Diagnosis of Learning Disability in Children

Children with cognitive disability have a poor performance in all of the visual –motor tests. therefore, diagnosis and rehabilitation of these learning disabilities seem necessary. the purpose of the present study was to construct and normalize a learning disability test for pre-school students. a researcher-made visual-spatial test was devised consisting of seven sections (symbolization, space status, visual distinction, visual argumentation, visual memory sequence, maze, and rotational form) whose content validity was confirmed by psychology professors and then was performed on a sample of 206 preschool students. the questions were analyzed, and their validity, reliability and cut point were determined. this test showed an acceptable reliability. then, to determine the construct validity and components of the tests, varimax normalized method was used. conformity factor analysis was also used to determine the validity of the factors which confirmed that the structure of questionnaire had an acceptable fitness to the data. independent t-test demonstrated that there is a significant difference between the average scores of the normal students and those with learning disability. to investigate convergent validity, we used learning disability checklist that was simultaneously completed by the mothers. the results of chi-squared test demonstrated that there is a significant relationship between these two variables: the completed checklist by mothers and completed learning disability test by children. considering the acceptable reliability and validity of the tests, it can be a tool to be used by learning disorders and counseling centers.