READING, SPELLING, AND ARITHMETIC DISABILITIES: A NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION USING LURIA\u27S METHODS

This study investigated the adequacy of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery to discriminate between a Reading and Spelling disabled (N = 15), and Arithmetic disabled (N = 15), and a Normal group (N = 15), of adolescents between the ages of 13 and 18. Luria\u27s (1966) theory of neuropsychological functioning was applied to explain brain-behavior relationships in these specific groups. Subjects were placed into one of the three groups and administered the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery (Golden, Hammeke & Purisch, 1980) to determine the extent of neuropsychological dysfunction. The results demonstrated that the groups\u27 performance on the Luria-Nebraska\u27s 11 theoretical summary scales and eight derived localization scales was significantly different. The Normals performed significantly better than the learning disabled groups, and the Reading and Arithmetic groups performed significantly different from each other on the following nine scales: Rhythm, Expressive Speech, Writing, Reading, Intelligence, Left Frontal, Left Parietal-Occipital, Left Temporal and Right Sensorimotor. In addition, the 11 theoretical summary scales and the eight derived localization scales effectively disciminated and predicted group membership (learning disabled and Normal) at 95 to 97 percent accuracy. Analyses using 11 theoretical scales and eight localization scales also predicted group membership among all three groups with 95 and 77 percent hit rates, respectively. The stepwise discriminant analyses used seven of the 11 theoretical summary scales and four of the eight localization scales to effectively predict group membership. The Pathognomonic test items significantly discriminated (p \u3c .001) among all three groups. However, the Left and Right hemisphere scales were not able to demonstrate significant differences between the Reading and Arithmetic disabled groups. These results support previous research demonstrating support for the use of comprehensive neuropsychological assessment for diagnosis and evaluation of specific cerebral strengths and weaknesses in a learning disabled population. Specifically, it lends credibility for the use of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery with an adolescent learning disabled population. Norming this instrument with a school-age population would be helpful to increasing its effectiveness. Further research with the battery using other types of learning disabled adolescents is also warranted