A Rapid Screening Measure for the Identification of Visuospatial Learning Disability in Schools

Abstract

Verbal and nonverbal forms of developmental learning disabilities have been reported. Whereas there are several instruments for evaluating children for the presence of verbal learning disabilities at school, no screening tool is available to identify children who have nonverbal learning disabilities. This study aimed at devising and validating a short screening questionnaire that can be used by teachers in primary schools to identify those children who need to be referred for clinical services because they have a visuospatial learning disability (VSLD). An 18-item Shortened Visuospatial Questionnaire (SVS) was derived from an earlier, longer version. Its validation procedure was twofold and was achieved by (a) verifying that children who had been identified with the SVS questionnaire as having a VSLD actually showed visuospatial deficits on psychometric evaluation and by (b) rating with the SVS a clinically identified population of children with VSLD. The results of the validation procedure showed that the SVS is a quick, reliable, and valid instrument that may be helpful in identifying children with VSLD in primary school.

Perceptual organization, phonological awareness, and reading comprehension in adults with and without learning disabilities

“…The phonological deficits group's pattern of scores was typical of individuals with phonological dyslexia (Von Károlyi, Winner, Gray, & Sherman, 2003;Wilson & Lesaux, 2001), and the majority of group members had been so diagnosed. The organizational deficits group pattern was typical of nonverbal LD (Cornoldi et al, 2003), and again, most group members had the diagnosis confirmed as adults. There was no predominant diagnostic status in the mixed deficits group.…”

“…In an independent study, there was no difference between Block Design's reliability with a group of adults with cognitive disabilities and reliability coefficients reported in the technical manual for typical adults (Zhu, Tulsky, Price, & Chen, 2001). Block Design has been used extensively and successfully to differentiate research participants with nonverbal LD from those with dyslexia, and those without cognitive disorders (Cornoldi et al, 2003;Pelletier et al, 2001). Kaufman, 1994) is a visual perceptual test of the relational property of closure, or the tendency to perceive full and meaningful forms from incomplete information (Kimchi, 1992).…”

“…On the whole, most research into nonverbal LD concerns psychosocial adjustment and functioning (Forrest, 2004;Rourke, 2000). Problems with skills such as kinaesthetic awareness; left versus right orientation; accurate reaching in coordinate space; perception of part to whole relationships; object recognition; face recognition; and perception, recognition, and completion of patterns that are not easily verbalized have all been documented in nonverbal LD (Cornoldi, Venneri, Marconato, Molin, & Montinari, 2003;Gross-Tsur et al, 1995;Liddell & Rasmussen, 2005;Mamen, 2007;Rourke, 1995). These difficulties interfere with interacting easily with the environment and with other people (Rourke, 1995).…”

Sequence and space: The critical role of a backward spatial span in the working memory deficit of visuospatial learning disabled children

“…Appendix A1 presents demographic and selection data for VSLD children. The VSLD children were identified as poor learners on the basis of school reports and difficulties described by their teachers through the Shortened Visuo-spatial Questionnaire (SVS; Cornoldi, Venneri, Marconato, Molin, & Montinari, 2003). The SVS Questionnaire offers a visuospatial score (VS score) based on 10 items (range 10 -40).…”

Spatial and numerical processing in children with high and low visuospatial abilities

“…To do so, fourth-grade children were recruited to participate in the study. They were first required to perform three visuospatial tasks: the NEPSY design copying test (Korkman, Kirk, & Kemp, 1998), the Rey Complex Figure Test (Osterrieth, 1944), and the Cornoldi shortened visuospatial questionnaire (Cornoldi, Venneri, Marconato, Molin, & Montinari, 2003). These three measures were chosen because they are quick, reliable, and valid instruments to identify low visuospatial abilities in primary school.…”