Dyscalculia and Elements of the Developmental Gerstmann Syndrome in School Children

Abstract

Fourteen (14) dyscalculic school children were drawn from a larger population of learning-disabled children. The subjects were divided into two groups, those with normal-or-better reading ability and those with dyslexia equal in degree to their dyscalculia. Both groups showed a variety of behavioral deficits in addition to those comprising Gerstmann's syndrome and were notably poor in auditory and visual discrimination and motor coordination. Good readers showed severely-impaired ability to make right-left discriminations, while the poor readers were average in this ability. Poor readers showed marked impairment of word fluency and hand writing, while good readers were average in this regard. The dyscalculia and reading deficits reported here appear unrelated to central-language impairment. Subjects with all four elements of the developmental Gerstmann's syndrome did not constitute an homogeneous behavioral group and were found among samples of both good and poor readers. The pattern of behavioral deficits shown by these subjects suggests cerebral impairment rather than slow maturation as a probable etiology. While the DGS is not useful as a behavioral description, its value as a possible localizing neurological sign cannot yet be ruled out.