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PubMed1990

Neuropsychological aspects of learning disabilities in epilepsy.

Cognitive impairment is regarded as the link between epileptic conditions and the inability to learn in school. The neuropsychological approach to learning disabilities in epilepsy, therefore, first concentrates on analyzing the differential effects of epileptic factors on cognitive function. The impact of seizure activity, localization of epileptogenic foci, and antiepileptic treatment on cognitive functioning can be evaluated based upon the results of continuous assessment with a computerized neuropsychological test system. Second, learning disabilities may be evaluated on observations made during classroom performance. Three issues seem to predominate in learning studies among disabled children with epilepsy: test-retest variability, deterioration, and the supposed specificity of the learning disabilities.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Coherence: the comprehension and production abilities of college writers who are normally achieving, learning disabled, and underprepared.

The ability to understand and produce coherent text structure was assessed across three groups of college writers, normally achieving, learning disabled, and underprepared. It was found that college writers with learning disabilities were more like the normally achieving writers on an assessment of comprehension of text structure. On the production of a coherent text, normally achieving writers performed better than either of the other groups, but the writers with learning disabilities (LD) performed better than the underprepared writers. These results suggest that the writers with LD demonstrate greater discrepancies between their comprehension and production of written form than either of the other groups. The writers with LD appear to understand text structure like normally achieving writers but, like the underprepared writers, they experience difficulty in the production processes.

Achievement↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Improving care for people with learning disabilities.

In November 1998, a project group began a review of acute hospital service provision in Sheffield for people with learning disabilities and their carers. The aim was to produce recommendations for future development. Throughout the project, patients with learning disabilities and their carers were consulted along with professionals and focus groups representing people with learning disabilities. The project group identified the need for new audit tools and integrated care pathways, changes to documentation and working practices, as well as the need to develop training. The group presented its findings to the executive of the newly formed Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, which gave full support for the group's recommendations to be implemented throughout the trust.

Humans↗
PubMed1999

Cognitive functioning in people with epilepsy plus severe learning disabilities: a systematic analysis of predictors of daytime arousal and attention.

In spite of the high prevalence of epilepsy and the importance of preserving cognitive function in people with learning disabilities, this population has received relatively little research attention. This study sets out systematically to investigate possible predictive factors of inter-ictal states of arousal and attention. The daytime function of 28 people with epilepsy and severe learning disabilities was assessed by performance on a two-choice reaction time vigilance task, behavioural analysis of time-sampled video recordings taken in naturalistic settings, and carer ratings on visual analogue scales. This methodology yielded eight discrete functional measures, from which two further index measures were derived after principal components analysis. A range of clinical and psychosocial assessments was completed and subjects had 36 hour ambulatory EEG and sleep EEG monitoring. Regression models identified significant predictors of cognitive function from a range of potential explanatory variables i.e. demographic, clinical, pharmacological, background EEG rhythms and sleep parameters. Results indicated that greater severity of learning disability, longer bedtime periods, poor sleep efficiency, frequent seizures and antiepileptic drug polytherapy were significant predictor variables. Explained variance (adjusted R2) was greater than 50% for six of 10 outcome variables (range up to 85%). Furthermore, significant regression equations (P < 0.05) were obtained for all but one variable. Thus, these results appear reasonably robust. Results support an interactional model of daytime arousal and attention in people with epilepsy plus severe learning disabilities. Inter-ictal cognitive function appears to be mediated by a combination of organic, circadian (sleep wake), clinical and pharmacological factors.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Dramatic favorable responses of children with learning disabilities or dyslexia and attention deficit disorder to antimotion sickness medications: four case reports.

Responses of four learning disabled children who showed dramatic improvements to one or more antimotion-sickness-antihistamines and -stimulants are described qualitatively. These cases were selected from a prior quantitative study in which three antihistamines (meclizine, cyclizine, dimenhydrinate) and three stimulants (pemoline, methylphenidate, dextroamphetamine) were tested in variable combinations (using a specific clinical method) for favorable responses by 100 children characterized by diagnostic evidence of learning disabilities and cerebellar-vestibular dysfunctioning. Pending validation in double-blind controlled studies, these qualitative results suggest that the "cerebellar-vestibular (CV) stabilizing" antimotion-sickness medications, Piracetam included, and their combinations may be shown to be therapeutically useful in treating children with learning disabilities or dyslexia and attention deficit disorder.

Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Alpha hemispheric asymmetry in children with learning disabilities and normally achieving children during story comprehension and rehearsal prior to narrative production.

