Significance of WISC Verbal-Performance Discrepancies for Younger Children with Learning Disabilities

Abstract

82 5- to 8-yr.-old children (IQ range 79 to 120) exhibiting learning disabilities were divided into three groups on the basis of their WISC Verbal IQ and Performance IQ: a high Performance IQ-low Verbal IQ group, a Verbal IQ equal to Performance IQ group, and a high Verbal IQ-low Performance IQ group. The three groups were equated for age and Full Scale IQ. The performance of these Ss on selected measures of verbal, auditory-perceptual, visual-perceptual, problem-solving, motor, and psychomotor abilities did not yield the same clear-cut differences observed in previous studies with older (9- to 14-yr.-old) children with learning disabilities who had been divided into groups on the basis of WISC Verbal IQ-Performance IQ discrepancies of an identical magnitude. These results argue for very guarded clinical inrerpretation of WISC Verbal IQ-Performance IQ discrepancies of this magnitude in the case of younger children exhibiting learning disabilities.