Reasoning Disorders in Learning‐Disabled Adolescents

Abstract

In the context of a comprehensive two‐day diagnostic evaluation, 36 learning‐disabled adolescents, aged 12‐18 years, were administered a modified version of a control‐of‐variables task originally used by Inhelder and Piaget. On the basis of their task performance, adolescents were assigned to three strategy‐status groups: 1) those individuals who controlled variables spontaneously, 2) those who did so with increased task structure, and 3) those who showed no understanding of the need to control variables. The results indicated that 8 of the 36 adolescents fell into the third, or Strategy‐Absent, category. These Strategy‐Absent adolescents, as a group, were characterized by a large discrepancy (in either direction) between their verbal and nonverbal abilities. Furthermore, when the sample as a whole was divided into clinical subgroups on the basis of the total evaluation (excluding the reasoning task), a relationship to strategy‐status became evident. Those individuals whose disabilities were limited primarily to reading and written language were largely spontaneous strategy‐users (17 out of 20). In contrast, those whose disabilities involved language comprehension (N = 5) or math and nonverbal skills (7) included 7 of the 8 Strategy‐Absent subjects. The findings of the study are discussed in terms of the importance of the integration of verbal and nonverbal skills.

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