To explore relationships between success in school and infectious childhood disease, 25 children in regular primary grades who had survived laboratory confirmed acute bacterial meningitis prior to 4 years of age without observable sequelae were matched with 25 non-meningitic controls and subjected to intensive multidisciplinary examinations.…

Intellectual functioning, visual perception, and academic achievement were investigated in two samples (25 in each) of children (mean IQ 94.20 and 95.32, and mean age 8.24 years and 8.13 years, respectively) with significant reading disorders. (Author/MC)

The paper suggests that the use of a single visual-motor test, (here, the Winter Haven Perceptual Forms Test) as a screening device for visual-motor difficulties in the first grade is questionable. (Author)

Evaluation of the Frostig Developmental Test of Visual Perception found that it measured a single general factor of perceptual organization which was weakly related to IQ and unrelated to reading ability. (KW)

A major focus in reading difficulty is lack of automaticity in decoding, which overloads the attentional system, leads to the use of small, meaningless visual processing units such as the individual letter, places heavy demands on short-term memory, and interferes with comprehension. Techniques for diagnosis and remediation are noted. (Author/JW)

The relationship between subtests of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities and the Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration to a comprehensive battery of reading measures was investigated in a sample of 77 poor readers in grades 2 through 6. (Author/PHR)

Children referred for evaluation of learning impairment (n=100) and 243 typical children were evaluated on a visual filtering task. With each additional processing demand, response times increased disproportionately for children with learning impairments. Overall response time predicted academic skills and cognitive ability, but was more strongly…

This study quantified the influence of visual attention therapy on the reading comprehension of 30 6th-grade children with moderate reading disabilities (RD). Experimental subjects received 12 one-hour sessions of individually monitored, computer-based attention therapy programs. After 12 weeks, the experimental subjects, but not the controls,…

A study investigated letter orientation confusions (reversals) in the reading and writing of 10 children with reading disabilities and 10 typical readers (age 10). Individuals with reading disability made more orientation confusions. Orientation errors were more frequent for reversible than for nonreversible items in tasks involving long-term…

Elementary and middle school children (n=105) completed measures of reading achievement and cognitive abilities. Factor analysis produced three empirically and theoretically derived factors, auditory processing, visual processing/speed, and memory. Together the three factors combined predicted 61 to 85% of the variance associated with different…

Standardized sensory, perceptual, linguistic, intellectual, and cognitive tests were administered to 470 entering first graders. Factor analysis found four factors, which were reading related skills, visual cognition, verbal cognition, and speech processing. Cluster analysis identified nine profiles. The strongest predictors of later reading and…

Thirty-five college students with learning disabilities (LD) and 25 students with a history of mild head injury (MHI) were compared on tests of neuropsychological, psychological, and academic achievement. Students with LD performed poorly on linguistically oriented psychoeducational tests, whereas students with MHI showed cognitive deficits in…