Hulme, C. & Snowling, M. J. (2009). Developmental Disorders of Language Learning and Cognition. Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
Engelstalige samenvatting van het gehele boek.
Developmental Disorders of Language Learning and Cognition – Charles
Hume and Margret Snowling (2009)
Chapter 1: Understanding Developmental Cognitive Disorders
In this book the authors will attempt to provide a broad survey or the major forms of
cognitive disorders found in children, and lay out a theoretical framework for how these
disorders can best be understood.
Neuromyths
Neuromyths are misconceptions about the brain that flourish when cultural conditions
protect them from scrutiny.
Seeds of confusion
Seeds of confusion originate from uninformed interpretations of genuine scientific facts
and are promoted by victims of their own wishful thinking who hold a “sincere but
deluded fixation on some eccentric theory that the holder is absolutely sure will
revolutionize science and society.
Cognitive understanding level
A functional level dealing with how the brain typically learns and performs the skills in
question.
All cognitive development is learning. But not ALL development is learning. Not all
development is controlled, we can learn new skills and information without actively
learning. For example we can learn to walk simply be looking at others (which is the
same way animals learn – basic instincts).
To understand learning problems we need to understand that it’s a delay in our
development. And not an impairment (according to the authors of this book).
We can say that all learning problems are forms of delay. Everybody can learn new skills
if you have enough time. But if it takes 100 years to learn a skill, is it then really possible
to learn this skill?
TERMINOLOGY FOR CLASSIFYING COGNITIVE DISORDERS
Features that are shared by developmental disorders:
- They all occur quite commonly and have serious consequences for education, and
thereafter for well-being in the adulthood.
- There is also good evidence that all these disorders reflect the effects of genetics
of genetic and environmental influences on the developing brain and mind.
It is important to distinguish between specific and general learning difficulties:
Specific difficulties: this involves disorders where there is a deficit in just one or a
small number of skills, with typical functioning in other areas. For example
dyslexia. The IQ is in the normal range, but a part of the IQ is lower.
, General difficulties: this involves impairments in most, if not all, cognitive
functions. For example down syndrome (IQ < 70).
Specific learning difficulty
This is a selective difficulty in acquiring a skill. This term makes it clear that skills must
be learned. Specific means that the difficulty occurs in a restricted domain. For example,
dyslexia. The DSM calls these difficulties, learning disorders. The diagnoses of a specific
learning difficulty is made only when a child achieves an IQ in the average range (85 or
above).
Children with Dyslexia have specific difficulties in learning to read and to spell, but they
have no particular difficulty in understanding concepts and may have talents in many
other areas.
General learning difficulty
This involves difficulties in acquiring a wide range of skills. People with Down syndrome,
for example, usually have general learning difficulties and typically have problems in
mastering all academic skills and with understanding in most domains. The diagnoses of
a general learning difficulty is made only when a child achieves an IQ below 70.
The distinction between specific and general learning difficulties is often based on the
results of a standardized IQ test. The average IQ for the population is 100. People with
scores between 50 – 70 are referred to as having moderate learning difficulties, and
people with IQ scores below 50 are said to have severe learning difficulties.
It is important to understand that there is a continuum running in disorders:
- From the highly restricted deficits found in some children (e.g. child with severe
but isolated problem with arithmetic).
- To more general difficulties (e.g. child with severe language difficulties who has
difficulties both with understand speech and expressing himself in speech).
- To very general difficulties (e.g. child with an IQ of 40, who is likely to have
problems in reading and spelling, as well as spoken language. And problems of
perception, motor control and general conceptual understanding.
Studies of children with different types of learning difficulties have contributed to an
understanding of how range of different brain systems are involved in learning. This
range helps us understand how the developing mind is organized and how the skills that
are impaired in some children are typically acquired.
, LEVELS OF EXPLANATION IN STUDIES OF DEVELOPMENTAL COGNITIVE
DISORDERS
Three important levels of explanation to understand developmental cognitive
disorders: (Morton & Frith, 1995).
- Biological level: our genes and brain systems
- Cognitive level: the level between our brain and behavior. Our cognitive level
stands for thinking (the mental process).
- Behavioral level: What a child does and visible behavior.
Environment: the environment influences all above levels.
Each of these ‘explanation’ levels underlying processes (in the child), interact with a
range of environmental influences to determine the observed outcome.
Conduct disorder
This is a persistent antisocial behaviour that deviates from age-appropriate social norms
and violates the basic rights of others. A aspect behaviour of conduct disorder is reactive
regression and impulsive violence.
Conduct disorder genes appear to contribute powerfully to the risk of developing the
disorder in interaction with specific environmental experiences (maltreatment) in
childhood. These genetic effects in turn affect the development of brain circuits
concerned with the experience and regulation of emotion (e.g. anger), which, in
interaction with negative memories associated with violence, may lead to a bias toward
fighting (instead of running away). At a behavioral level, this bias towards a fight
response may lead to the observed profile of responding violently when provoked, and
committing unprovoked, impulsive acts of violence.
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