The WISC-III Profile in Greek Children with Learning Disabilities: Different Language, Similar Difficulties

Abstract

This study investigates the WISC-III profile in Greek children with learning disabilities (LD). The sample consisted of 180 children diagnosed with learning disability (136 boys, 44 girls) aged 6.11 to 14.4 years. The Mean Full-scale IQ is 96.08, Mean Verbal IQ is 96.38, and Mean Performance IQ is 96.61. On individual subtests, the lowest mean scores are for Digit Span and Arithmetic whereas the highest are for Similarities and Picture Completion. Forty eight percent of our sample has a higher Verbal Intelligence, while 46.7% has a higher Performance Intelligence. These results indicate that the WISC-III profile in Greek-speaking children with LD is similar to that shown by an English-speaking sample with respect to the most difficult subtests. This finding implies that despite linguistic differences between the Greek and English languages, deficits in short term memory and working memory are responsible for the emergence of learning disabilities in both languages.

Keywords:

• learning disabilities
• I.Q.
• psychological assessment
• WISC-III profile

We are indebted to Professor Joseph Kush for proof reading this article and offering valuable comments.

Notes

∗One sample t-test.

∗One sample t-test.

∗∗From previous studies.

∗ p < 0.05.

∗∗ p < 0.01.