Differences in Reading Performance Between Students with and without Learning Disabilities Using the Woodcock Diagnostic Reading Battery

In this study we investigated differences in reading performance between 30 students in a suburban school district identified as having a learning disability and 30 students without a learning disability matched on the basis of grade and gender. All participants were in the third or fourth grade and were tested using the Woodcock Diagnostic Reading Battery (WDRB). Results indicated that all but three of the 10 subtests of the WDRB produced significant differences between the groups. The three subtests that did not reach significance were Oral Vocabulary, Listening Comprehension, and Memory for Sentences, all of which address oral language rather than letters or symbols. Results are discussed in terms of practical applications of the WDRB with students diagnosed with learning disabilities, as well as with other noncognitive indicators of reading performance.