The Manitoba Revision and Extension of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery for Children and its utility in an educational setting
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Date
1987
Authors
Lundin, Rune Sigrid
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Abstract
Golden and coworkers developed the adult version of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery (LNNB) and a corresponding children's version (LNNB-C), suitable for children 8-12 years. The neuropsychological literature revealed much controversy about the diagnostic effectiveness of the LNNB and LNNB-C, the published methodological properties of the batteries, and the conclusiveness of the validation research. In order to come to terms with the above criticisms of the LNNB-C, this study involved revisions of the LNNB-C to produce two versions of the Manitoba Revision of the Luria Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery suitable for older children 8-12 (MLNNB-OC) and for younger children 5-7 years (MLNNB-YC). The MLNNB-YC and -OC were administered to 3 samples of school children: (a) Normal Controls (NC): N - 193, ages 5 - 12 years, grades 1 - 6, about equal numbers of boys and girls, about equal numbers at each year level, good physical and mental health, average with respect to IQ scores, school performance, and socioeconomic status. (b) Learning-Disabled Children (LD): N - 50, ages 5 - 12 years, selected on the basis of strict criteria (i.e., very poor performance in at least one subject, IQ scores 95 - 110, English as first language, no socioeconomic deprivation, good health, freedom from emotional disturbance, good vision and hearing) (c) Brain-Damaged Children (BD) : N - 28, age 5 - 12 years, selected on the basis of neurologically-documented brain damage. Children from all three samples (NC, LD, BD) were tested on the MLNNB-YC or -OC. In addition, all BD children were also tested on the Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery for Children (HRNTB-C). Thereafter, the HRNTB-C was administered to 28 LD children selected to match the BD children for age and sex. The NC sample was used to develop a new scoring system for the MLNNB-YC and -OC. The raw scores of the 149 MLNNB-YC or -OC items were converted into 0-1-2 Scores indicating adequate, borderline, or inadequate performance. This conversion is "absolute" in that a child's 0-1-2 Score depends on the adequacy of the child's performance independent of the child's age. The items of each of the 11 MLNNB-YC or -OC scales were then totalled and averaged to produce Scale Scores. The means and standard deviations of Scale Scores of each age level (e.g., 8-year old) were then used to calculate T-Scores appropriate for this age level. T-Scores >80 (3 standard deviations worse than the mean of normal children) were taken as indicative of impared performance. The number of scales where a child exceeded T - 80 were used to develop an Impairment Ratio...