Learning Disabilities and Psychosocial Adjustment: A Critical Review

Abstract

Research is reviewed that assesses the extent to which difficulties in psychosocial adjustment are characteristic of broadly defined learning disabilities (LD) and of specific patterns of academic and neuropsychological assets and deficits (Rourke & Fuerst, 1991; Spreen, 1989). Overall, a majority of children and adolescents with LD are in the normal range of peer acceptance and socially competent behaviour. Some measure of difficulty in these social assessments is observed in approximately one third of children and adolescents with LD, compared with 10 to 15% of non-LD controls. Similarly, internalized emotional symptoms of depression and anxiety are assessed as somewhat higher for individuals with LD than for non-LD controls but are within the normal range of scores. Externalized emotional behaviours, specifically aggression, delinquency, and hyperactivity, are problematic but these too are at subclinical levels. In the few studies that examine psychosocial adjustment for subtypes of LD, there is some evidence that individuals with nonverbal learning disabilities (NLD) are at much greater risk for personality disturbance and behaviour problems. That the psychosocial adjustment of individuals with reading disabilities is within the range of non-LD controls remains to be convincingly demonstrated.