Nature and prevalence of learning disabilities in a child psychiatric population

Abstract

The protocols of over 500 children from a psychiatric hospital were evaluated to determine the nature and prevalence of learning disabilities in this population. The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children‐Revised (WISC‐R), the Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT), and the revised form (WRAT‐R) were used in our analysis. The distribution of IQ and achievement scores in this population, unlike other studies of psychiatric patients, was within normal limits, and therefore, comparable to a nonpsychiatric school age population. The prevalence of learning disabilities in this group, however, is relatively high as compared to a nonpsychiatric population. The proportion of reading achievement disabilities was significantly lower than the proportion of children with arithmetic achievement disabilities. In fact, the modal achievement profile in this child psychiatric setting was reading achievement greater than arithmetic. Neither IQ nor academic achievement nor the discrepancy between the two varied as a function ...