Screening and diagnosis of learning disabilities/disorders - outcomes of interdisciplinary assessments

Objective:  to determine the occurrence of children with poor school performance and to investigate which intrinsic influences are most prevalent among them.

Methods:  a total of 104 children from the 1st grade to the 5th of elementary school participated in phase 1 (selection of children with poor school performance by a standardized test and based on average grade) and 56 of them (54%) were classified as having poor school performance. In phase 2 (differential diagnosis), 35 of these 56 children underwent multidisciplinary assessments and the results were submitted to a descriptive analysis.

Results:  out of the 35 children who completed phase 2, 18 (51%) were diagnosed with mood disorder (2 - 6% depression; 16 - 45% anxiety disorder/signs), 14 (40%) showed attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity, 1 (3%) showed specific language disorder and 1 (3%) showed specific learning disorder. Among the most prevalent changes in reading/writing/arithmetic dysortography (19 children - 54%) and the presence of non-literate children (10 - 29%) were observed.

Conclusions:  more than a half of the school-age children studied had learning deficits in written language and/or arithmetic, and the most prevalent intrinsic variables were internalizing disorders and the attention deficit/hyperactivity one.

Keywords:
Learning Disorders; Specific Learning Disorder; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity; Mood Disorders; Patient Care Team