A summary account of the main results obtained by AIRIPA over WISC-IV protocols of more than 1,800 children with SLD. Comparing the WISC-IV profile in children with full scale IQ either above 110 or below 90
Cesare Cornoldi, Anna Maria Antonucci, Laura Bertolo, Federica Brembati, Marco Frinco, Davide Giofrè, Graziella Giorgetti, Mariachiara Miliozzi, Lina Pezzuti, Elisabetta Ramanzini, Emanuela Sironi, Ernesto Stoppa, Claudio Vio, Enrico Toffalini
The paper reviews the main results obtained by the multicenter project that collected WISC-IV protocols of about 2,000 children with Specific Learning Disorder (SLD). The study analysed the scores on the ten basic subtests and the derived Indexes concerning Verbal Comprehension (VCI), Perceptual Reasoning (PRI), Working Memory (WMI), Processing Speed (PSI), General Ability (GAI). The main results were the following: a) despite the four-factor structure plus a general factor may be adequate also for SLD, the loadings on g of the factors are lower; b) typically children with SLD are better in VCI and PRI than in WMI and PSI; c) and the discrepancy can be used for diagnosis; d) GAI seems more appropriate than full scale IQ for describing the intelligence of children with SLD; e) giftedness is less present in SLD than in typical children if full scale IQ is considered, but the opposite is true if GAI is considered; f) in reading disorder the weakness in digit span is greater in the case of forward span than in the case of backward span g) the most frequent diagnoses are mixed SLD and reading disorder, but also diagnoses of writing and calculation disorders are present; h) these diagnoses are characterised but many overlaps but also some differentiations in the WISC profile; i) a profile with low PRI and high VCI is present, but the presence of an opposite profile (low VCI and high PRI) is more frequent than the other and than the same profile in typical population; j) in the debate between one-factor and bifactor solutions the latter seem better in the case of SLD. The present study also offers new data comparing the WISC-IV profile in children with full scale IQ either clearly above average or below average. It appears that in the latter the discrepancy between GAI and processual indexes is less evident.
Keywords
Intelligence, SLD, discrepancies, giftedness, GAI, working memory, processing speed.