This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Waber, D. P. Articles by Rappaport, L. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Waber, D. P. Articles by Rappaport, L. Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Neurobehavioral Factors Associated with Referral for Learning Problems in a Community Sample

Evidence for an Adaptational Model for Learning Disorders

Department of Psychiatry at Children's Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, deborah.waber{at}tch.harvard.edu

Michael D. Weiler

Cranston, Rhode Island Public Schools and instructor in psychology in the Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

Peter W. Forbes

Clinical Research Program at Children's Hospital, Boston

Jane H. Bernstein

Neuropsychology Program at Children's Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

David C. Bellinger

Department of Neurology at Harvard Medical School

Leonard Rappaport

Developmental Medicine Center and associate chief of the Division of General Pediatrics, Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School

We evaluated community general education (CGE; n = 178), community special education (CSE; n = 30) and hospital-referred (HR, n = 145) children (ages 7-6 to 11-11) prospectively over a 2-year period. During this period, 17 CGE children were referred for evaluation (community referred; CR). Prior to referral, CR children performed more poorly than community-nonreferred (CNR) children on cognitive ability, academic achievement, attention problems, and information processing. CR group performance was equivalent to that of CSE and HR groups, but HR children showed poorer academic achievement. Referred children performed more poorly on all measures than nonreferred, whether they met formal diagnostic criteria for a learning disorder or not. Learning disorders may be better conceptualized as a context-dependent problem of functional adaptation than as a disability analogous to physical disabilities, raising questions about the validity of using psychometric test scores as the criterion for identification.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?