Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the discriminating ability of fifteen predictor variables on the Detroit Tests of Learning Aptitude in reference to the criterion variables or the two clinical types. Cognitive integrative functioning was the theoretical base upon which the study was built reflecting the concepts of Piaget, Bruner, Osgood, and Birch and Belmont.The research was conducted at the Learning Disability Unit of the Pediatric Neurology Department at the Indiana University Medical Center. Each population consisted of thirteen specific developmental dyslexic boys and thirteen normally reading boys who were matched on the extraneous variables of age, intelligence, race, and socioeconomic status. The dyslexic population was selected from those children who had been assigned a case disposition of specific developmental dyslexia or familial dyslexia by a multi-disciplinary team. Predetermined criteria were established by the L-D Unit which consisted of average or above average intelligence, absence of severe emotional problems, absence of brain damage, absence of physical defects, and evidence of at least two years reading retardation. The subjects were evaluated with the Block Design subtests of the WISC or WAIS to determine general intelligence and were administered the WRAT reading section to establish reading grade placement. Fifteen selected subtests of the DTLA were administered to measure cognitive integrative functioning.Statistical treatment of the data consisted of a stepwise discriminant analysis to determine which subtests of the DTLA were the most significant discriminators between the two clinical types. Both predictor variables, Visual Attention Span for Letters and Number Ability were significant at the .05 level, but the former accounted for ninety-seven per cent of the variance. None of the other fifteen predictor variables of the DTLA were significant. Post hoc analyses included an internal consistency reliability coefficient for each subtest of the DTLA ranging from .96 to .77. A factor analysis of the predictor variables yielded three factors, and another discriminant analysis was applied indicating that the factors of Attention and Memory and of Visual Perception and Discrimination were significant predictor variables. However, the raw score predictor variables were significantly superior to the factor score predictor variables in differentiating between the two clinical types.Conclusions based on the findings indicated that performance on tasks of visual sequential ordering of letters and number ability were predictive of specific developmental dyslexia only in this study. The predictor nature of number ability was of minimal value when compared to the other significant predictor variable. Of all of the sequential ordering tasks on the DTLA, the more related to the actual reading process of decoding, the better the subtest would function as a discriminator of specific developmental dyslexia. The factor of Visual Perception and Discrimination was of minor significance as a predictor variable; therefore, a minimal level of visual perceptual skills seemed to be necessary in order to learn to read. The older age range of the experimental group and their lack of visual perceptual inadequacies indicated that this type of problem was more related to maturation or developmental characteristics than to the more permanent and disabling syndrome associated with specific developmental dyslexia. Since the factor of Verbal Abstract Reasoning was not a significant predictor variable of specific developmental dyslexia in this study, conceptualization did not seem to be negatively effected in this type of reading disability. A familial history of specific developmental dyslexia was an important criterion in defining this population and should be included in research with this type of reading disability. In addition, the DTLA in this study proved to be valid and reliable instruments for measuring cognitive integrative functions.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1980. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-88).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1980. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 172-180).

The relationship between reading and spelling ability and the four symptoms of the Gerstmann syndrome was studied. A spelling test was constructed to measure the tendency of fifth grade children to make kinetic and static reversal errors in spelling. The spelling test was administered to 343 grade five children in Richmond, B.C. The reading achievement level for each child was obtained from the reading scores on the Stanford Achievement Test. The children were divided into four groups on the basis of reading achievement scores above and below 4.0 and the presence or absence of reversal errors in spelling. Ninety children, selected at random from three groups, and seven children, who comprised the fourth group, were tested for the four symptoms of the Gerstmann syndrome. The tests used to determine the presence or absence of each symptom were: (1) disorientation for right and left - eight directional commands, (2) finger agnosia - Kinsbourne and Warrington's test for finger differentiation, (3) dyscalculia - an arithmetic test to determine ability in writing numbers correctly and computing accurately, plus confirmation of the latter skill by the arithmetic achievement score on the Stanford Achievement Test, and (4) dysgraphia - Myklebustf's Picture Story Language Test. A statistical analysis of the data by the chi-square method indicated a significant relationship, at the grade five level, between reading retardation one or more years below grade placement, reversal errors in spelling, and the concomitant presence of two or more symptoms of the Gerstmann syndrome. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1987. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 69-74). Also available in print.

published_or_final_version / Psychology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Arts University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg for the Degree of Master of Arts Johannesburg 1991 / Remediation programmes were devised and implemented for two developmental dyslexics. Extensive pre-therapy psycholinguistic assessment determined the developmental stage at which their acquisition of reading skills had arrested. [Abbreviated abstract. Open document to view full version] / MT2016

Dyslexia is a common condition among both children and adults in the United States. Its prevalence is estimated to be between 5% and 17% of school-aged children. This chronic condition is characterized by a difficulty in reading unanticipated in children with otherwise average or above average intelligence, education and incentive. Although adults with a specific reading disability have demonstrated diminished diffusion anistropy, this relationship between reading ability and white matter connectivity is relatively unexplored in children. In this study, diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was utilized to compare the white matter connectivity in three groups of children with diverse reading ability- dysfluent and inaccurate (n= 42), dysfluent and accurate (n= 69) and nonimpaired (n= 23) children. ANOVA statistical analysis was performed detect any significant group differences in anisotropic indices between the three groups of readers. In contrast to past studies, our study did not reveal any statistically significant differences in fractional anisotropy, fiber coherence index and mean diffusivity between dysfluent and inaccurate, dysfluent but accurate, and non-impaired readers.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 156-172). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.