Learning Disabilities And Brain Function

Learning Disabilities and Brain Function

The present edition of this book is a revision and expansion of the first two editions which appeared in 1980 and 1985, and in German translation in 1991. More than half of the present volume includes new material, and what has been retained from the former editions has been largely rewritten and updated with new research findings. A completely new chapter has been added on "Attention Deficit Disorder. " The author of the earlier editions (W.H.G.) has been joined by a coauthor (D.E.), and their combined elementary, high school, and university teaching and clinical experience totals approximately seventy-five years. Both of us have directed our professional en ergies to understanding the puzzle of human learning, especially academic learning, of those students who, despite apparently nor mal intelligence and opportunity, have varying degrees of difficulty in acquiring ideas and skills that are easily mastered by others. Until about fifty years ago there was a common tendency to equate academic success with intelligence, and those students who could not meet the demands of the prescribed program were usually required to repeat the same grade with a repetition of the same discouraging treatment that had been unsuccessful the first time.

Learning Disabilities and Brain Function

Reading this volume, chapter by chapter, I had a feeling of exuberance and exhiliration. lt is both a privilege and achaIlengc 10 write a foreword for this second edition of Learning Disahilities and Brain Function. The scope and quality of the scientific and clinical insights expressed are unusual. It is difficult to do justice 10 the book within the constraints of a foreword. I can only reftect its significance to instructors, scientists. and clinicians in education, psychology, psychiatry. pediatrics. speech pa thology and neurology. In the early chapters are discussions of brain function as it relates to learning and learning disabilities, with many implications for better undcr standing of the neurology of behavior. These chapters are followcd by an articulate consideration of neuropsychological disorders, definition. iden tification and diagnosis of the cognitive dysfunctions that underlie learn ing disabilities. There is an analysis of the role of perception, as weIl as of the significance of impared sensory and motor-cognitive processes. The concluding chapters comprise a clear, erudite, yet practical dis course on the spectrum of language disorders, including the spoken, read, and writ ten forms. Dr. Gaddes provides a constructive review of what it means when children have aphasia, of how this language disorder has implica tions for other types of learning. He elucidates and evaluates the status of our knowledge relative to childhood dyslexia and dysgraphia. This analy sis holds promise for clarification of the issues that have been disconcert ing, especially to educators and psychologists.

Learning Disabilities and Brain Function