Interpreting the WISC-R subtest scores of reading impaired children--a structural approach.
The problem of characterising more specifically the cognitive requirements involved in subtests from standardised measures of intelligence represents a main problem in the research on exceptional populations. A new way of classifying tests of mental abilities is presented. Rather than focusing on the content of a given test, the present classification system focuses on their structures. The classification system is applied to the WISC-R (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children--Revised, Wechsler, 1974). It will be used to interpret the IQ-profiles of a clinically defined sample of reading impaired children (N = 82). The basic finding of the study is that the structural complexity of a subtest influences the tests results of reading impaired children. This influence is interpreted as a consequence of poor procedural knowledge; i.e., poor knowledge about how to organise complex sets of data. It is suggested that teaching of metacognitive strategies could be an aid for reading impaired children.
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National Centre for Logopedics, Oslo, Norway.
D000293:Adolescent; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009664:Norway; D011594:Psychometrics; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014888:Wechsler Scales