Neuropsychological Theories Associated with Learning Disorders

Abstract

Although the term “learning disabilities” has been in existence for little over 25 years (Duane, 1991; Morrison & Siegel, 1991), the condition itself has aroused considerable interest for well over a century. Originally identified as congenital word blindness, learning disabilities and developmental dyslexia have long been suspected to be a result of a neural substrate located in the posterior left cerebral hemisphere (Satz, 1991). Observations such as anomalous hand preference, male predominance, and underachievement in subjects such as spelling have been consistently made since the turn of the century (Duane, 1991). A particularly persisting line of research has concerned the topic of language lateralization. Recent technological advances allow new approaches to an old problem.