Twelve children with learning disabilities attending a remedial summer clinic were compared with 12 normally achieving controls balanced for age, sex, and handedness on alpha amplitude and production of narratives. Specifically, all subjects participated in three conditions. Condition 1 was a vigilance condition, Condition 2 involved listening to a story without an ending that had to be retold, and Condition 3 was an opportunity to rehearse the story mentally and construct an appropriate ending. Alpha amplitudes were monitored during the three conditions to determine any hemispheric asymmetry or differences between groups or conditions in alpha production. The subjects' narrative productions of retelling the story with a novel ending were also analyzed using a cohesion analysis procedure. The results showed no significant differences between the groups in alpha amplitude, but there was a significant task effect with the vigilance condition, story comprehension, and rehearsal showing decreasing alpha amplitudes in both groups of subjects. Analysis of the narratives showed the group with learning disabilities to produce significantly shorter and less cohesive stories. Results are discussed in relation to other studies of hemispheric processing differences in populations with learning disabilities.

Alpha Rhythm↗
PubMed1995

Offending by adults with learning disabilities and the attitudes of staff to offending behaviour: implications for service development.

The aims of this study were: (I) to identify all adults with learning disabilities living in residential homes or attending day services in the Cambridge Health District in contact with the criminal justice system during 1992; (2) to evaluate the responses of services involved; and (3) to investigate the attitudes of staff and the policies of the services to 'offending behaviour'. Details of offences committed and the response of the police, health and social services, and other agencies were obtained by direct interview with the senior staff and through examination of case records. The attitudes of staff to offending behaviour was investigated by the use of a semi-structured questionnaire. Seven (2%) out of 358 adults with learning disabilities were reported to have had contact with the police during 1992. The eight offences allegedly committed by the seven people were two acquisitive offences, two sexual offences, one assault, one wasting of police time, one offence against the Public Order Act and one traffic offence. One offender was cautioned after the Crown Prosecution Service discontinued the case because of lack of evidence, while the other alleged offenders received informal warnings. None of the seven alleged offenders were prosecuted. Three alleged offenders lived in hostel accommodation, yet hostel accommodation only accounts for 7.8% of adults with learning disabilities living in the Cambridge Health District. Because of a lack of operational policies on offending behaviour, there were no existing referral structures for people who might need specialist health service support. Referrals tended to be inconsistent, with a considerable time-lag between offence and referral. Tolerance levels towards offending behaviour were extremely high in the two hostels, 20 group homes and day centres which were included in this study. Theft and criminal damage was hardly ever reported. Thirty establishments were visited during the course of this study. Of these establishments, staff in 12 said they would always report a major assault. In only three would a sexual assault or indecent exposure always be reported if it was to occur. Staff at one residential establishment said they would hesitate to report rape and the staff in another two would consider the circumstances before reporting it to the police.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Executive processing differences between learning-disabled, mildly retarded, and normal achieving children.

This study examined possible executive processing differences between mildly retarded, learning-disabled, and normal achieving children. To this end, the groups were compared as to their ability to recall central and secondary words from base and elaborative sentences under conditions of high and low encoding effort. Executive processing was inferred from the children's ability to maintain optimal recall performance for central and secondary words. Groups were comparable in central recall, but differences in secondary recall occurred for the high-effort encoding condition. Qualitative differences related to the prioritizing of resources (as reflected in the correlation between central and secondary recall) and monitoring the transfer of information (as reflected from central and secondary recall insertions) were found between groups. The results were discussed in terms of an executive processing framework that views retarded children as suffering from inefficiencies related to the sharing of resources, whereas the learning-disabled children's inefficiencies were related to the discrimination of resources.

Achievement↗
PubMed1992

Comparison of visual-spatial performance strategy training in children with Turner syndrome and learning disabilities.

This study examined the effects of a verbal mediation strategy on three groups of subjects who had visual-spatial deficits. Thirteen females with Turner syndrome, 13 females with nonverbal learning disabilities, and 14 males with nonverbal learning disabilities, who ranged in age from 7 to 14 years, were taught via a cognitive behavioral modification approach to verbally mediate a spatial matching task. Pretest and posttest performance differences on parallel forms of a visual-spatial orientation task were examined. All three groups showed significant improvement in visual-spatial task performance after the training. There were no significant differences in the degree of improvement among the three groups. The results suggest that children with Turner syndrome may benefit from problem-solving strategy training in a manner similar to children with nonverbal learning disabilities.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

Services for students with learning disabilities in U.S. and Canadian medical schools.

Between September 1, 1990, and March 31, 1991, 103 of the 142 medical schools in the United States and Canada responded to a questionnaire regarding their services and programs for learning-disabled medical students. Ninety-three schools accepted such students (and ten did not), but only two-thirds had support programs and half lacked the capacity to diagnose learning disability disorders. Twenty-five did not know they could administer licensing examinations in a nonstandard manner, and 19 had no senior administrator or faculty member coordinating learning disability services. The author concludes that these results suggest that medical schools are poorly informed about and unprepared to help learning-disabled students.

