal method for evaluating conservation of weight behaviour suggested originally by Hans Gerhard Furth for use with deaf children has been employed successfully in a study of primary schoolchildren in Zambia. Data obtained from a control group of children of European extraction and upbringing are comparable to those reported from Switzerland and the USA in studies using the classical Genevan method. On the basis of these results, it seems clear that between 40 and 50 per cent of these urban Zambian primary schoolchildren cannot demonstrate the ability to conserve weight by the time they leave school at a median stated age of 15 years. An alternative hypothesis, suggested by the data of Goodnow in Hong Kong, is that the ability to demonstrate conservation is suppressed by unsatisfactory teaching methods and materials in the upper primary school grades. These results are compared with data reported by de Lemos in a study of Australian Aborigine children.
