Diagnostic utility of the Learning Disability Index

Discriminant Validity of the Visual Motor Integration Test in Screening Children with Handwriting Dysfunction

To examine the discriminant validity of the Visual Motor Integration test in screening children with handwriting dysfunction, 599 children in Grade 2, including 41 children with handwriting dysfunction identified by their teachers and 558 typically developing children, were assessed. The Visual Motor Integration test, with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (0.894), showed high accuracy regarding screening purposes. Judging from the values for sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, hit rate, Youden's index, and odds ratio, a standard score of 85 was the best cutoff point for screening children for handwriting dysfunction.

Predicting LD on the basis of motivation, metacognition, and psychopathology: an ROC analysis

We examined how strongly motivation, metacognition, and psychopathology acted as predictors of learning disabilities (LD). The results from five studies suggested that level of motivation (as shown through self-efficacy, motivational force, task avoidance, goal commitment, or self-concept) was highly accurate in classifying students with or at risk for LD. Metacognition and psychopathology were also strong predictors. Classification accuracy using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves ranged between 77% and 96%. These rates were much higher than the chance-level (i.e., 50%-55%) rates sometimes yielded by cognitive indices. Linear discriminant function (LDF) analysis substantiated classification accuracy. These results suggest that motivation, metacognition, and psychopathology are strong predictors of LD. Understanding the influence of these characteristics may help researchers and practitioners more accurately screen and treat students with LD.