Nature and prevalence of learning disabilities in a child psychiatric population

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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 of severity of illness. However, chronicity of illness was associated with lower IQ and lower academic achievement. In this psychiatric population, similar to studies of specific learning disability populations, verbal IQ (VIQ) was the major predictor of academic achievement. Surprisingly, the VIQ/performance IQ (PIQ) discrepancy was irrelevant in predicting achievement or psychiatric status.

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