Increasing attention is being paid to biological causes of learning disabilities, and many studies have been mode associating minor physical anomalies (MPAs) with disease, hyperkinesis in boys, and hypokinesis in girls. In an examination of 1,046 children, low-income children had more MPAs than those from middle-income, while middle income children with behavior disorders had as many MPAs as low-income pupils. Learning disabilities and emotional illness were associated with increasing MPAs. Nutrition, pollution, and disease may play a larger role in the etiology of learning disabilities than has been fashionable to assume. A high count of MPAs should suggest the involvement of subclinical disease in any learning disability.
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