Lateralizing Significance of Wisc Verbal-Performance Discrepancies for Older Children with Learning Disabilities

Abstract

45 9- to 14-yr.-old right-handed boys (IQ range: 85 to 115) with learning disabilities were distributed into three groups on the basis of their WISC Verbal IQ and Performance IQ scores: the high performance-low verbal (HP-LV) group, the verbal equal to performance (V = P) group, and the high verbal-low performance (HV-LP) group. The three groups were equated for age and Full Scale IQ. The performance of these Ss on 25 measures indicated clear superiority of the HP-LV group on most measures of complex motor and psychomotor abilities, regardless of the hand employed. Although expectations involving differential hand superiority of the HP-LV and HV-LP groups were not supported, the results were considered consistent with the view that WISC VIQ-PIQ discrepancies reflect the differential integrity of the two cerebral hemispheres in older children with learning disabilities.

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