Emotional and Behavioral Correlates of Persisting Specific Learning Disabilities in Written Language During Middle Childhood and Early Adolescence

Abstract

Parents completed the Behavior Assessment System for Children, Second Edition: Parent Rating Scale (BASC2 PRS) while their children (94 boys, 61 girls; M = 11 years 11 months) were given tests. Evidence-based profiles of multiple test scores and history (emergence and persistence) were used to assign to groups without specific learning disabilities in written language (SLDs-WL; n = 42 control) or with SLDs-WL (n = 29 dysgraphia, n = 65 dyslexia, or n = 19 oral and written language learning disability [OWL LD]). Parent ratings fell in the clinical or at-risk ranges for some individuals in all groups, but mean BASC2 PRS ratings showed nine significant main effects for group (n = 4): Behavioral Symptoms Index, Internalizing Problems Composite, Adaptive Skills Composite, two Clinical Scales (Atypicality and Attention Problems), and four Adaptive Scales (Adaptability, Activities of Daily Living, Leadership, and Functional Communication). Each SLDs-WL group differed significantly from the control group on these nine ratings, except dysgraphia on Atypicality and dyslexia on Adaptive Composite, Adaptability, and Leadership; and each correlated with one or more hallmark impairments associated with a specific SLD-WL. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study (without OWL LD), the dysgraphia and dyslexia groups, but not control group, showed connectivity with amygdala; BASC2 PRS Internalizing Problems Composite (internal stress) correlated with amygdala connectivity from two cortical regions involved in written word processing and production for total sample (N = 40). Applications to assessing emotional and behavioral correlates of SLDs-WL for educational services and future research are discussed.