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Results for “Learning Disabilities”

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PubMed1999

Parents' experiences of general hospital admission for adults with learning disabilities.

General hospital care for people with learning disabilities is strongly emphasized in recent health policy. Ten sets of parents were interviewed about their experiences of general hospital inpatient care for their adult sons and daughters with learning disabilities. Findings in the areas of placement, occupation, basic nursing care, feeding, toileting, nursing attitudes, staffing and procedures are presented. Recommendations are made for changes to reported nursing practice to improve the quality of general hospital care for people with learning disabilities.

Adult↗

PubMed1990

Spelling rule usage among students with learning disabilities and normally achieving students.

Spelling performance of students with learning disabilities (LD) was compared with that of same-age normally achieving subjects and younger normally achieving subjects. Subjects with learning disabilities were divided into two groups: poor readers/poor spellers and good readers/poor spellers. A spelling battery was administered that included one task of phoneme-grapheme correspondence rule usage and four tasks of suffix rule usage. The groups with learning disabilities performed significantly below the same-age normally achieving group on all tasks. No significant differences among the two groups with learning disabilities and their achievement-level peers emerged in primary analyses. However, secondary analyses revealed differences in mastery of the past tense spelling rule ed, and in some subskills related to the spelling of words with suffixes. The cognitive-linguistic significance of these results is discussed.

Child↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Social effects of integrated classrooms and resource room/regular class placements on elementary students with learning disabilities.

The social status of elementary students with learning disabilities (LD) served by the Integrated Classroom Model (ICM) was compared to the social status of elementary students with learning disabilities served in a regular class with resource room support. The ICM serves elementary special education and non-special-education students (1:2) together as one class. The comparison group was composed of students with learning disabilities who received special education services outside of their regular classroom for a portion of their school day. Social status was determined by assessing interpersonal relationships among students, using a peer rating method. The results of analyses of various dimensions suggest that while special education students in both programs have significantly lower social status on average than their non-special-education peers, the children in the ICM have a better opportunity to blend successfully into the classroom than the children who go out to a resource room.

Child↗

PubMed1997

Specific learning disabilities: a neuropsychological perspective.

A dispersion in cognitive abilities is expected in normal populations. Specific learning disabilities would represent an extreme polarity in a continuum of normal cognitive dispersion. Three propositions relative to learning disabilities are advanced in the present paper. First, specific learning disabilities are expected to be found for diverse cognitive functions, even though some of these specific learning disorders have yet to be described in scientific literature. Second, it is noted that specific "factors" can be affected in cases of learning disabilities. Lastly, a parallel between focal neuropsychological syndromes and specific learning disabilities is proposed. Developmental learning difficulties would represent dysfunctional or dysmaturational defects; whereas neuropsychological syndromes represent a consequence of acquired structural brain pathology.

Dyslexia↗

PubMed1985

Information processing and speech lateralization in learning-disabled children.

The relationship between information processing and speech lateralization was investigated in learning-disabled children. The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) assessed simultaneous and successive processing while a dichotic listening paradigm with free recall and directed attention conditions assessed speech lateralization. A three-factor ANOVA design conducted on the dichotic data revealed that normal children demonstrated stronger right ear advantage (REA); whereas learning-disabled showed weaker right ear advantage. Further, lambda analyses conducted on individual subjects revealed that the learning-disabled did not demonstrate the REA, were not biased attenders, and did not get more right ear than left ear items when attention was directed to one ear. Multiple-regression analysis was used to predict sequential processing from the dichotic data for both groups. Learning-disabled children demonstrated a substantial deficit in sequential processing as compared to normal children. These results indicate that learning-disabled children may not have adequate cerebral lateralization of receptive speech processes, shift their attention more readily, and are more inadequate in sequential processing that presumably subserves language functioning. Perhaps learning-disabled children have deficiencies of processor capacity of salient areas of the left (language) hemisphere.

