Children with Specific Learning Disabilities

Abstract

In this study 82 children with specific learning disabilities (CLD) and 34 controls with adequate academic performance were given the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC). The CLD group scored lower, on the average, than the control group, particularly on Arithmetic, Digit Span, In formation, and Similarities. For 29 CLD-control pairs, matched for chronological age and mental age, the verbal superiority of controls was more rigorously demonstrated. No characteristic WISC profiles were found for CLD grouped as to activity level and neurological status. Serious reading disabilities were associated more reliably with verbal deficiencies than with nonverbal deficits as tapped by the WISC performance scale, but this study demonstrated that the child with either a Verbal or Performance IQ in the low average or dull normal range appears high risk for a smooth academic career in middle-class urban schools.