Psychology
in
rhe Schools
Volume 32,
Ocrober
1995
CLINICAL APPLICATIONS OF THE
TO READING INSTRUCTION OF CHILDREN WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES
STANFORD-BINET INTELLIGENCE SCALE: FOURTH EDITION
CLAIRE
LAVIN
College
of
New Rochelle
When children are referred to psychologists for evaluation, the most
useful
resulting
information for the classroom teacher is not a label but suggestions regarding in-
struction. In its present format, the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale: Fourth Edi-
tion (SB:FE; Thorndike, Hagen,
&
Sattler,
1986)
lends itself
to
the selection of in-
structional strategies in reading for children with learning problems. The data on
cognitive skills obtained from the
SB:FE
provide important insights into cognitive
strengths and weaknesses that may be related to academic functioning. Although there
is no one-to-one correspondence between scores on a particular subtest and per-
formance in a particular academic area, clinical interpretation
of
SB:FE test data
can help psychologists answer the question,
“How
do
1
teach him to read?”
When children demonstrate learning problems in the classroom, they are referred
to a school psychologist for testing. What happens next has been described by Water-
man (1994) as a circular process. The child is referred because the teacher thinks he
has a problem; the psychologist tests the child and sends him back to the teacher with
the determination that, indeed, the child has a problem, but with little
or
no informa-
tion about ways in which the problem can be solved. A specific instance of this circular
process occurred when Sam,
a
lCyear-old, was referred
for
testing because he was virtu-
ally a non-reader yet he seemed to be intelligent. Testing with the Stanford-Binet In-
telligence Scale: Fourth Edition (SB:FE; Thorndike, Hagen,
&
Sattler, 1986) revealed
an overall intelligence score in the average range but striking discrepancies between verbal
and abstract visual reasoning skills. When these unusual results were reported
to
the
teacher, she was less impressed than the psychologist, asking, “Yes, but how do
I
teach
him to read?” To answer this question, psychologists must be able to link intelligence
test data not only to diagnostic categories but also to instructional strategies.
It is the clinical interpretation
of
test data in terms of the child’s learning-related
behaviors that makes tests useful (O’Neill, 1993). The SB:FE yields data on the pro-
cesses employed to acquire, remember, and use information related to academic suc-
cess. Clinical interpretation of both the scores and, more importantly, the child’s actual
responses on the varied SB:FE subtests can provide teachers with data for the selection
and implementation of instructional strategies that will enable the child to use cognitive
strengths to master academic material.
It is important to emphasize, however, that clinical inference is not the application
of specific profiles to diagnosis
or
strategy selection.
It
is the integration by the psy-
chologist of existing data, SB:FE scores, and behavioral observations to identify ap-
propriate instructional strategies. The clinical inference will be proved
or
disproved when
the techniques are applied in the classroom. The clinical interpretation is a starting point,
not an end in itself (O’Neill, 1993). The purpose of this article is to analyze the clinical
implications of SB:FE test data for the reading instruction of children with learning
disabilities.
~~
Correspondence and requests for reprints should be sent
to
Claire Lavin, Graduate Psychology Program,
College
of
New Rochelle, New Rochelle,
NY
10805.
255