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In our follow-up study 12 years after index admission we were able to examine 59 out of 115 male patients who had been diagnosed in our department as dyslexic (mean age: 10.1 years). Spelling skills at follow-up were more than one standard deviation below the norm for the subjects' age (T-value on the RT of only 24). About half of our patients had participated in a specific spelling remediation program lasting more than 6 months, but at follow-up no effect of therapy could be demonstrated. The patients with the higher IQs regressed in spelling less than those with the lower IQs. We assume that the effects of remediation programs do not survive therapy and school for long because later on good spelling is no longer either required or encouraged. Our patients were severely impaired in their school career: Although their average IQ was 112 only 6 out of 59 had completed a college-preparatory program (Abitur), all of them from middle-class families with well-educated parents. Our patients chose occupations corresponding to the type of high school diploma they had, often those requiring practical skills rather than reading or spelling skills. Patients who had completed no more than the nine obligatory years at school were less content with their work than expected. Emotional disorders during the past 6 months were no more frequent than expected. In a self-report about delinquency there was no difference compared to a random sample.

Adults with learning disabilities were studied to ascertain the patterns of successful functioning that promoted high levels of vocational success. This area of research has been neglected in the developing research base on adults with learning disabilities. In this study of 46 highly successful and 25 moderately successful adults with learning disabilities using ethnographic interviews, it was found that the overriding theme was control and that control was sought through the pursuit of two sets of themes--internal decisions and external manifestations. These themes transcended the entire sample, and the clear difference between the groups was the degree of attainment on the various elements the themes comprised. These elements and themes are discussed and a model of successful vocational functioning is developed and explained.

The area of adult learning disabilities is reviewed from a neurobiological and neuropsychological perspective. The seminal contributions of Galaburda's neuroanatomic studies, Duffy's neurophysiologic findings, and recent magnetic resonance imaging studies have illustrated various possible pathophysiologic bases in dyslexia and are reviewed along with other neurobehavioral disorders that may coexist with learning disorders. Neuropsychological assessment methods in evaluating learning disabilities are reviewed and test results in a case of traumatically induced dyslexia are compared to those obtained in three adults with residual developmental dyslexia. The problems associated with treatment of adult learning disorders are discussed in the context of brain plasticity and recovery of function from the perspective of a brain-injury model. Lastly, the basis common to neurologic factors subserving learning disability and emotional dysfunction is explored.

Dyslexia and other related learning disabilities are serious problems. The American Academy of Pediatrics, through its Committee on Children with Disabilities and the Section on Ophthalmology, the American Academy of Ophthalmology, and the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus strongly support the need for early diagnosis and educational remediation. There is no known eye or visual cause for dyslexia and learning disabilities, and no effective visual treatment. Multidisciplinary evaluation and management must be based on proven procedures demonstrated by valid research.

The purpose was a descriptive account of the academic characteristics of 35 adults (22 men and 13 women) who perceived themselves as needing help in reading. Ages of participants ranged from 16 through 60 years. All had completed Grade 6, mean of Grade 11. Sixteen were functionally illiterate, that is, read below Grade 5. Twenty-seven were unemployed. The most common deficiencies found were in phonics, comprehension, and perception. All aspects of phonics, but especially the sounds of the short vowels, were a problem. Difficulties in perception were evident in reversals of letters and words, miscalling letters, and adding and omitting letters. Comprehension, the calling of words without knowing their meaning, was a major problem. Some individuals found it necessary to read aloud to understand. Others read so slowly they lost the meaning of a paragraph before they had finished it. Difficulty in remembering was perceived by some subjects as a factor in their lack of reading skill. It is hoped that by identifying these specific deficiencies in reading skills greater emphasis could be placed on them, and illiteracy could be prevented or at least reduced.

A simple, readily accessible, and inexpensive intervention which produces immediate improvements in the reading comprehension abilities of reading-disabled children has been found. The intervention consists of colored overlays, or overlays which reduce the contrast of printed materials. This intervention produces reading comprehension gains in approximately 80 percent of the reading-disabled children tested.

Thirteen children with spina bifida (mean age 11 yrs 11 mths) and a mean reading comprehension reading deficit of 10.5 mths were enrolled into a remedial programme. The withdrawal single case study methodology was used (baseline--5 weeks, treatment--5 weeks, withdrawal--12 weeks). Each child was seen twice a week for 15 minutes during both the baseline and treatment stages. A teaching programme based on a close technique was utilized only during the treatment stage. The technique involved teaching each child a strategy for systematically examining a text for meaning. A halving of the comprehension deficit was observed by the end of the treatment stage, with a mean regression of almost 3 months at the end of the withdrawal stage. No relationship between IQ and gains in reading comprehension was observed. The results may indicate that, in part, reading comprehension deficits are performance deficits which, in turn, may be mediated by attentional strategies.

The performance of 38 male third- and fourth-grade reading disabled/poor decoders and above-average readers/good decoders was compared on a series of six measures of phonological awareness, including tasks that required the ability to segment, blend, and manipulate phonemes. Performance on these tasks was also correlated with phonetic decoding of pseudowords. Significant but varying intercorrelations were obtained among tasks in both groups. For the poor decoders, deletion was the most highly correlated with the other tasks. However, all good decoders performed at ceiling level on this task. For the poor decoders, deletion was significantly correlated with phonetic decoding (r = .74 and r = .78 for timed and untimed decoding measures, respectively). While all good decoders had good phonological awareness, not all those with good phonological awareness were good decoders. The results suggest that tasks that require blending and manipulation of phonemes, in addition to segmentation, may predict decoding ability best.

