Award Date

1-1-1986

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Special Education

First Committee Member

John C. Van Vactor

Number of Pages

93

Abstract

The present study attempted to cross-validate a screening battery developed by Reitan and Herring (1985) from the Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery for Children. Twenty-eight average (AC) 9-11 year olds were compared to 28 learning disabled (LD) students of similar age and IQ using the Reitan and Herring (1985) screening battery, with the addition of two tactile-perceptual tests--Tactile Finger Recognition (TFR) and Finger-Tip Number Writing Perception (FTWP). The Screening Index score discriminated significantly (p {dollar}<{dollar}.0005) between the LD and AC groups. The mean Screening Index score of the LD group (.23) was over twice as high as the AC group's mean score (.10), with an overall classification rate of 76% (90% for ACs, 62% for LDs). Converted scores (impairment ratings) of the individual measures (7) in the screening battery revealed only three statistically significant differences between the groups (p {dollar}<{dollar}.05); however, only 24% or less of the LD subjects earned converted scores within the impaired range on these three measure suggesting little practical diagnostic differentation between the groups using Selz and Reitan's (1979) impairment levels for the individual measures for LD classification. The tactile-perceptual tests were better discriminators between the groups with all but one statistical comparison reaching significance, both for raw and converted score means. Total Error and Right Hand Error mean scores were the most discriminating measures, and of the two tactile-perceptual tests, FTWP was the better discriminator between groups. The Aphasia Screening Test of the screening battery provided maximum separation between the groups classifying 95% of the subjects overall--100% of the ACs and 90% of the LDs; Results of this study support the use of Reitan and Herring's (1985) screening battery with 9-11 year olds as a screening instrument for disabilities from diagnosed or suspected CNS dysfunction, e.g., learning disability. The screen battery is clearly enhanced for LD screening with the inclusion of both tactile-perceptual measures--TFR and FTWP. The AST appears to offer the greatest diagnostic power for 9-11 year old LDs.

Keywords

Abbreviated; Battery; Children; Cross; Disabled Halstead; Learning; Older; Reitan; Students; Validation

Controlled Subject

Special education

File Format

pdf

File Size

1884.16 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

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