Attention↗

PubMed1979

Variables influencing phonemic discrimination performance in normal and learning-disabled children.

Twenty-five learning-disabled and 25 normal first-grade-age children took a phonemic discrimination test that manipulated word-pairs systematically according to degree of phonetic difference, position of phoneme contrast, and lexical familiarity. Results indicated that (1) the significantly lower performance of the learning-disabled to children as a group was due to the impaired performance by a small subgroup, (2) all three stimulus variables had significant effects on performance, (3) all combinations of stimulus variables interacted significantly, and (4) discrimination performance did not correlate with measures of receptive vocabulary or reading achievement for either group.

Achievement↗

PubMed2004

Voxel-based morphometry of comorbid schizophrenia and learning disability: analyses in normalized and native spaces using parametric and nonparametric statistical methods.

We employed voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to compare the distributions of grey matter found in structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scans of patients with comorbid learning disability with schizophrenia, schizophrenia alone, learning disability alone, and normal controls. Our primary aim was to replicate a previous region of interest (ROI) finding that comorbids and schizophrenics belong to the same population. Nonparametric analysis in normalized space showed no significant differences in grey matter distribution between the comorbid and schizophrenia groups. Furthermore, this analysis showed significant grey matter reductions in the comorbid and schizophrenia groups when compared to the learning-disabled or the normal controls. Parametric analysis localized the significant grey matter reductions between the normal controls and the comorbid and schizophrenia groups to the prefrontal and temporal lobes. It also identified an area of increased grey matter, on the inferior aspect of the postcentral gyrus, in the learning-disabled alone compared to the other groups. Native space parametric and nonparametric analyses, based on modulation of the normalized scans, confirmed the similarity in grey matter distribution of the comorbid and schizophrenia groups. Results confirm the ROI finding that in native space the learning-disabled group possesses the least and normal controls the most grey matter for the cohort. An increase in the basal ganglia of patients with schizophrenia vs. the learning-disabled, probably attributable to antipsychotic medication, was identified in the native space analysis. The native space results did not however register statistically significant temporal lobe reductions found under normalized analysis between schizophrenics and normal controls. This may be attributable to minor physical anomalies (MPA) in the schizophrenic cranium. Overall, these VBM results replicate previous ROI findings and are compatible with the view that comorbid learning disability with schizophrenia is a severe form of schizophrenia, rather than a consequence of learning disability. VBM has the facility to compare grey matter distributions in this structurally diverse cohort.

Adult↗

PubMed2000

Developmental psychiatry--insights from learning disability.

BACKGROUND: The Blake Marsh lecture, an annual lecture on learning disability, was endowed in 1963 in memory of Dr Blake Marsh, the former medical superintendent of Bromham House Colony in Bedford. The first lecture was given in 1967. AIMS: To review the speciality of the psychiatry of learning disability and how it is currently practised in the UK. METHOD: Clinical, service, research and educational issues in learning disability psychiatry are reviewed and illustrated. RESULTS: Key issues which emerge in all four areas include the importance of communication skills, consultation with users and carers, professional education and partnership. CONCLUSIONS: The psychiatry of learning disability is a complex, varied and stimulating branch of psychiatry with a strong developmental focus.

Education, Medical↗

PubMed1975

Effectiveness of aides in a perceptual motor training program for children with learning disabilities.

A program for children with learning disabilities associated with perceptual deficits was designed that included elements of gross and fine motor coordination, visual and somatosensory perceptual training, dance, art, music and language. The effectiveness of nonprofessional "perceptual-aides," who were trained in this program, was evaluated. Twenty-eight children with learning disabilities associated with perceptual deficits were treated by occupational, physical, recreational and language therapists; and 27 similarly involved children were treated by two aides, under supervision, after training by therapists. Treatment in both groups was for four hours weekly over a four to seven month period. There was significant improvement in motor skills, visual and somatosensory perception, language and educational skills in the two programs. Although there was no significant difference between the two groups, there was a slight advantage to the aide program. The cost of the aide program was 10 percent higher than the therapist program during the first year, but 22 percent lower than the therapist program during the second year.

