Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery-Children's Revision Research Articles

Validity of Screening Tests for Learning Disabilities: A Comparison of Three Measures

Two groups of 20 children (8 to 10 years of age) were administered three screening tests used to assess learning disabilities, each of which represents one of three approaches: the Bender Visual-Motor Gestalt Test (Bender), an example of the “single test” approach; the Quick Neurological Screening Test (QNST), which represents the “soft neurological sign” approach; and the Screening Test for the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery-Children's Revision (ST-LNNB), which represents a “neuropsychological” approach. One group of subjects was comprised of children with learning disabilities (LD), and the comparison group was a random sample of nondisabled (ND) students. The groups were matched carefully for IQ, age, and grade. Results indicated that there were no significant group differences on either the Bender or the QNST. On the ST-LNNB, the LD group performed significantly more poorly than the ND group (p < .0001). The classification accuracy rate of the ST-LNNB was 97.5%, with 39 of the 40 subjects correctly classified according to their group status (i.e., LD or ND). The findings suggest that the Bender and QNST should not be used as tools to suggest the presence or absence of a learning disability. The ST-LNNB may be a valid instrument for screening for learning disabilities, although more study will be needed prior to clinical application.

Neurolinguistic deficits and the left hemisphere in the reading disabled

The relationship between cerebral laterality and neuropsychological functions, particularly phonemic analysis, was examined in a group of 20 reading disabled (RD) and 20 nonreading disabled (NRD) 8‐ to 12‐year‐old boys. Compared with NRD children, RD children exhibited an equivalent right ear and left hemispheric superiority for reporting dichotically presented words. However, even with experimental control for attention, the RD boys’ performance was poorer than NRD boys with both left and right ears. In addition, the RD children displayed poor performance on nine scales of the Luria Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery‐Children's Revision (LNNB‐CR), and had the most difficulty with the scales and items designed to tap left hemispheric dysfunction (i.e., the Left Sensorimotor, Receptive Speech, Expressive Language, Reading, and Writing scales). All of the RD children also performed poorer than any NRD child on a test of phonemic analysis, the Lindamood Test of Auditory Conceptualization (LAC), which assess...

Neuropsychological test performance and the attention deficit disorders: Clinical utility of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery—Children's Revision.

Neuropsychological test performance and the attention deficit disorders: Clinical utility of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery—Children's Revision.

Utility of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery-Children's Revision in the evaluation of reading disabled children

The Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery-Children's Revision (LNNBCR) was used to investigate differences between reading disabled (RD) and academically normal children. The groups of 32 subjects each were equivalent with regard to age, sex, race, IQ, and SES of primary wage earner in the family. RD subjects, all of whom had been identified as learning disabled by the school, were moderately to severely impaired in reading, but not in math. Performance of the groups was significantly different on the battery as a whole and on an abbreviated form of the battery which excluded scales composed of items measuring language, reading, and arithmetic. With the abbreviated battery, the largest group differences were found on the Rhythm scale. It is hypothesized that poor performance on the Rhythm scale may reflect impaired auditory processing, which has a negative impact on the development of basic skills required for reading. A stepwise discriminant function analysis using the abbreviated battery correctly identified 84% of subjects. Evidence supporting discriminative validity of two methods of identifying RD children was found. Performance on an Experimental scale composed of nonreading items presumed to assess the integrity of areas of the brain mediating basic reading skills was no worse than on an equivalent randomly selected pool of items. The LNNB-CR may be a potentially valuable instrument for investigating neuropsychological differences between RD and normal children in that it provides relevant information to educators who must formulate remediation programs for RD children.

Neuropsychological test performance and the attention deficit disorders: clinical utility of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery-Children's Revision.

The Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery-Children's Revision (LNNB-CR) was administered to 54 clinic-referred children aged 8-12 years. Children reliably diagnosed as attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity were compared with children diagnosed as attention deficit disorder without hyperactivity and with a clinic control group diagnosed with internalizing disorders. Both attention deficit disorder groups were lower than the control group in verbal and Full Scale IQ scores but did not differ from one another. The groups did not differ significantly on any of the LNNB-CR clinical scales, on the right or left hemisphere scores, or on the pathognomonic score using analyses of variance or analyses of covariance with both Full Scale IQ and age as covariates. These findings failed to support the hypothesis that attention deficit disorder, either with or without hyperactivity, is associated with neuropsychological dysfunction as measured by the LNNB-CR.

Do Neuropsychological Measures Contribute to the Prediction of Academic Achievement? The Predictive Validity of the LNNB-CR Pathognomonic Scale

It is well known that measures of intelligence are good predictors of academic achievement. Because many children with behavioral or learning problems also do poorly on neuropsychological measures, it was of interest to examine the predictive validity of a measure of neuropsychological integrity and determine its joint and independent contribution in comparison with traditional intelligence measures. The Pathognomonic Scale (PS) of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery-Children's Revision (LNNB-CR), which consists of the 13 items from the full LNNB-CR that best discriminate brain-damaged from normal children, was obtained for a sample of 77 children referred to a psychology clinic for behavioral and emotional problems. The PS was found to account for a small (12% or less), but statistically significant amount of variance that was independent of that accounted for by WISC-R intelligence scores in predicting reading and spelling, but not arithmetic achievement. These results provide limited support for the use of the PS in the prediction of academic achievement.

Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery—Children's Revision: Concurrent validity with three learning disability subtypes.

Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery—Children's Revision: Concurrent validity with three learning disability subtypes.

The Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery-Children's Revision: Discrimination between Learning-Disabled and Slow-Learner Children

The ability of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery-Children's Revision (LNNB-CR) to discriminate learning disabled (N = 27) and slow-learner (N = 14) students and to discriminate these groups when variance associated with IQ was controlled was examined. Also, the regression formula for diagnosis of brain damage, calculated from standardization data, was employed to determine the percentage of each group classified as brain damaged. Results indicated that the LNNB-CR discriminated between groups with 93% correct classification; three subscales contributed significantly to the discrimination: Intelligence, Motor, and Tactile. Univariate analyses of variance indicated significant differences between groups on the subscales of Motor, Writing, Arithmetic, and Intelligence. No significant differences were evidenced between groups with FSIQ covaried. Using the regression formula established with the standardization data, 100% of the slow-learner group and 78% of the learning-disabled group were labeled as brain damaged. The results suggest that the LNNB-CR does not provide additional information beyond that obtained through traditional psychoeducational assessment. The LNNB-CR is likely to overclassify mildly handicapped children as brain damaged.

Development of Factor Scales for the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery-Children's Revision

Factor scales to be used in the interpretation of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery-Children's Revision (LNNB-CR) were derived. The protocols from 719 children (240 normal, 253 brain impaired, 32 suspected brain impaired, 39 learning disabled, 5 leukemic, and 150 psychiatric) were utilized. Factors from overall and individual scale analyses were compared, and only those demonstrating adequate internal consistency and reasonable independence of the clinical scales were retained. This resulted in a final set of 11 internally consistent, largely nonredundant factors. Suggestions for factor scale interpretation and comparison of the LNNB-CR factors with those found on other measures were made.

Diagnostic validity of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery—Children's Revision.

Diagnostic validity of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery—Children's Revision.

Performance on the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Test Battery-Children's Revision: a comparison of children with and without significant WISC-R VIQ-PIQ discrepancies.

Fifty-six children, aged 8 to 13, were divided into three groups based on the degree and direction of their WISC-R VIQ-PIQ discrepancies. Group 1 was composed of 13 males and 6 females whose PIQ exceeded their VIQ by at least 12 points (V less than P); Group 2 was made up of 12 males and 6 females with VIQs that exceeded their PIQs by 12 or more points (P less than V); Group 3 was comprised of 9 males and 10 females whose V-P differences failed to exceed 8 points in either direction (P = V). The performance of these children on the 11 subscales of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery-Children's Revision was compared. Univariate F-tests revealed significant differences among the groups on the Receptive Speech, p less than .01, and Expressive Language subscales, p less than .001. Further analyses that utilized two-tailed t-tests found the V less than P group to perform significantly less well than the P = V group on the Receptive Speech and Expressive Language scales. The V less than P group was also significantly worse than the P less than V group on the Expressive Language scale. These results suggest a possible differential sensitivity of the children's Luria-Nebraska to verbal and nonverbal cognitive deficits.

Factor structure of the Luria-Nebraska neuropsychological battery-children's revision with learning-disabled children

The factor structure of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery-Children's Revision (LNNB-Children's Revision) was examined in a population of learning-disabled children. The LNNB-Children's Revision was administered to 100 learning-disabled children. Factor analysis and varimax rotation revealed three factors: a language-general intellectual factor, a reading-written expression factor, and a sensory-motor factor. The LNNB-Children's Revision may be useful in differentiating learning-disabled children from normals. The three factors identified in this study provide some evidence for the factor validity of the LNNB-Children's Revision and may be useful in clinical diagnosis.

A Multivariate Investigation of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery-Children's Revision with Learning-Disabled Children

This exploratory study examined the validity of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery-Children's Revision with a group of 100 previously diagnosed learning-disabled children. All children were administered the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery-Children's Revision, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R), and Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT). A Q-technique factor analysis using the subtests of the Luria-Nebraska-Children's Revision as dependent measures yielded three distinct sub-groups. Follow-up MANOVAs between the three subgroups using the WISC-R IQ scores and WRAT subtest scores revealed that only two groups differed on one variable (WRAT Spelling). It was concluded that the subgroups identified by the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery-Children's Revision appear to be very similar and that the failure of this neuropsychological test battery to differentiate meaningful subgroups may relate to its poor construct validity.

The Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery-Children's Revision: Validation with Brain-Damaged and Normal Children

This paper discusses briefly the development and rationale behind the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery-Children's Revision. Three investigations are discussed: (a) the development of normative data on a group of 125 normal children between the ages of 96 and 155 months, (b) development of the critical level formula for determining the upper bounds for normal performance given a child's age, and (c) a validation of the ability of the battery to discriminate between normal and brain-injured children selected as a separate sample from that used in the initial investigations. In the third study, a MANOVA as well as subsequent individual t tests indicated highly significant group differences. Counting scores above the patient's critical level (as determined from the formula designed in the second investigation) resulted in correct classification of 89% of the normal children and 79% of the brain-injured children. Methods of interpreting the battery and limitations of the current study are discussed.

The Diagnostic Accuracy of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychologal Battery-Children's Revision for 9 to 12 Year Old Learning Disabled Children

The present study was designed to assess the diagnostic accuracy and discriminant validity of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery-Children's Revision (LNNB-CR), comparing learning disable...

The Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery-Children's Revision: comparison of learning disabled and normal children matched on full scale IQ.

17 academically normal and 17 reading disabled children were matched on Full Scale IQ and compared on the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery-Children's Revision. The academically normal group performed significantly better on the Expressive Language, Writing, Reading, and Rhythm subscales, which suggests that the Luria-Nebraska may be sensitive to deficits not reflected in Full Scale IQ. Results are consistent with previous research and support the validity of the Luria-Nebraska, although simplistic interpretation of the battery's subscales should be avoided.

The relationship between the Luria-Nebraska neuropsychological battery-children's revision and the Minnesota Percepto-Diagnostic Test with learning disabled students

The relationship between the Luria-Nebraska neuropsychological battery-children's revision and the Minnesota Percepto-Diagnostic Test with learning disabled students