Abstract
The present study was an interdisciplinary, empirical study of the perinatal histories of 50 learning disabled children, aged 7 to 12 years, who had minimum neurological dysfunctions. Subjects were drawn from children whose learning disabilities had been diagnosed at the Neuro-Education Center of Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, Mich. A normative population was used for comparative purposes.
The experimental group had a significantly higher number of pregnancy and birth complications on birth records than the norm (p<.05). A pattern of significantly lower scaled scores was found on the Wechsler Arithmetic and Digit Span (p < .05), and a pattern of significantly higher scores was found on Similarities (p < .05). Academic achievement was found to be significantly below grade level in all basic academic areas, i.e., reading, mathematics, and spelling. Sight vocabulary was the only area that was normal.
The epidemiologic evidence is sufficiently strong to indicate that there exists “a continuum of reproductive insult resulting in varying degrees of neuropsychiatric disability” (Pasamanick & Knobloch 1960).
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