Auditory-Visual and Temporal-Spatial Pattern Matching Performance of Two Types of Learning-Disabled Children

Normal readers, learning-disabled readers with a visual processing dysfunction, and learning-disabled readers with an auditory processing dysfunction in grades two through four were compared on the following six pattern-matching tasks: auditory-temporal to visual-spatial (At-Vs), auditory-temporal to visual-temporal (At-Vt), visual-temporal to visual spatial (Vt-Vs), auditory-temporal to auditory-temporal (At-At), visual-temporal to visual-temporal (Vt-Vt), and visual spatial to visual-spatial (Vs-Vs). The results indicated a significant difference between the normal readers and the learning-disabled readers on the At-Vs and At-Vt tasks but not on the Vt-Vs task, which was interpreted in terms of learning-disabled readers being deficient in auditory-visual integration rather than temporal-spatial integration skills. A significant effect of learning disability type was also identified on the Vt-Vt and Vs-Vs tasks but not on the At-At or Vt-Vs tasks. These results were discussed in terms of differences in memory. Implications of the results for previous and future studies were discussed as well as possible practical implications for diagnosing modality strengths and instructing learning-disabled readers.