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5 - Approaches to behavioral and neurological research on learning disabilities: in search of a deeper synthesis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2009

By
Robbie Case
Edited by
Kurt W. Fischer ,
Jane Holmes Bernstein  and
Mary Helen Immordino-Yang
Robbie Case
Affiliation:
Professor of Education (Emeritus) and Director of the Institute of Child Study University of Toronto
Kurt W. Fischer
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Massachusetts
Jane Holmes Bernstein
Affiliation:
The Children's Hospital, Boston
Mary Helen Immordino-Yang
Affiliation:
University of Southern California
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Summary

Overview: Progress in understanding learning disabilities requires integration of behavioral and neurological evidence across the main traditions of research on cognitive development – empiricism, rationalism, and the sociohistorical approach. Among the key findings, researchers in the empiricist tradition have uncovered evidence that dyslexic children have specific problems in analyzing the sounds of language and in performing rapid processing and that these problems are reflected in particular brain activation patterns. Those in the rationalist tradition have analyzed the structures and stages required for reading, including general abilities, developmental pathways, and related patterns of development of brain activity. Scholars in the sociohistorical tradition have focused on the effects of culture and social context in the creation and consequences of literacy, including the effects of social stratification and the effectiveness of creating an effective community of learners to support students' literacy.

The Editors

Two themes run throughout the present volume, and the case material that accompanies it. The first is the need to integrate clinical and research perspectives on learning disabilities. The second is the need for a theoretical framework that comprises both the neuropsychological and the cognitive/behavioral perspectives. Volumes such as the present one are an excellent way to begin the search for a theoretical framework with the degree of generality that is required for these two purposes. However, as we contemplate the shape that such a framework might assume, it is important to remember that behavioral and neuro logical research has itself been conducted within several different traditions.

Type
Chapter
Information
Mind, Brain, and Education in Reading Disorders , pp. 80 - 100
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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