Genetics of Learning Disabilities

Abstract

A large group of children suffering from difficulties in learning appear to do so on the basis of a constitutional genetic neurochemical dysfunction. Every emotionally disturbed or behavior problem children or slow learner should be examined for the soft neurological signs that reflect a developmental lag of the cerebellar-ARAS pathways. In my clinical experience 80 percent of such children have dysdiadochokinesis, which on continuation, augments seizure activity of the Purkinje cells of the cerebellar cortex. This activity is caused by a deficiency of GABA (an inhibitory chemical transducer) which is genetically endowed. Remedial programming and special education efforts can indeed be rewarding if this chemical deficiency is repaired via chemotherapy. Aside from those children with a biochemical basis for learning disability, there is a small group of children with intact neurological equipment who present a picture of psychogenic learning impediment. The importance of psychological factors in learning or reading disabilities should be reconsidered in light of the present knowledge of the neurophysiological correlates of learning and memory (early negative conditioning; oppositionalism; intolerance for anxiety; threat to omnipotence; fear of learning; negative symbolic associations to specific items; deflection of attention by intrapsychic conflict; retardation of secondary process thinking; lack of motivation). Children with emotional disorders are almost always markedly deficient in the necessary skills and requisite knowledge commensurate with their ages and will not automatically catch up as a result of therapeutic intervention alone. The neurochcmically impaired slow learner improves readily with GABA-enhanciny chemotherapy and maintains the improvement beyond the conclusion of a six-months' course.