Allied Health Personnel↗

PubMed1989

Nationwide survey of postsecondary education services for students with learning disabilities.

Postsecondary services for students with learning disabilities vary a great deal from campus to campus, and published guides to postsecondary education services are often inaccurate and incomplete. A nationwide survey was conducted to investigate student service provisions in 2-year colleges and 4-year colleges and universities. The purpose of the study was to identify and catalog postsecondary education service goals and options for students with learning disabilities, and to determine differences between the goals service providers have for these students and services actually provided. The findings and their implications for service providers at both high school and college levels are discussed.

Data Collection↗

PubMed1976

The relationship between occupational therapy and physical therapy test scores in children with learning disabilities.

Twenty-seven children with learning disabilities associated with perceptual deficits were studied in order to determine what relationship might exist between occupational therapy and physical therapy test scores. Intercorrelations were computed and multivariate models were developed for the occupational therapy test items. Numerous positive relationships were demonstrated between the two groups of test items, consistent with previous clinical and experimental data. One test, however, did not duplicate the other, and both are essential in the evaluation of the learning-disabled child with perceptual deficits. Negative correlations also emerged, which might have been caused by compensation for deficits.

Child↗

PubMedDate not supplied

A Canadian perspective on learning disabilities.

Canadian practice and research with children and adults with learning disabilities are described and analyzed. After an examination of the historical basis for current practice, the societal and cultural factors affecting education of children with learning disabilities, services for adults, and research are discussed. It was found that policy and legislation regarding special education vary considerably from province to province, and identification practices and service delivery models vary even within provinces. The fact that Canada has two official languages (English and French), a large multicultural community, and a Native population with special needs often arising from poverty has an impact on the education of children with learning disabilities and on sample description in research. Although school-age children are relatively well served, services for preschool children and adults with learning disabilities are minimal. The positive features of Canadian service delivery are that most programs are publicly funded, decision making tends to be nonadversarial and collaborative, and the needs of the whole child are typically considered.

Adult↗

PubMed1986

Syntactic decoding times of learning disabled children.

Syntactic decoding reaction times of 20 learning disabled children comprising two groups of subjects (mean age of 8 and 13 yr., respectively) were compared to the responses of normal controls matched for age and sex. An analysis of variance procedure showed that the learning disabled children and their normal peers did not differ significantly in responses to the experimental stimuli. This held true regardless of linguistic complexity, suggesting that delays in processing elementary syntactic constructions are not a concomitant of learning disabilities.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1982

An hypothesis regarding the commonality of right-hemisphere involvement in learning disability, attentional disorder, and childhood major depressive disorder.

Learning disability, attentional disorder, and childhood major depression are frequent clinical diagnoses for children who show behavioral disturbances and impaired school performance. We suggest that all three of these conditions may be associated with dysfunction of the right cerebral hemisphere. Anatomical disturbance of right-hemisphere function is often associated with learning disability or attentional deficits. The physiological disturbance of right-hemisphere function by a major depressive episode may produce or exacerbate learning disability or attentional disorder.

Attention↗

PubMed1988

The effects of hemispatial and asymmetrically focused attention on dichotic listening with normal and learning-disabled children.

