Ph.D. (Psychology) / Attention deficit disorder, or its theoretical antecedent minimal brain dysfunction, has been the subject of numerous investigations as to the nature and cause of this disturbance that so often affects children. Although the findings of these studies appear to be equivocal as regards the precise cause of the condition, there are numerous indications in the literature that there might indeed be a neurological, albeit a "soft" neurological basis or cause, for this disturbance. A study was performed to test the hypothesis that minimal brain dysfunction indeed has its basis in higher cortical dysfunctions as assessed within the context of neuropsychological investigations. In order to perform the study, two measures of neuropsychological functioning, the Luria-Nebraska neuropsychological investigation for children and the Majovski determination of higher cortical functions in children and adolescents were subjected to a determination of its validity within the South African context. Subsequently these tests were applied to two groups of children with organic brain damage, a group of children diagnosed as having minimal brain dysfunction, a group of children with emotional disturbance, and a group of normal children. The two groups of organically brain damaged children consisted of a group of children with predominantly left hemispheric brain damage and a group of children with predominantly right hemispheric brain damage. It was postulated that children with minimal brain dysfunction would show less higher cortical dysfunction than the two groups of children with organic brain damage, but more higher cortical dysfunction than the normal children, and the children with emotional disturbance. The validation procedure indicated that both measures of neuropsychological functioning have adequate validity in terms...
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:13296 |
| Date | 12 February 2015 |
| Creators | Du Toit, Gerald Patrick |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | University of Johannesburg |
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