Canada↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Assessing differences in children with learning disabilities and normally achieving students with a new measure of creativity.

This study investigates the creative abilities of children with learning disabilities by employing a new measure designed to assess creativity without the use of verbal or analytic skills. Sixteen normally performing and 16 children with learning disabilities were administered this task and a control task of verbal fluency. The children with learning disabilities scored significantly higher on the nonverbal but not the verbal control task.

Achievement↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Health care for women with learning disabilities.

This article describes a research project exploring the basic health education ow women with learning disabilities. It demonstrated that preventive and well-woman needs were not being met. In response a joint venture was developed between a community learning disabilities team and local well woman and family planning services. The article describes how an informal and accessible clinic was established for women with learning disabilities.

Female↗
PubMed1984

Recategorized WISC-R scores of learning-disabled children from Mexican-American culture.

Examined the generalizability of the Bannatyne WISC-R profile of learning-disabled children to a sample of children from Mexican-American culture. A sample of 64 Mexican-Americans diagnosed as learning disabled were used in the study. Recategorized scores were subjected to 1 X 3 repeated measures ANOVAs and the differences between mean categorized scores were analyzed by Newman-Keuls tests for simple effects. Analysis of the obtained data suggested that learning-disabled Mexican-American children were not characterized by Spatial greater than Conceptual greater than Sequential patterns as predicted by Bannatyne. The WISC-R performance of these children was found to be similar on Sequential and Conceptual categories. In spite of the lack of generalizability of the Bannatyne profile to the Mexican-American group, some interesting similarities and differences in performance patterns of the two groups of Ss were observed.

Child↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Development of alterations in learning: situational learning disabilities.

Until now the nursing diagnosis knowledge deficit has served as a label for all teaching/learning situations. This is inadequate and does not effectively give direction to correct intervention(s). The purpose of this article is to present the diagnostic concept, situational learning disability (SLD), a component of Alterations in Learning, which has been identified as an area to be developed in the Knowing pattern of the NANDA taxonomy. A thorough review of the literature and empirical support involving 20 cardiology patients on a 27-bed telemetry step-down unit is provided. The data support the development of two nursing diagnoses: (1) situational learning disability: impaired ability to learn; and (2) situational learning disability: lack of motivation to learn. The proper identification of these diagnoses can assist nurses in discriminating between patients who can learn, those who cannot learn, and those who need adjustments made in order to facilitate their learning. With this information nurses will be able to make decisions concerning the timing and type of intervention that is most appropriate.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Students with learning disabilities in the university environment: a study of faculty and student perceptions.

This study examines faculty and student perceptions regarding university students with learning disabilities, sensitivity to such students' special needs, accommodations, and the perceived impact of a learning disability. Results reveal a general sensitivity to the special needs of students with learning disabilities; however, group differences suggest several areas warranting further attention.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

A life skills approach to mathematics instruction: preparing students with learning disabilities for the real-life math demands of adulthood.

Current mathematics instruction does not address the day-to-day needs of many students with learning disabilities. Although the vast majority of students with learning disabilities are not college bound, much of mathematics instruction provides college preparation. Too often, classes in mathematics ignore the skills needed in home and community and on the job. The present article examines the ways in which general mathematics instruction, focused on daily living skills, can easily be integrated into the classrooms of students with learning disabilities.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1992

A motor presetting study in hyperactive, learning disabled and control children.

Motor presetting was investigated in hyperactive children, learning disabled children and normal controls. The reaction time of the hyperactive group was more sensitive to increases in interstimulus interval (event rate) than was that of the learning disabled and the controls. This finding indicates that hyperactive children have difficulty with motor presetting.

Aptitude↗
PubMed1996

Respondent and informant accounts of psychiatric symptoms in a sample of patients with learning disability.

This paper investigates differences in the nature and frequency of psychiatric symptoms reported by patients with learning disability and key informants. The study involved psychiatric assessment of 100 patients with learning disabilities and key informants using the Psychiatric Assessment Schedule for Adults with a Developmental Disability (PAS-ADD), a semi-structured psychiatric interview developed specifically for people who have a learning disability. There was considerable disagreement between respondent and informant interviews: only 40.7% of cases were detected by both interviews. Respondents were more likely to report on autonomic symptoms and certain psychotic phenomena. Other anxiety and depression symptoms were more frequently reported by informants. The results indicate that it is crucial for sensitive case detection to complete both interviews where possible. If the respondent cannot be interviewed, panic disorder or phobias may be particularly difficult to detect.

Adolescent↗