The effects of hemispatial and focused attention were examined with 50 normal and learning-disabled children to determine the extent of these two attentional strategies influenced perceptual laterality as reflected by the dichotic listening right-ear advantage (REA). Twenty-five normal children (8 females, 17 males, mean age 9.10 yr) matched with 25 learning-disabled children (8 females, 17 males, mean age 10.1 yr) were administered a dichotic consonant-vowel (CV) and consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) syllable task. The two types of stimuli were compared across focused attention (free report, focused left, focused right) and hemispatial (central, left hemispace, right hemispace) conditions implemented independently and in systematic combinations. A four-factorial analysis of variance (groups x stimuli x conditions x ears) resulted in a significant REA for normal children across all attentional conditions whereas learning-disabled did not produce a consistent REA across all attentional conditions, and in several instances, produced equivalent left and right hemisphere processing. Right hemispatial orientation increased the magnitude of the REA (i.e., left hemisphere processing) for both groups, whereas left hemispatial orientation increased the magnitude of the left ear report (i.e., right hemisphere processing) only in learning-disabled subjects. Focused attention to the right ear also increased left hemisphere efficiency for both groups of children; however, focused attention to the left ear produced symmetrical functioning by learning-disabled subjects. Congruent combinations of focused attention and hemispatial orientation were not found to enhance the REA beyond its magnitude when each strategy was assessed independently. When focused attention and hemispatial conditions were employed in opposing directions, normal children were more susceptible to the "rightward" direction regardless of the strategy whereas learning-disabled subjects were more susceptible to the "verbal" nature of the strategy. Higher overall processing performance was exhibited for CVC stimuli when compared to CV stimuli. These findings lend support to the hypothesis that hemispatial and asymmetrically focused attention strategies interact with structural mechanisms in producing the observed REA in dichotic listening and do so differentially for normal and learning-disabled children.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1992

American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Children with Disabilities: American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, and American Academy of Ophthalmology: Learning disabilities, dyslexia, and vision.

Dyslexia and other related learning disabilities are serious problems. The American Academy of Pediatrics, through its Committee on Children with Disabilities and the Section on Ophthalmology, the American Academy of Ophthalmology, and the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus strongly support the need for early diagnosis and educational remediation. There is no known eye or visual cause for dyslexia and learning disabilities, and no effective visual treatment. Multidisciplinary evaluation and management must be based on proven procedures demonstrated by valid research.

Child↗

PubMed1993

Salivary testosterone in children with and without learning disabilities.

Previous studies have indicated that the sex steroids have organizational effects upon neural tissue and that abnormal secretion during development may lead to functional anomalies. In this study, we explore the possibility of prepubertal steroid hormone involvement in the etiology of learning disabilities. Salivary testosterone levels in 264 children without learning disabilities (133 males, 131 females) were measured and compared to that in 32 children with learning disabilities (25 males, 7 females). The presence of learning disabilities was significantly associated with higher salivary testosterone. Data from equivalent samples of learning-disabled and control subjects also were compared separately because of disparities in sample size and variable distribution in the total group analysis. A 32-member sample of nonlearning-disabled children was created by randomly selecting individuals who exactly matched the age, race, and sex characteristics of the learning-disabled group. The matched analysis further substantiated the association between testosterone secretion and learning disabilities. Thus, it is possible that some learning disabilities may be associated in part with abnormal testosterone levels.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1996

Attitudes of general practitioners to caring for people with learning disability.

BACKGROUND: The views of general practitioners on their increasing role in caring for people with learning disability in the community are not known. AIM: A study was carried out to assess the views of general practitioners with regard to providing routine care, organizing health promotion and specific health checks for people with learning disability and the role of specialists. METHOD: A postal questionnaire was sent to all 242 general practitioners in Gwent, south Wales. Participants had to mark their level of agreement with 20 attitude statements regarding learning disability. RESULTS: A total of 126 general practitioners (52%) responded. Respondents generally agreed that general practitioners were responsible for the medical care of people with learning disability. Respondents tended to be opposed to providing regular structured health promotion for people with learning disability, such as annual health checks and assessing hearing and eyesight. Specialist services were generally valued by respondents. CONCLUSION: General practitioners largely accepted their role as primary health care providers for people with learning disability. In contrast, their role as providers of health promotion for this patient group was not generally accepted. Further research into the appropriateness and opportunity costs of health screening for people with learning disability is needed.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