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PubMed1991

Tinted lenses and related therapies for learning disabilities--a review.

Research relating to the use of Irlen tinted lenses and coloured overlays for underachievers is reviewed. Many of the studies were not published in refereed journals and were methodologically poor. The weaknesses of the Irlen argument are discussed, including the absence of evidence to support the claims that these tints need to be uniquely prescribed and manufactured. Syntonics is another form of visual colour therapy that has been applied to those with a learning disability. Research on this is reviewed, and is also shown to have procedural irregularities which preclude firm conclusions. Owing to the poor quality of much of this research the claims of the protagonists of these therapies cannot be proved or disproved. A proposed new therapy is normally preceded by a valid theoretical hypothesis; this has been lacking in the present topic. Recently, a feasible explanation has been proposed in terms of 'pattern glare' resulting from mild hypersensitivity to epileptogenic patterns. This, together with potential alternative theories, is discussed. In the conclusion of this review, advice is given for eye-care practitioners who may be consulted on these therapies.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Neuropsychological evaluation of deficits in executive functioning for ADHD children with or without learning disabilities.

This study investigates multiple aspects of executive functioning in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). These areas include attentional components, impulsiveness, planning, and problem solving. The rationale of the study is based on neurophysiological studies that suggest frontal lobe dysfunction in ADHD. As frontal lobe functioning is related to abilities in executive control, ADHD is hypothesised to be associated with deficits in various areas of executive functioning. The specific effect of comorbidity of learning disability (LD) was also investigated. Eighty-three children with ADHD and 29 age-matched controls (age 7-13) participated in the study. A battery of neuropsychological tests was utilized to evaluate specific deficits in speed of processing, selective attention, switching attention, sustained attention, attentional capacity, impulsiveness, planning and problem solving. Findings indicated that children with ADHD have slower verbal responses and sustained attention deficit. Deficits in selective attention and attentional capacity observed were largely related to the presence of LD. No specific deficit associated with ADHD or the comorbidity of LD was identified in switching attention, impulsiveness, planning, and problem solving. These results revealed that ADHD is not associated with a general deficit in executive functioning. Instead, ADHD is related to a specific deficit in regulation for attentional resources. The importance of isolating the deficit related to LDs for examining the specific deficit associated with ADHD is highlighted. Results also emphasised the importance of isolating the effect of lower level of abilities (e.g., speed of processing) and the utilization of specific definition for the examination of executive functions.

Attention↗
PubMed1990

The comportmental learning disabilities of early frontal lobe damage.

Two adult patients are described who suffered bilateral prefrontal damage early in life and who subsequently came to psychiatric attention because of severely aberrant behaviour. A battery of developmental psychology paradigms (not previously used to assess neurologically impaired individuals) showed that social and moral development of these 2 patients was arrested at an immature stage. In comparison with other types of brain damage which disrupt cognitive development, frontal damage acquired early in life appears to provide the neurological substrate for a special type of learning disability in the realms of insight, foresight, social judgement, empathy, and complex reasoning.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Helping people with learning disabilities to handle grief.

This paper examines the scope for using bereavement counselling as an intervention for people with learning disabilities who have experienced a bereavement. It discusses a range of practical measures which can be introduced and highlights the indicators which suggest that interventions are needed.

Attitude to Death↗
PubMed1992

EEG spectral power reduction and learning disability in rats exposed to lead through postnatal developing age.

The present study was carried out to assess electrophysiological and behavioral changes in Wistar rats caused by consuming a daily dose of lead acetate (400 micrograms lead/g body weight/day, given by gastric intubation, from second day of birth to 60 days of age. At 60 days of age, the lead treated rats showed in both wakeful and slow wave sleep stages, a statistically significant reduction in the delta, theta, alpha and beta band EEG spectral power in motor cortex (MC) and hippocampus (HI) with the exception of the delta and beta bands power of MC in wakeful state (WA). Lead administration was discontinued after that age for allowing rehabilitation for 40 days. Then, operant behavioral assessment was done. Results revealed that the lead treated animals took significantly more time and sessions than control normal animals in attaining criterion of learning. Hence exposure to lead in early age could result in a learning disability persisting even after discontinuation of exposure.

Animals↗
PubMed2001

Concurrent verbal and emotion laterality effects exhibited by normally achieving and learning disabled children.

This study assessed both left- and right-hemisphere functions simultaneously when two-syllable words differing only in the initial stop consonant and spoken in different emotional tones were paired dichotically. Seventy-two right-handed normally achieving children, 12 boys and 12 girls at each of grades 1, 3, and 5, were instructed to detect either the presence of a specific word or of a specific emotion. In addition, 30 right-handed learning disabled (LD) children (age-matched to the normal controls) were assessed to determine whether LD children distribute verbal and nonverbal functions to different hemispheres. Results indicated that although both control and LD children demonstrated an overall REA for word stimuli and an LEA for emotional stimuli, and that emotional stimuli were easier to process than word stimuli, LD children were less accurate in processing both types of stimuli than their control counterparts. 'Complementary specialization,' as assessed through distribution of laterality effects, was found to be greater for control children than for LD children. However, the lack of consistency in complementary specialization found among the three developmental grade levels may be indicative that independent brain mechanisms underlying verbal and emotional processing have yet to be fully established in children. Further, in contrast to adult findings, a larger LEA was obtained for the emotion 'happy' than for the emotion 'sad.' It was concluded that whereas independent hemisphere processing for words and emotions is somewhat prevalent for control children, LD children might not be as strongly lateralized for opposite hemisphere processing of these functions.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed2003

Professional discourse and service cultures: an organisational typology developed from health and welfare services for people with learning disabilities.

