Adaptive Behavior of Children with Learning Disabilities

Abstract

This study compared the adaptive behavior of 114 learning disabled (LD) subjects with that of large, nationally representative normative samples of normal intelligence and mentally retarded children and youth. The adaptive behavior mean scores of the LD sample were found to be lower than mean scores obtained by the normal intelligence group, and higher than mean scores obtained by the mentally retarded group. In addition, mean scores in all five areas of adaptive behavior measured in the study were lower for secondary level LD subjects than for elementary level LD subjects. The author discusses possible interpretations of these results, and provides implications and recommendations for diagnosticians and teachers.