The purpose of this project was to administer the Motor Encoding Subtest of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (IPTA) to a population of 50 American Indian students, and compare their scores with the established norms of the ITPA. Indian students with chronological ages 5-9 enrolled in the first 4 grades at the Fort Thompson Elementary Indian School were tested. The majority of the children failed to carry out the objective designed by the authors of the ITPA for the Motor Encoding Subtest. All of the students were able to demonstrate the functions of a toy hammer, a toy pitcher, a toy gun. It was only when they had to do the same with pictures that they had difficulty. Indian children are often bashful with strangers, and in a situation where they are asked to perform in front of a stranger, this bashfulness may be more pronounced. Three recommendations are presented--e.g., if the ITPA is going to be used as a tool to diagnose language disabilities, it is necessary to administer the whole test. One subtest can only provide minor information in this area. (FF)