This study focuses upon the effect of social policy upon a particular area of service provision. It is influenced by the Foucauldian concept of governmentality and the proposition by Lewis et al. that social policy needs to be understood in local contexts. Only through understanding the partial and fragmented impact of policy can we gain a clear insight into the outcomes for users. The study is undertaken through an exploration of the micro politics of organisations providing health and welfare services for people with learning disabilities. It involves an approach to discourse analysis that focuses upon text developed from interviews with service providers, which is brought into contact with published literature in an iterative process. The interpretation of the text produces four themes: power, trust, citizenship and managerialism. The development of these themes and a further holistic interpretation of the text suggest an emerging organisational typology. A typology based upon different articulations of the themes noted that work to produce particular outcomes for service users.

Community Health Services↗
PubMed2005

Empirical comparison of maximal voxel and non-isotropic adjusted cluster extent results in a voxel-based morphometry study of comorbid learning disability with schizophrenia.

We present an empirical comparison of cluster extent and maximal voxel results in a voxel-based morphometry (VBM) study of brain structure. The cluster extents are adjusted for underlying deviation from uniform smoothness. We implement this comparison on a four-group cohort that has previously shown evidence of a neuro-developmental component in schizophrenia (Moorhead, T.W.J., Job, D.E., Whalley, H.C., Sanderson, T.L., Johnstone, E.C. and Lawrie, S.M. 2004. Voxel-based morphometry of comorbid schizophrenia and learning disability: analyses in normalized and native spaces using parametric and nonparametric statistical methods. NeuroImage 22: 188-202.). We find that adjusted cluster extent results provide information on the nature of deficits that occur in the schizophrenia affected groups, and these important structural differences are not all shown in maximal voxel results. The maximal voxel and cluster extent results are corrected for multiple comparisons using Random Fields (RF) methods. In order to apply the cluster extent measures, we propose a post-hoc method for determining the primary threshold in the analysis. Unadjusted cluster extent results are reported, for these, no allowance is made for non-isotropic smoothness, and comparison with the adjusted extent results shows that the unadjusted results can be either conservative or anti-conservative depending upon the underlying tissue distributions.

Cluster Analysis↗
PubMed1982

[Learning disabilities and genetics with particular reference to Down's syndrome].

Medical geneticists invest a great part of their resources towards the prevention of the birth of children with trisomy 21. Since, however, it will never be possible to monitor all pregnancies and, moreover, rejection of prenatal diagnosis on ethical grounds is widespread, this paper discusses the possibilities of lightening the burden on relatives of children with Down's syndrome. The contrast of the negative example shown by Switzerland with positive experiences achieved in Denmark serves to show that highly beneficial results can be obtained by humanizing the school system. This holds true not only for the severely retarded and their families, but also for children with minor learning disabilities as well. Such changes in the school system, when correctly applied, are of advantage to more gifted students as well.

Amniocentesis↗
PubMed1980

Cognitive patterns and learning disabilities of cleft palate children with verbal deficits.

This study examined patterns of cognitive ability in 57 cleft lip ad palate children withh verbal deficit, but without general intellectual retardation. The question to be evaluated was whether the verbal disability displayed by these children was related primarily to a specific verbal expression deficit or a more general symbolic mediation problem. Two groups of children were identified on the basis of performance on cognitive tasks which require verbal mediation strategies without requiring vocal responses. The children wit only a verbal expression problem performed significantly better on tasks requiring categorization and associative reasoning, although there were few apparent differences on memory items. Those children with a verbal expression deficit displayed both an underlying symbolic mediation deficiency and learning disabilities. There was a higher proportion of cleft-palate only children in the more severe group.

Achievement↗
PubMed1990

Gender differences in intelligence, language, visual-motor abilities, and academic achievement in students with learning disabilities: a review of the literature.

A substantial body of research confirms higher verbal ability in normally achieving females and higher visual-spatial and mathematical abilities in normally achieving males. However, the specific nature of these differences varies by age, specific measure, magnitude, and variability within the groups. Re-analysis of earlier research showed that, although differences in visual-spatial ability were larger than verbal ability differences, gender differences did not account for more than 1% to 5% of the group variance. In the population with learning disabilities (LD), research must be interpreted cautiously because LD samples were drawn mainly from the system-identified population and may reflect selection bias. Findings indicate that system-identified females with LD are lower in IQ, have more severe academic achievement deficits in some aspects of reading and math, and are somewhat better in visual-motor abilities, spelling, and written language mechanics than males with LD. In mathematics, however, it is difficult to document consistent differences in computational skills in the elementary school ages. More consistent findings, however, indicate superiority in mathematical reasoning in males with LD. A limited number of studies on research-identified samples indicate that findings from studies of school-identified LD samples must be interpreted cautiously because females with LD identified in the schools may not be representative of females with LD in general.

