Cognitive Development in Language-Learning Disabled Adolescents: A Study of Problem-Solving Performance in an Isolation-of-Variables Task

Abstract

The performance of 10 language-learning-disabled (LLD) ninth graders was compared to that of 16 normally achieving ninth graders and 10 normally achieving fourth graders (matched for FullScale IQ) on the bending rods task, a modified Piagetian problemsolving task sensitive to cognitive changes in early adolescence. Analyses of subjects' performance focused on their constructing tests of differential bending In which only one variable was manipulated at a time (here termed “unconfounded testing”). The LLD adolescents evidenced an age-appropriate preference for unconfounded tests during their spontaneous test construction, but performed more like the younger children on measures of an awareness of the necessity for unconfounded testing. A possible explanation of the group differences In terms of poor expressive or receptive language skills is considered; however, it is concluded that a significant portion of the evidence points to conceptual limitations in the LLD subjects. Implications for evaluation and Intervention are considered.