Comprehension of Linguistic Concepts Requiring Logical Operations by Learning-Disabled Children

Abstract

The comprehension of linguistic concepts requiring logical operations was compared in 32 learning-disabled and 16 achieving children. The results indicated that the learning-disabled children made significantly more errors than their controls. Comparison of the performances of learning-disabled males and females indicated no significant differences. It was concluded that children with specific learning disabilities exhibit significant deficits in their ability to comprehend linguistic concepts requiring logical operations. These deficits were interpreted to reflect impairments of abstraction and generalization and simultaneous analysis and synthesis as well as delays in logical development. Subsequently, the effect of remedial intervention was assessed in six learning-disabled, first-grade, transition-class males. The results showed no significant performance changes during a six-week control period before training. In contrast, there was a significant improvement in sentence comprehension after six weeks of remedial intervention. The preliminary finding that remedial intervention effectively improved logicogrammatical sentence comprehension indicates a favorable prognosis for the remediation of these deficits in children with learning disabilities.