Hydrocephalic, Dyseidetic Dyslexic, and Low Average Regular Class Children: Intellectual, Visual-Perception, and Spatial Reasoning Performance

Abstract

Hydrocephalic children typically show lower nonverbal than verbal intellectual abilities visual deficits, and muscle incoordination One subgroup of learning disabled children, dyserdetic dyslexics, have the same relative nonverbal weakness, but not the other associated deficits The present investigation compared hydrocephalic (H, n = 8), dyseidetic dyslexic (D, n = 8), and IQ-matched regular class children (C, n = 8) on intellectual, visual-perceptual, and spatial reasoning tasks Univariate analyses indicated that, compared to both other groups, H had significantly lower WISC-R Performance IQ scores, F(2,21) = 6 14, p < 01, McCarthy Motor Scale scores, F(2,21) = 7 03, p < 01 and a significantly greater WISC-R VerbalPerformance discrepancy, F(2,21) = 4 79, p < 05 Hydrocephalic children had deficits large enough to be apparent even when compared to dyseidetic children known to have similar relative nonverbal weaknesses These deficits were present despite early surgical correction and present remission of the hydrocephalus.