Concomitant Learning Disabilities and Learning Problems among Students with Behavioral/Emotional Disorders

Abstract

The presence of concomitant learning disabilities/learning problems in students with behavioral disorders/emotional disturbance was examined in the present study. The 124 subjects, admitted to the Inpatient Child Psychiatry Unit of The Johns Hopkins Hospital for behavioral/emotional problems, ranged in age from 5 years, 1 month to 15 years, 5 months. Individual evaluations of each subject were conducted in which tests of aptitude and academic achievement were administered. Of the 124 students, 38% were identified as having learning disabilities and an additional 17.8% as having learning problems. The majority of the identified students with learning disabilities had deficiencies in all content areas assessed; subjects with learning problems had deficiencies in all reading and/or language areas. The distribution of learning disabilities/learning problems as a function of age suggests that the incidence of learning disabilities among students with behavioral disorders/emotional disturbance decreases as age increases, but that incidence of learning problems remains stable regardless of age groupings. Differences were also found in the categorical referents applied to subjects prior to and subsequent to their hospitalizations. Implications of these results are discussed in regard to (a) categorical versus cross-categorical classification, (b) the validity of categorical referents used by school and hospital settings, and (c) issues related to the design of educational interventions for students with learning and behavior problems.