Learning Disability Quarterly

Commonly accepted definitions of learning disability require the presence of a significant discrepancy between a child's potential and his/her achievement. Eight commonly used “discrepancy” formulas were applied to the IQ and achievement scores of a sample of 92 potentially learning disabled youngsters. Extremely variable results were found depending on the formula used. Implications of these findings for actual practice are suggested.

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the process whereby children are identified as learning disabled (LD) and the validity of subsequent educational placements: (a) a representative sample of 1,000 cases were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively; (b) extensive questionnaires were administered to professionals involved in LD identification; (c) definitions and assessment procedures were evaluated. Only 28% of the LD cases met strict criteria for LD; another 15% showed weak signs of the handicap. The remaining 57% currently in1 LD programs were better described by other indicators such as non-English dominant (7%), other handicaps (10%), slow learners (11%), minor behavior problems (4%), etc. The costs of LD identification were found to be excessive; each year almost half of the resources available for LD pupils was spent on assessment and staffing. Policy implications are discussed.

The purposes of this study were to determine (a) which tests are most frequently used in the identification of learning disabilities, (b) how knowledgeable specialists are about the technical properties of the tests, (c) how knowledgeable professionals are about interpreting discrepancy scores, and (d) what practices are used to safeguard valid diagnoses when psychometrically inadequate tests are used clinically. A representative sample of learning disabilities teachers (n = 542), school psychologists (n = 130), and speech/language teachers (n = 179) in Colorado was selected and surveyed by questionnaire. Although subjects generally preferred tests with higher reliability and validity, poor tests were still used frequently even when superior substitutes were available. All groups of specialists tended to overrate the tests they used, and generally indicated a lack of familiarity with the psychometric properties of commonly used tests. Although a majority of specialists valued clinical judgment over test scores for diagnosis, substantial numbers appeared to lack knowledge of procedures to ensure the validity of such judgments. One-third to one-half of each specialist group could not correctly interpret ability-achievement score discrepancies.

Two procedures for correcting oral reading errors, Word Supply and Word Drill, were examined to determine their effects on measures of word recognition and comprehension. The two corrections were applied to 17 learning disabled, poor readers in a within-subjects design. Results indicated that the Drill correction significantly enhanced word recognition and comprehension of sentences which contained original error words. The findings are discussed in terms of “bottom-up” analyses of the reading process and their implications for instructional practice.

Three instructional procedures were compared to assess their effects on reading comprehension and word recognition. One approach emphasized comprehension, i.e., students were regularly questioned about the reading content and were not corrected when they made oral reading errors. A second approach consisted of word emphasis, whereby subjects were corrected for all reading errors and received error-word drills each day. They were not questioned about the content of their reading selection. The third approach combined aspects of the other two, including error-word corrections and drill along with comprehension questions. No differences were found among treatment effects on comprehension and oral reading; however, on an isolated word-recognition measure the approaches which included error-word drill produced higher scores.

Syntax is a crucial component of oral language development. Frequently, learning disabled children's oral language development is characterized by syntax problems. Hence, since deviations in oral language development may form the basis for identification of learning disabilities, adequate indices of oral language development are needed. The purpose of this study was to explore two indices of syntactic development in oral language, the T-unit and the Syntactic Density Score. Learning disabled students and a matched group of normally achieving peers were compared on these indices at four age levels. Results are reported for each measure along with a discussion and implications.

A span-of-apprehension task and a backward masking technique were combined to allow measurement of the apprehension span of learning disabled and normal boys at various time intervals following stimulus presentation. A comparison of subjects' rate of information pick-up revealed a slower rate for learning disabled boys. Results indicate that most visual information is processed between 10 to 50 msec, after presentation of the stimulus. The implications for eye movement training programs as being detrimental for learning disabled students are discussed.

Seventeen pairs of LD and non-LD students were observed for two school days. While the time allocated to various activities and tasks did not differ for the two groups, LD students received more individual instruction and more teacher approval than non-LD students. LD students also were engaged in five of seven active academic responses for longer periods of time than non-LD students, while non-LD students engaged longer in one academic response than LD students. However, the two groups' total academic responding times did not differ. Across students, only about 45 minutes of active academic responding occurred during a typical school day. Implications of the findings for instruction and special education decision making are discussed.

A questionnaire was developed to assess how parents of an LD child viewed (a) their relationship with school personnel, (b) their child's academic and social progress, and (c) integrated programs involving handicapped and nonhandicapped students. The results of the survey indicated that many parents are not actively involved in making educational decisions regarding their child. Furthermore, many parents are uncertain about how their child is functioning in an educational setting. These findings are discussed as they relate to the need for (a) greater parent involvement, and (b) attitude changes on the part of school personnel toward parents' role in the educational process.

Proportions of special education placements for Anglos, Blacks, and Hispanics were compiled for a large elementary school district in the Southwest. Also, types of placements were examined for each group within the context of socioeconomic status (low or mid-high) and home language (Spanish or English). Results showed significant ethnicity x socioeconomic status interaction effects, with mid-high Spanish-speaking Hispanics being placed at the highest rate and mid-high Blacks being placed least frequently. Further examination of the data revealed that the learning disability category was by far the most frequently assigned placement. The article contains a discussion of the factors which may have influenced the results and implications for placement decision making.

Motivational factors play a key role in learning disabilities and other school problems, yet the major formal classification schemata tend to ignore such factors. This paper reports on a schema for categorizing inferred motivation to learn and discusses the importance of such a schema for placement and treatment decisions. Data are reported on the schema's reliability and its concurrent and potential predictive validity.

The present experiment investigated the role of subvocalization in learning disabled readers' comprehension difficulties. Nondisabled and learning disabled readers were compared on silent reading and listening comprehension of noun lexical, verb lexical, semantic and inferential sentences under conditions of suppressed and nonsuppressed subvocalization. Compared to nondisabled readers learning disabled readers were inferior in comprehension when required to combine concepts and integrate ideas. However, the two groups were comparable in comprehension of noun and verb lexical sentences when allowed to subvocalize. For both reading groups subvocalization was found to be necessary for comprehension of individual words; however, suppression of subvocalization did not interfere with the integration of ideas. Three hypotheses were offered to account for disabled readers' comprehension performance. The results are best interpreted as an extended working-memory hypothesis supporting the theory that learning disabled readers' deficient semantic knowledge impairs their use of subvocalization strategies.

The Test Anxiety Scale for Children (TASC) and the Lie Scale for Children (LSC) were administered to 60 children, half of whom were defined by schools as learning disabled. An analysis of covariance indicated that learning disabled subjects were more anxious than their nondisabled counterparts, and that their test anxiety was significantly related to reading and mathematics achievement scores.

The relationship between automatization ability, as measured by the Rapid Automatic Naming Test (RAN), and proficiency in arithmetic basic fact computation was investigated. Subjects included 120 learning disabled and 120 nondisabled children between 8 and 13 years of age; 60 subjects in each group were designated as either younger or older. Significant correlations were obtained between RAN performance and basic fact proficiency for both the learning disabled and nondisabled groups. In addition, learning disabled subjects were found to be less proficient in basic fact computation and slower on RAN than their nondisabled peers at both younger and older age levels. Correlations were substantial enough to further inquire whether LD youngsters' lack of proficient basic fact skills may be due, in part at least, to weak automatization. The construct of automatization, or automaticity, has applicability to academic skills beyond those previously investigated.