Achievement↗
PubMed1981

Neurometric evaluation of learning disabled children.

A quantified electrophysiological system called Neurometrics is described in terms of procedures, reliability and validity. The role of the computer in both acquisition and analysis is noted. In terms of the application of Neurometrics to issues of diagnostic validity five studies are discussed. The first describes a study showing that normal functioning and at risk children differ markedly in terms of the percentage showing EEG abnormalities; the second reports the difference between children who are poor achievers in verbal, arithmetic or both skills; the third shows that Neurometric indices differentiate between epileptic children who are achieving or not achieving at grade appropriate levels; the fourth describes Neurometric EEG differences between learning disabled children who do or do not have reading reversal problems; and the fifth describes the behavioral differences constructed on the basis of their Neurometric profiles.

Brain↗
PubMed1987

Learning disabilities and intelligence test results: a principal components analysis of the British Ability Scales.

Two samples of children with reading difficulties--145 poor readers whose word reading was one standard deviation or more below the mean and 121 dyslexic children-were tested on the British Ability Scales. The purpose of the investigation was to examine whether they would score relatively poorly on verbal tests and relatively well on non-verbal tests along the lines suggested by Lawson & Inglis (1985). Also the question of sex differences was investigated. The BAS results tended to confirm the Lawson & Inglis finding that (1) children with learning disabilities in general have verbal deficits and show significantly higher performance on non-verbal tasks, and that (2) this tendency is more pronounced in males than in females. The results, although statistically significant, are not totally consistent either within or between samples. The discussion considers possible explanations for the findings and the possibility that different subgroups of these samples might show differential effects.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Programme budgeting revisited: special reference to people with learning disabilities.

The recent reorganization of community care in the UK removed many of the perverse incentives identified in the previous system. However, the organization of care for many people is still divided across several agencies in the public and independent sectors. As purchasing and providing agencies in both the National Health Service and local authority personal social services attempt to coordinate policy objectives and the means to achieve them, the total resources available and their allocation across different care groups and among people in the same care groups from a consistent focus of attention. The principles and practice of programme budgeting provide important lessons for planning and monitoring expenditure. This paper rehearses such principles in the specialized area of policies for people with learning disabilities and draws on the experience of mapping expenditure on relevant services in a survey over 10 local authorities in England.

Budgets↗
PubMed1986

Perceptual and conceptual variants of the oddity task as a predictor of learning disability.

This paper compares LD and non-LD peers on eight variants of the oddity task. This study is part of a larger programmatic research effort aimed at the development of a screening test to detect preschool children who currently pass existing screening tests but, nonetheless, subsequently experience school failure. The theoretical orientation of this approach is to assess active, ongoing cognitive processing ability. The oddity task, which can be structured to assess such processing ability, was evaluated in the present study as a potential component of this screening test. Consistent with a priori predictions, the data resulted in strong group and developmental differences. Oddity performance increased over age, with the non-LD children performing consistently better than their LD peers at each age. Perceptual and conceptual factors were manipulated across the oddity variations, and both factors contributed to group differences. These results were discussed in relationship to early diagnosis and prognosis for learning disabilities that might result from deficiencies in abstract processing ability.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1997

The current provision of specialist health services to people with learning disabilities in England and Wales.

Considerable change has taken place in the provision of specialist health services to people with learning disabilities with the move away from institutions and an emphasis on care in the community. There is diversity between services in different parts of the country, but no existing source of information by which NHS Trusts can benchmark their own services against the national norm. This project was undertaken in order to ascertain the current provision of specialist health services in England and Wales. A questionnaire was returned by 83.9% of 161 NHS Trusts, who quantified their service in terms of in-patient and community resources. Results were analysed and presented where possible as cumulative frequencies, to facilitate benchmarking.

England↗
PubMed1999

Behavioural treatment for sleep problems in children with severe learning disabilities and challenging daytime behaviour: effect on daytime behaviour.

The study aimed to investigate a group of children with severe learning disabilities, challenging daytime behaviour, and severe sleep problems to see if successful behavioural treatment of the children's sleep problems resulted in reduced daytime challenging behaviour as reported by mothers and teachers. A randomised controlled trial of behavioural interventions for the children's sleep problems was conducted (N = 30). The intervention group received an individually tailored behavioural programme and were supported by telephone calls from the therapist. Baseline assessments of the children's behaviour were made using the Aberrant Behavior Checklist and were repeated 1 month and 3 months after the start of intervention. There were no behavioural changes that were specific to children in the treatment group. However, improvements in some behaviours were seen in both the intervention and the control group at the 1-month and 3-month assessments and there was agreement between mothers' and teachers' reports for many of these changes. The results suggest that nonspecific effects of participating in the study (including an increased sleep duration, which was seen in both groups), rather than resolution of sleep problem per se, may have a beneficial effect on child behaviour and these factors need to be identified for therapeutic use.

Analysis of Variance↗