Is Earlier Better? Reading Achievement and WISC-R Stability in Earlier vs. Later Identified Students with Learning Disabilities.

This study compared earlier identified (grades 2-4) to later identified (grades 5-8) students with learning disabilities on Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests (WRMT) and Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children Revised scores upon identification and over time in special education. Test-retest stability of WISC-R scores was also examined. No significant between-group differences were found at identification on WRMT scores, Wechsler IQ scores, Kaufman factors, or Bannatyne recategorized scores. Overall, results showed significant group mean increases in reading achievement and decreases in verbal ability. Moderate correlational stability was noted for all scores. Proponents of early intervention for specific learning disabilities (LD) assert that children who are not diagnosed until the later grades are likely to demonstrate more severe problems than children identified earlier (Gottesman, Croen, Cerullo, & Nathan, 1983; Perinden, Jacobsen, & Linden, 1979). Identification of children at risk for learning disabilities during kindergarten, when followed by intervention, has significantly reduced learning problems and nonpromotion rates in the early grades (Hagin, 1984). However, until recently (National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities, 1987), a diagnosis of LD required demonstration of a significant discrepancy between intellectual ability and academic achievement which is both difficult to measure and unreliable during the preschool years (Grossman, 1981). Furthermore, 85% of students with LD are not identified until age 9 or 10 when demands of the learning situation become incompatible with the abilities of most of these children (Beers & Beers, 1980). Students with LD continue to be identified in the later elementary and secondary grades and are often provided with academic remedial programs (Deshler, Schumaker, Alley, Warner, & Clark, 1982; Wallace & McLoughlin, 1979). Thus, the critical test of the hypothesis that children who are not diagnosed until the later grades demonstrate more severe problems must involve a comparison of students in the primary versus middleor elementary-school grades. A literature review revealed that this research question has received little attention. Thus, there is no solid body of empirical evidence to support the hypothesis that children identified during the early grades experience less severe problems than children who are identified later. Such evidence SUSAN WELTNER-BRUNTON, M.A., is a doctoral candidate in Clinical Child Psychology, The Ohio State University. FELICISIMA C. SERAFICA, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Psychology and Pediatrics, The Ohio State University. GARY R. FRIEDT M.A., is Director of Special Education Teays Valley and Circleville City School Districts and a doctoral candidate in Educational Psychology, The Ohio State University. Volume 11, Winter 1988 71 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.120 on Mon, 05 Sep 2016 05:56:04 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms would be relevant to a decision about allocation of special education resources. Therefore, the first goal of the present study was to obtain such evidence by investigating whether students with LD identified earlier (grades 2 through 4) or later (grades 5 through 8) differed significantly in intelligence and reading achievement at the time of identification. Another argument for early intervention maintains that it leads to greater achievement gains while late identification, after children have experienced years of difficulty and failure, substantially decreases the effectiveness of intervention programs (Gottesman et al., 1983). It has been proposed that with a history of school problems and repetition of lessons, older students with LD may feel increasingly frustrated and, consequently, be less receptive to remediation programs designed to improve their academic skills (Lieberman, 1981). If these assumptions hold, intervention during the early school grades should result in greater intellectual and academic gains than intervention initiated in later years. Children identified in the first grade and provided with special education as early as the second grade have been shown to make significantly greater achievement gains than equally at-risk students not receiving intervention (Gottesman et al., 1983). However, direct comparisons of the progress of earlier and later identified students with LD are lacking. The closest to such a comparison is a study by Ito (1980) which examined the effects of age on responsiveness to a special education program. No differences were found between 6to 9-year-olds and 10to 12-year-olds. The second goal of the present study was to compare earlier and later identified students with LD on changes in reading achievement after placement in an academic remediation special education program. In addition to achievement gains, it has been speculated that special education interventions may be related to observed mean changes in intellectual ability. For example, Vance, Blixt, Ellis, and Debell (1981) attributed a significant mean increase in WISC Performance IQ scores of children in a special education program to the program's emphasis on perceptual training. The assumption is that special education may lead to increases in mean IQ through remediation of intellectual weaknesses and improvement of existing strengths. Among children without LD, McCall, Appelbaum, and Hogarty (1973) reported significant mean changes in IQ scores following exposure to enriched environments. Studies of group mean IQ of school-aged children have generally supported a gradual increase in IQ scores over time while the trend is reversed for some disadvantaged and minority groups (McCall et al., 1973). Little is known about changes in LD students' group mean IQ or in their Kaufman (1975) factors and Bannatyne (1979) recategorized scores, also used in interpreting the WISCR profiles of students with LD. The third goal of this study, therefore, was to explore mean changes in the IQ scores of students with LD over time after placement in a special education program. Besides producing changes in group mean IQ scores, early intervention could also affect the correlational stability of test scores. While some studies of IQ stability for LD groups have reported moderate test-retest correlations for WISC or WISC-R IQ scores over 2to 3-year periods (Elliott et al., 1985; Quickel, 1982; Vance et al., 1981), additional research is needed because two of the above studies (Elliott et al., 1985; Vance et al., 1981) included educable mentally retarded, behaviorally impaired, and/or unclassified children in their samples. Furthermore, studies are needed to assess the stability of the Kaufman (1975) factors and the Bannatyne (1979) recategorized scores. Research (Smith, 1978) on the stability of these scores in the LD population is meager. Consequently, the fourth goal of the present study was to examine the test-retest stability of WISC-R, Kaufman, and Bannatyne scores over time for LD students in special education.