SOCIAL-PERCEPTION IN STUDENTS WITH LEARNING-DISABILITIES AND ATTENTION-DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER/

The current study investigated whether students' classification of lea rning disabled (LD), learning disabled with attention-deficit/hyperact ivity disorder (LD/ADHD), or no classification (REC) was related to th eir ability to perceive nonverbal social cues. Participants in the stu dy were 57 students between the ages of six and ten years identified a s being LD, LD/ADHD, or REG. The Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accu racy test (DANVA) and the Social Perception Behavior Rating Scale (SPB RS) were used to measure social perception. A MANOVA was computed for the four subtests of the DANVA (Facial Expressions, Postures, Gestures , and Paralanguage). A separate ANOVA was computed on the SPBRS. Signi ficant differences were found for Facial Expressions and SPBRS scores. Follow-up analysis revealed that on the Facial Expressions subtest, s tudents with LD demonstrated significantly more difficulty the accurat e perception of cues than the REG or LD/ADHD groups. On the SPBRS, the LD/ADHD group was rated by teachers as significantly less socially pe rceptive than the REG group.