This study tested the hypothesis that children with weaker speech ability have greater difficulties in perception, powers of reasoning and spatial orientation than children with better speech ability, and assessed the value of Apgar scores as a predictive measure of later linguistic disorders. Subjects were 100 children born in 1970 who attended five day care homes in Helsinki and Ispoo, Finland. Subjects' birthweight and Apgar scores were obtained. Speaking ability (vocabulary, articulation, word formation, sentence structure) was assessed, and subjects were placed into four groups based on their score. The BMA test battery, an adaptation of the Borel-Maisonny tests, was used to measure auditory discrimination, tactual and olfactory discrimination, logic and reasoning, spatial ability, motor orientation, and laterality. Results indicated that (1) children belonging to the weakest speech ability groups experienced greater difficulties in auditory perception, reasoning, and spatial orientation than those in the strongest ability groups, and (2) low Apgar scores were symptomatic of linguistic disorders. There are 28 pages of appendices, including tabulations of results for each measure. (SB)