Learning Disability and Socioeconomic Status

From a sample of 333 children in grades 4 and 6 o f three western Canadian urban public schools, 35 were defined as learning disabled according to the criterion o f educational age less than 85 % of measured mental age and of chronological age. Eighteen were from families bvhose socioeconomic status was above the median for the total group and 17 from below the median. But-of the upper SES children, 13 (72.5%) had been diagnosed by the Pupil Services Department, whereas only 5 (35.2%) of the lower SES group had been diagnosed. Thus, no significant difference in defined learn-ing disability was found between children of above average and below average socioeconomic status, but the difference in the rate of diag-nosis bet ween socioeconomic groups was statistically significant in favor of children from higher socioeconomic status homes. The socioeconomic background of children who are referred for diagnosis of possible learn-ing disabilities and the actions taken in regard t o these children are important factors in understanding and assessing the role of the school in our society. Accurate and early diag-nosis of learning handicaps in school-aged children i s imperative if each child is to receive *Address inquiries to the second author (J.M.). the help which he or she requires. Within school districts there are children who are “high-risk’’ students in terms of the probability of their experiencing learning difficulties. There is con-siderable evidence to suggest that the social-class level of students is related t o their behavior and performance in school (Barber 1961, Jones 1965, Sexton 1964). Douglas (1 964) maintained that social class differences lead to increasing inequality of educational opportunity as the child progresses from grade to grade. Lower-class children are likely to be defi-cient in primary linguistic skills a t the time they enter school (Moffitt 1972) and, in turn, these deficient linguistic skills affect the secondary s k i l l s of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Studies show that the reading and arithmetic scores of children from lower socioeconomic status families are generally lower than those obtained by children from families of higher socioeconomic status (Deutsch 1960, Gordon &

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