Factor analysis of WISC-R scores for children identified as learning disabled,educable mentally impaired,and emotionally impaired

The WISC-R scores for groups of children identified by school personnel as needing special education services were factor analyzed according to type of classification. WISC-R factor loadings were obtained for the scores of children labeled Learning Disabled, Educable Mentally Impaired, and Emotionally Impaired, as well as groups labeled Other and None. Overall, results show the WISC-R to be factorially similar for all groups, with two principal factors emerging which correspond to the Verbal-Performance structure of the test. Significance tests among mean scale scores and IQ scores yielded few meaningful differences across groups.     

Behavior ratings of emotionally disturbed children by teachers,parents, and school psychologists

Emotional disturbance was rated by teachers, parents, and the school psychologist for a group of 104 children diagnosed as severely emotionally disturbed. Teachers were found significantly more severe in their judgments than the school psychologist on the Behavior and Socialization scales of the Referral Checklist, but not on Communication. The teacher rating profile was also found to deviate from parallelness from the other raters with increased severity in the Behavior scale. None of the nine correlations between judges on the same scales was significant. Interpretations and possible implications are offered.