Psychological Comorbidity in Children and Adolescents with Learning Disorders

Learning disabilities are frequently associated with psychological problems (Rutter, 1974; Willcutt and Pennington, 2000). Results of population based surveys suggest that about 30% of learning disabled children have behavioural and emotional problems (Mc Gee et al, 1984). Psychopathology worsens with age in children with non-verbal learning disabilities (Rourke, 1988). Marked anxiety can appear when children with dyscalculia are confronted with reasonably simple arithmetic problems (Garnett and Fleischner, 1987). Ekblad (1990) found a positive correlation between psychological disturbance and poor school achievement among Chinese children. Shenoy & Kapur (1996) noted that 21 out of 88 children with learning disability had a comorbid psychological diagnosis. Kishore et al (2000) reported that 21 out of 56 children with specific developmental disorders of scholastic skills had a comorbid psychological disorder.