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Lateral dominance in children with learning disabilities.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the occurrence of lateral dominance problems in a sample of children with learning disabilities. Ninety-one children (62 boys, 29 girls) who attended a school for children with learning disabilities were selected for the study. The Harris tests of lateral dominance were administered individually, and the children were rated as having right, left, or mixed dominance for hand, eye, and foot. When compared with normative data on dominance in children, the results showed that the occurrence of mixed hand dominance was no more frequent, the occurrence of mixed eye dominance was less frequent, and the occurrence of mixed foot dominance was more frequent in the children with learning disabilities. Results also showed that the occurrence of mixed and crossed eye-hand dominance was significantly different in children with learning disabilities when compared with children without learning disabilities. However, the occurrence of mixed eye-hand dominance was found to be significantly greater in children without learning disabilities than in learning disabled children. Age and sex were not found to affect the occurrence of lateral dominance problems in children with learning disabilities.

Child

Learning disability: 10-year follow-up.

A 10-year follow-up of 114 learning-disabled students has been conducted, gathering information on their academic achievement, social success, and job satisfaction. These students have been compared with 144 siblings without learning disabilities. Significantly lower levels of school attainment, academic success, and social success are found for the learning-disabled group. No difference is found in level of job satisfaction. Significant positive factors contributing to school success in the learning-disabled group were high IQ, less severe learning disability, positive personality characteristics in the child, effective family function, strong family support, high occupational level of family breadwinner, and high education level attained by the mother. Negative factors are a more severe degree of learning disability, the presence of hyperactivity, and a concomitant disability in mathematics.

Adolescent

A descriptive study of adults with suspected learning disabilities.

This article documents a descriptive study of 80 adults considered to have learning disabilities. The study was initiated by the Language and Learning Disabled Adults Task Force in London, Ontario, for the purpose of developing a profile of the self-perceived characteristics and needs of the adult population with learning disabilities in Southwestern Ontario. The study also served as a vehicle for implementation of the Intake Questionnaire, an instrument with potential as a screening device for service agencies working with adults with learning disabilities. A self-referred and agency-referred sample of 80 adults completed the Intake Questionnaire. Data were collected in the areas of demography, education, employment, health, and psychosocial characteristics, aspirations, and cooperation with further testing. Results describe people with ongoing specific problems in education, employment, and psychosocial functioning who aspire to learn more about themselves and their learning disabilities.

Achievement

Methodological issues and learning disabilities diagnosis in clinical populations.

Previous research suggests that the diagnosis of a comorbid learning disability is dependent on the method used for making the LD diagnosis. This study investigated that proposition by studying the effects of using three approaches to the assessment of learning disabilities in a sample of 177 six- to thirteen-year-old boys referred to outpatient mental health clinics for behavior problems. The use of these three procedures to diagnose comorbid learning problems produced significantly different results. All methods identified significant numbers of children in the clinical population as learning disabled; however, each method identified children with differing characteristics. Consistent with predictions from measurement theory, the commonly used simple standard score discrepancy method was more likely to identify children with above-average IQs as learning disabled, whereas a regression approach identified learning disabilities more consistently across the ability range. These results were interpreted as supporting the use of regression approaches to diagnose co-occurring learning disabilities, as that method is less likely to be biased by the child's intelligence test score. The implications of the use of each method in research investigations is also discussed.

Adolescent

Immediate recall fo semantically varied "sentences" by learning-disabled adolescents.

The immediate recall of 20 semantically and syntactically varied sentences was assessed and compared for 30 learning-disabled and 30 academically achieving adolescents. Learning-disabled adolescents repeated significantly fewer of the sentences verbatim than their achieving age peers. They exhibited significant reductions in the recall of sentences which violated semantic (selectional) rules, contained correctly and incorrectly sequenced modifier-strings, contained a random word-setting, or were syntactically complex. Perseveration errors occured more frequently among the learning-disabled adolescents than among the achievers and inter-sentence perseverative errors were exhibited only by those who were learning disabled. The rank order of difficulty for the sentences agreed for the two groups, suggesting primarily quantitative reductions in the immediate recall by the learning-disabled adolescents. The findings suggest that learning-disabled adolescents depend heavily upon semantic aspects for language processing, experience immediate memory and sequencing problems for modifier-strings, and exhibit a prevalence of interfering perseverative responses.

Adolescent

Tactile discrimination, response mode, and interhemispheric communication by learning disabled children.

32 right-handed, learning disabled children aged 8-10 yr., 11-13 yr., and 14-16 yr. were presented a tactile discrimination task. Pairs of fabrics of different or the same texture were presented to the same hand (uncrossed condition) or alternating hands (crossed condition). Discrimination errors were compared using a verbal response mode and a nonverbal response mode. Analysis indicated that the number of crossed errors was significantly greater in the verbal response mode than in the nonverbal response mode for only the youngest children. These results suggest selective attention-activation bias and/or hemispheric processing limitations for younger learning disabled children.

Adolescent

WAIS-R scores as predictors of employment success and failure among adults with learning disabilities.

The transition of adults with learning disabilities to successful employment is contingent upon numerous factors. Eighty-six adults (55 males and 31 females), 18 to 59 years old (mean age 26.7 years), with learning disabilities were evaluated clinically using the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) (Wechsler, 1981) to determine the value of WAIS-R IQs and subtest scores in predicting successful employment. Significant relationships were identified between subjects' WAIS-R IQs and scaled scores and job success. Conclusions and recommendations were reported.

Adolescent

Hair element content in learning disabled children.

Hair samples from 31 learning disabled and 22 normal children were analyzed for content of 14 elements. Significant group differences were determined and a discriminant function was completed which separated the groups with 98 per cent accuracy. Elevated lead and cadmium content in the learning disabled group is viewed as being of particular importance.

Cadmium

The influence of affect on the achievement and behavior of students with learning disabilities.

Research indicates that students with learning disabilities are likely to be at greater risk for experiencing negative affect than their higher achieving counterparts. The purpose of this article is to review recent research on the effects of affect on thoughts, cognition, and behavior. This research finds that induced positive affects leads to more accurate performance on math, greater learning of new vocabulary, and better performance on a new learning task. Implications of and suggestions for follow-up studies of negative and positive affect in students with learning disabilities are presented.

Adolescent

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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