Social Skills and Learning Disabilities: A Meta-Analysis of the Literature

A meta-analysis of studies concerning the social skills of children classified as learning disabled (LD) was conducted. Results showed that children with learning disabilities were less liked and more likely to be rejected than normal achieving children. Results also showed that children with learning disabilities were more likely to be rated as aggressive, immature, suffer personality problems, and have difficulty attending when compared to peers without handicaps. Variations in the results were found to be a function of the assessment instruments used, gender, and ethnicity. Although social skills improve as children get older, the gap between the children with and without LD persists.