Role-Taking Deficits in Learning Disabled Children

Abstract

This study compared the cognitive, affective, and perceptual role-taking skills of 38 learning disabled children ranging in age from 5 to 8 years with those of a control group of normal children within the same age range. The results demonstrated a role-taking deficit in the learning disabled children who scored significantly lower on the tasks than their normal peers. The normal children reached almost perfect performance by the age of eight, while the 8-year-old learning disabled children scored with only 82% accuracy. Twenty additional learning disabled children ranging in age from 9 to 11 years were tested to determine whether they would exhibit improved performance with age. It was found that the 10-year-old learning disabled children performed no better on the role-taking tasks than those who were tested at 8 years old.