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Comparison of learning disabled and general education children on the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities
Author(s) -
Goh David S.,
Simons Marc R.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
psychology in the schools
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.738
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1520-6807
pISSN - 0033-3085
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6807(198010)17:4<429::aid-pits2310170402>3.0.co;2-9
Subject(s) - psychology , learning disabled , learning disability , developmental psychology , scale (ratio) , linear discriminant analysis , special education , mathematics education , statistics , physics , mathematics , quantum mechanics
This study examined the diagnostic value of the MSCA in discriminating between learning disabled and general education children. The data were analyzed by several methods, including mean score comparisons, profile analysis, and discriminant analysis. The results indicated that learning disabled children performed differently—1 to 1 1/2 SDs lower—than general education children on the MSCA GCI and on all five major scale indexes. Some consistent differences between the two groups also were revealed at the subtest level. However, in examining the individual MSCA scale index profiles, it was found that a similar amount of scatter was present in the profiles of learning disabled and general education children. Furthermore, no specific pattern of scale indexes could be determined as typical for learning disabled children. These results are seen as not lending the necessary support to the use of MSCA profile as a diagnostic tool in identifying learning disabled children. The present findings are discussed in detail, and several rather consistent trends of performance on the MSCA are identified for learning disabled children.