This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Blumsack, J. Articles by Waterman, B. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Blumsack, J. Articles by Waterman, B. Pubmed/NCBI databases Medline Plus Health Information Developmental Disabilities Learning Disorders Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Neurodevelopmental Precursors to Learning Disabilities

A Preliminary Report From a Parent Survey

Julie Blumsack, MS, is a doctoral candidate in the school psychology program at Syracuse University.

Lawrence Lewandowski

Lawrence Lewandowski, PhD, is an associate professor and director of training for the school psychology program at Syracuse University. His research interests include neuropsychological, cognitive, and psychosocial aspects of learning disabilities.

Betsy Waterman

Betsy Waterman, PhD, is an assistant professor of school psychology at the State University of New York at Oswego. Her research interests focus on the cognitive processes of students with learning disabilities, particularly as they relate to reading. Address: Lawrence Lewandowski, Department of Psychology, Syracuse University, 472 Huntington Hall, Syracuse, NY 13244–2340.

This study documented the number and type of neurodevelopmental problems reported by parents of children with and without learning disabilities (LD), and examined whether a pattern of problems could be identified. One hundred parents, 50 for each group, responded to a retrospective developmental survey. Their children were between 9 and 13 years of age and had a history of either typical academic achievement or classification of a learning disability. Results indicated that the children with learning disabilities were reported to have significantly more neurodevelopmental problems or delays across domains (e.g., language, motor, attention, social behavior) than normal achievers. The study showed that a sizeable portion, although not all, of the children with LD had a history of neurodevelopmental problems. Despite findings that suggest that some difficulties more commonly co-occurred than others, a pattern of neurodevelopmental difficulties was not observed in these children. However, some specific difficulties, such as with following multistep directions, printing letters of the alphabet, and understanding directions (e.g., up, down, right, left), seemed to most typify the students with learning disabilities.

Journal of Learning Disabilities, Vol. 30, No. 2, 228-237 (1997)
DOI: 10.1177/002221949703000211


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				J. Williams and C. A. Holmes Improving the Early Detection of Children with Subtle Developmental Problems J Child Health Care, March 1, 2004; 8(1): 34 - 46. [Abstract] [PDF]