Are There Cognitive Profiles Unique to Students With Learning Disabilities? A Latent Profile Analysis of Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Fourth Edition Scores

Abstract

It is often assumed that children with learning disabilities (LD) exhibit unique profiles of ability scores that reflect idiosyncratic cognitive strengths and weaknesses. Interpretation of cognitive ability profiles initially focused on visual inspection of subtest scores followed by statistical comparisons to identify significant cognitive strengths and weaknesses. However, subsequent research demonstrated that these subtest profiles lacked sufficient reliability, validity, and diagnostic utility. Profile research typically utilized variable-centered methods, but person-centered methods might be more appropriate. The present study utilized latent profile analysis (LPA), a person-centered method that is model-based and flexible, with 1,830 school-identified students with LD and 2,200 simulated normative participants. Four broad ability score profiles distinguished by level rather than shape emerged. Thus, this latent mixture model analysis found no mixture of subpopulations, suggesting that WISC-IV score variation was due to underlying continuous latent factors rather than a typology unique to LD.

Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/2372966X.2021.1919923

Impact Statement

It is often assumed that children with learning disabilities (LD) exhibit unique profiles of ability test scores that reflect idiosyncratic cognitive strengths and weaknesses. However, this person-centered analysis found no profile of ability scores distinctive of children with LD. These results suggest that cognitive test scores may vary due to underlying continuous latent factors rather than a typology unique to LD.

Keywords:

• Learning disabilities
• latent profile analysis
• WISC-IV

ASSOCIATE EDITOR:

• Francis Huang

DISCLOSURE

We have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marley W. Watkins

Marley W. Watkins received his PhD in School Psychology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and has held positions with the Deer Valley Unified School District, Pennsylvania State University, Arizona State University, and Baylor University. He is currently Research Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at Baylor University. His research interests include professional issues, the psychometrics of assessment and diagnosis, individual differences, and computer applications. Dr. Watkins has published more than 170 peer-reviewed journal articles and made more than 125 presentations at professional conferences.

Gary L. Canivez

Gary L. Canivez, PhD, is Professor of Psychology at Eastern Illinois University and principally involved in the Specialist in School Psychology program. Before entering academia Dr. Canivez was a School Psychologist for 8 years, was on the Adjunct Faculty of Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University, and was President of the Arizona Association of School Psychologists. Dr. Canivez currently serves as Associate Editor of Archives of Scientific Psychology and served as Associate Editor for Psychological Assessment. He is a consulting editor and frequent reviewer for numerous other school psychology, assessment, and clinically oriented journals. Dr. Canivez is a member of the Society for the Study of School Psychology, a Fellow of the Division (5) of Quantitative and Qualitative Methods and Division (16) of School Psychology of the American Psychological Association, and a Charter Fellow of the Midwestern Psychological Association. The author of over 100 research and professional publications and over 200 professional presentations and continuing professional development workshops, Dr. Canivez has research interests in psychological assessment and measurement pertaining to intelligence, achievement, personality, and psychopathology; and his research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Mental Health.