The Career Success of an Adult with a Learning Disability

Abstract

B. I. is a 39-year-old, intellectually gifted (IQ = 130) man with learning disabilities who, without known cause, demonstrated symptoms of amnesic-semantic aphasia at age 13. This led to placement in a public school class for students with mild mental retardation and to his dropping out of school after repeating Grade 9. His aphasia is associated with a severe deficit in speech comprehension, poor reading and writing, spatial confusion, and episodic memory loss. We studied the remarkable behavioral and cognitive adjustments that have enabled him to lead a fulfilling life and become a highly successful business executive. Implications are discussed in the context of patterns of successful functioning and current views of the neuropsychological and neurological bases of such disorders.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Beery, K. , & Buktenica, N. (1967). Developmental tests of visual-motor integration. Chicago: Follet.

Brunt, M. (1978). The Staggered Spondaic Word Test. In J. Katz (Ed.), Handbook of clinical audiology (2nd ed., pp. 205–211). Baltimore: Williams & Williams.

Caramazza, A. , & Berndt, P. (1978). Semantic and syntactic processes in aphasia: A review of the literature. Psychological Bulletin, 85, 898–918.

Damasio, H. , & Damasio, A. (1989). Lesion analysis in neuropsychology. New York: Oxford University Press.

De Renzi, E. , & Vignolo, L. (1962). The Token Test: A sensitive test to detect receptive disturbance in aphasics. Brain, 85, 665–678.

Gajar, A. (1992). Adults with learning disabilities: Current and future directions. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 25, 507–519.

Gerber, P. , Ginsberg, R. , & Reiff, H. (1992). Identifying alterable patterns in employment success for highly successful adults with learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 25, 475–487.

Gray, W. (1967). Gray oral reading tests. Austin, TX: PRO-ED.

Heilman, K. , Rothi, L. , McFarling, D. , & Rottman, A. (1981). Transcortical sensory aphasia with relatively spared spontaneous speech and naming. Archives of Neurology, 38, 236–239.

10.

Hier, D. , Mogil, S. , Rubin, N. , & Komras, G. (1980). Semantic aphasia: A neglected entity. Brain and Language, 10, 120–131.

11.

Jastak, J. , Bijou, S. , & Jastak, S. (1978). Wide range achievement test. Wilmington, DE: Jastak Associates.

12.

Katz, J. (1977). The Staggered Spondaic Word Test. In R. Keith (Ed.), Central auditory dysfunction (pp. 97–103). New York: Grune & Stratton.

13.

Kershner, J. , & Morton, L. (1990). Directed attention dichotic listening in reading disabled children: A test of four models of maladaptive lateralization. Neuropsychologia, 28, 181–198.

14.

Lichteim, L. (1885). On aphasia. Brain, 7, 433–484.

15.

Luria, A. (1980). Higher cortical functions in man. New York: Basic Books.

16.

Raven, J. (1951). Advanced progressive matrices. London: Lewis.

17.

Vermeulen, J. (1982). Auditory language comprehension in aphasia: A factor-analytic study. Cortex, 18, 287–300.

18.

Wechsler, D. (1955). Wechsler adult intelligence scale. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corp.

19.

Wepman, J. (1958). Auditory discrimination test. Chicago: Language Research Associates.

20.

Willeford, J. (1976). Central auditory function in children with learning disabilities. Journal of Audiology, Hearing and Education, 2, 12–20.