ANALYSIS OF COGNITIVE ABILITIES FOR
LEARNING DISABLED CHILDREN
HUBERT
“BOONEY”
VANCE
PATRICIA
OAYNOR
Madison
College
Appalachian
State University
MARffARET
COLEMAN
Boom,
N.C.
The study investigated WISC-R subtest pattern
scores
of
58
learning disabled
children
(42
boys and
16
girls) ranging in age from
6
years
to
15
years,
10
months. The variation in subtest scores wa analyzed by a
1
x
10
analysis
of
variance with repeated measures on the single factor. Differences between
individual subtest means were analyzed by the Newman-Keuls test for simple
effects. The evidence indicates that the low subtest scores on Arithmetic,
Coding and Information were characteristic of this group. The study did not
support the Verbal-Performance discrepancies
a
useful in the diagnosis of
learning disabilities.
The evaluation of irregular performance on intelligence tests has been of
interest to psychologists almost from the beginning of the testing movement,.
The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-R (WISC-R) has received increasing
acceptance for evaluating the general intelligence level of children. The usefulness
of differential WISC subtest patterns in the diagnosis of learning disability had
been implied frequently since
1960.
Literature suggests uneven patterns of per-
formance of learning disabled children when compared with normal groups on
tests of intelligence. Review of studies suggests that the pattern is relatively well
established (low performance-high verbal and/or low verbal-high performance)
despite differences in procedure, designs and subjects. The rationale for these
differences continues to be
a
controversial topic. The value of such a pattern
(or
patterns) would lie in the assistance it would give diagnosticians in identifying
cases of learning disability, in subclassifying them, in providing clues to instructional
methods and objectives, and in promoting preventive methods.
The application of pattern analysis of the WISC-R as a means of differentiating
brain-damaged and nonbrain-damaged, and good readers from disabled readers,
has met with mixed results. The results of scattered patterns in the area of diagnosis
are often mis-leveling and confusing; indeed, the results of one investigator may
be directly contradictory to the conclusions of another (Beck
&
Lam,
1955;
Capo-
bianco
&
Funk,
1958).
Those pattern analysis approaches showing greater success
in differentiating brain-damaged from nonbrain-damaged children typically have
been the approaches of Clawson
(1962),
L’Abate
(1967),
and Bannatyne
(1968).
Burks and Bruce
(1955)
compared good and poor readers’ WISC responses,
using
6
girls and
5
boys in the good reader group and
5
girls and
26
boys in the
poor reader group. They found
poor
readers low in Information, Arithmetic,
and Coding, but high in Picture Arrangements, Block Design and Comprehension.
Good readers were high in Similarities. The imbalance of
boys
in the poor reader
group and the 16-point
I&
difference between the groups in favor of the girls are
factors complicating interpretation.
Requests for reprints should be sent to Hubert “Booney” Vance, Child Study Center, Madison
College, Harrisonburg, Virginia
22801.
477
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