Rorschach responding in children with specific learning disabilities

The present study examined the Rorschach response process of children diagnosed as learning disabled (LD). One-hundred-twenty-four children, age six to eleven were administered the Rorschach technique using the Exner (1974) System. These children were diagnosed by a multidisciplinary team as having a learning disability which fell into one of three general categories: children with auditory processing deficits; children with visual processing deficits and children with a combination of both auditory and visual processing deficits. Information from the Rorschach was compared at each age level to the normative data published by Exner (1978). The subjects were also compared across age and across type of LD. In addition, frequent responses given by the LD children were examined. Significant differences between the LD subjects and the normative sample were found at each age level. These results suggested that the LD children, as a group, view the world in an idiosynchratic manner and tended to avoid complex stimuli. The LD children were found to have difficulties dealing with affect and had negative self concepts. It was hypothesized that some of these difficulties were a result of the LD, while some of the difficulties stemmed from a source common to the LD. Significant differences were also found across type of LD. The complexity of the LD also appeared to have an impact on the LD child's socio-emotional functioning. There were not significant overall differences across age. The LD children appeared to be atypical in their socio-emotional development. Finally, a number of individual responses not usually found in normal children were found to occur in 10% or more of the LD protocals. An examination of these individual responses provided some insight into the LD child’s Rorschach response process.