Validity of a screening test for school learning problems in a pediatric clinical setting

Children brought to pediatric outpatient clinics with the primary complaint of developmental difficulty often arrive with little or no information as to the nature of their problem. This study sought to determine if a brief screening test could facilitate the referral process by predicting the primary diagnosis subsequently given to the child based on a comprehensive interdisciplinary evaluation. Subjects for the study were 176 English-speaking children between the ages of 5 and 11 who had been evaluated at the child development center of a large urban medical school. Of the children later diagnosed as learning handicapped, 89% failed the routing test, while 78% with other primary diagnoses passed it. The results of this preliminary study suggest that a brief screening test can be used effectively to form initial hypotheses about the problems (learning vs. nonlearning) experienced by students referred to pediatric clinics for developmental difficulties. Suggestions for further research are offered.