The study sought to investigate transfer between single-word decoding skill and contextual reading comprehension using 60 sixth grade pupils classified as 30 poor and 30 very poor readers. There were two training groups, content-specific and non-content-specific. One group received single-word decoding training, which led to decoding mastery of all words to be read in narrative prose passages and the accompanying literal and inferential comprehension questions. The other group learned to identify and pronounce words, equal in difficulty and number to those of the content-specific group but never a part of the passages and questions for the study. Pupils given content-specific training answered significantly more literal and inferential questions correctly than did those given non-content-specific training. It is suggested that there is transfer between single-word decoding skill and contextual, literal and inferential comprehension.

Twelve mentally retarded children were taught anticipation and paraphrase strategies imbedded in either a self-instructional format that provided strategy initiation and modification routines or a traditional didactic training format: six children in a control condition received no explicit strategy instructions. Maintenance tests were administered 1 and 3 weeks following three training sessions; generalization tests were given in the afternoon of each training and maintenance session. Although no differences were found for self-instructional vs. traditional training formats, both conditions were superior to the control condition on the maintenance tests. Strategy generalization did not occur during training or short-term maintenance. On the final generalization test, however, significant improvements in recall accuracy were noted for both format conditions. In the self-instructional condition, several children successfully generalized the strategies during the early phases of training to facilitate gist recall.

56 low-achieving seventh-grade students in a predominantly black, inner-city junior high school were randomly assigned to one of four groups (SMART, PUSH, Standard Reading, or Nonintervention). The highly structured, school-based SMART program employed nonprofessional tutors to improve the academic skills and attitudes of the adolescents. The home-based PUSH program involved parents in restructuring the home environment to foster educational development. The Standard Reading group was the usual school reading class, and the Nonintervention group did not receive any special remediation. A battery of standardized educational and attitudinal tests was administered to each student (a) immediately before assignment to groups, (b) immediately after termination of the 10-week programs, and (c) at 6-month follow-up. Results from the 4 x 3 analysis of variance clearly demonstrated the short- and long-term efficacy of the SMART program and the long-term efficacy of the PUSH program. Each produced substantial increases in both the acquisition of fundamental academic skills and achievement motivation. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.

Reported previously from a U.S. empirical study of 7th grade high-school students (102 male and 84 female) where statistically significant results had been found relative to total body coordination and body image (Schneider, 1978), the effectiveness of a series of classes in "creative movement and pantomime" was verified in a 7.5-week longitudinal study of 7th grade male students (N = 20) attending remedial education at a special school for dyslexic students in Massachusetts, U.S.A. It has been possible to demonstrate that these classes had achieved statistically significant improvements in overall body coordination of Ss, measured with the body coordination test KTK - Körper-Koordinationstest für Kinder (Schilling, Kiphart, 1974). Findings obtained from the control group (N = 20) who, during that same period, had been taught, and practising, "Badminton" in the regular sports classes, elicited the same specific, statistically significant gains in overall body coordination. These improvements are considered attributable to the additional, specific stimuli for development provided to the dyslexic students by "creative movement and pantomime" classes and the racket sport "Badminton" alike. The findings support the thesis that delayed formation of hemispheric linkage is present in dyslexic persons, and that specific movement programmes provide developmental stimuli that influence overall body coordination.

There is a common fear that the use of a token economy in one classroom might harm pupil performance in situations where the contingencies are not in effect. This study investigated potential contrast effects on measures of children's productivity and attitudes toward teachers. Six children with reading deficits participated. A multiple baseline design was used to assess the effects of a token economy which was systematically introduced across three teachers. Dependent measures included two rating forms of teacher popularity and work rate on a programmed reading series. The results indicated that the token system was effective in increasing the children's productivity and that no consistent behavioral contrast effects occurred. Furthermore, children's attitudes toward teachers did not appear to be influenced by the token economy until only one teacher was not delivering tokens. At this point, her popularity declined until she also delivered tokens. The token economy manipulation appeared to have a specific, desirable effect on the targeted behavior (i.e., work rate) and had minimal negative or positive "side effects" on teacher popularity.

Stein and Glenn's (1979) story schema provided the framework for testing reading disabled adults' recall of stories that they had heard on tape, read orally, or read silently. For each category of proposition in the story schema, no significant difference was found in the proportion of statements recalled across the three modes of presentation. Further, the pattern of recall of different categories was similar to that which had been exhibited in previous research by normally reading children who heard stories on tape. The findings provide further evidence that the pattern of recall of story schema categories is similar across a variety of subject groups and situations. A possible explanation of this is discussed, as are possible explanations of the specific recall pattern obtained.

A controlled training study is reported in which children backward in reading and spelling were taught to spell words by three different methods. 16 words were selected and were divided into groups of four, each group of words being taught by a different method. As a control, one of the four groups of words was not taught by any method. An adaptation of Simultaneous Oral Spelling was found to be the most successful method. It is argued that these results demonstrate that the ability to spell correctly is dependent upon the organisation of the correct motor patterns for writing the words.

A survey of remedial teaching based on a particular method and carried out in an NHS clinic over 2 years has been presented. The findings suggest a differential pattern of improvement both for reading and spelling as well as for type of learning difficulty, whether 'backward' or 'specifically retarded'. A plea for early recognition of specific learning difficulties and the provision of appropriate remedial teaching is made as the present findings suggest that a structured method of teaching can lead to improvement in both reading and spelling.