DEFINING LEARNING AND LANGUAGE DISABILITIES - CONCEPTUAL AND PSYCHOMETRIC ISSUES WITH THE USE OF IQ TESTS

This article employed multivariate graphic techniques to address three issues concerning the use of IQ tests for identifying children with l earning and/or language disabilities. The first issue concerns the wea kness of the conceptual rationale for models that suggest that IQ dire ctly influences the attainment of academic and/or language skills. The second issue addresses psychometric issues that relate to the signifi cance of an IQ/attainment difference score. The third issue involves t he psychometric limitations of simple comparisons of IQ and attainment scores. This article shows that the historically prominent role of IQ tests for identifying children with learning and/or language disabili ties is conceptually and psychometrically unwarranted.