Examining different methodologies for diagnosing learning disabilities in a school -age population at two points in development
Abstract
Identifying children who are learning disabled is one of the greatest challenges facing the field of education. Appropriately diagnosing children is as important as finding effective interventions to help students succeed. Five different discrepancy methods for diagnosing LD were compared to one another. Three of them were common and familiar to most practitioners: grade equivalent, simple difference, and predicted achievement. The other two alternative methods were less utilized: multivariate WISC-III and multivariate WISC-III WIAT. These five methods were applied to records from 59 students who were in special education on two consecutive testing occasions that were separated by three years. Scores were taken from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children Third Edition (WISC-III) and Reading Composite from the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT). Results indicated inconsistent diagnoses among the different methods. Also, students' discrepancy outcomes were inconsistent between the first and second testing administrations. Results also showed that many students who were receiving special education services did not have discrepancy for any of the methods, indicating that other factors may have led to their special education placement.
Subject Area
Educational psychology|Developmental psychology|Psychotherapy
Recommended Citation
Zgodny-Winter, Amy R, "Examining different methodologies for diagnosing learning disabilities in a school -age population at two points in development" (2007). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI3262838.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI3262838
