Specific Learning Difficulties

Abstract

This study is an exploration of some of the implications for educational practice which arise from an approach to specific learning difficulties derived from human cognitive neuropsychology. The study attempts to provide an overview of recent findings and to place them in a coherent contextual framework through the presentation of a theory driven, hypothetical, working model of the internal lexicon (John Morton's 1979 'Logogen Model'). In order to make this study meaningful to educational practice, pertinent strategies for educational intervention are abstracted from the theoretical model and presented within the context of a single case study. The case study explores language processing in terms of oral reading and the role of the internal lexicon through the perspective of Morton's Logogen Model. The case study seeks to integrate an information processing account of the encoding and retrieving of representations of stimuli (in their respective logogen systems) with more 'traditional' aspects of educational psychological practice. Finally, in the conclusion, using the evidence in the study, I state the case for a greater acknowledgement of the contribution that cognitive psychology and cognitive neuropsychology can make to the 'informed' practice of the educational psychologist.