Dyslexia: Neuronal, Cognitive and Linguistic Aspects: Proceedings of an International Symposium Held at the Wenner-Gren Center, Stockholm, June 3-4, 1980

DYSLEXIA: NEURONAL, COGNITIVE & LINGUISTIC ASPECTS

Proceedings of an International Symposium held at the Wenner-Gren Center, Stockholm, June 3–4, 1980

Yngve Zotterman

Table of Contents

Cover image

Title page

Copyright

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

EDITOR’S PREFACE

OPENING ADDRESS

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

I: Structural and Functional Background

Chapter 1: NEUROANATOMICAL ASPECTS OF LANGUAGE AND DYSLEXIA

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION

LANGUAGE AREAS

ANATOMICAL OBSERVATIONS IN DEVELOPMENTAL DYSLEXIA

DISCUSSION

DISCUSSION

II: Cortical Information Systems

Chapter 2: CORTICAL INFORMATION PROCESSING IN THE VISUAL SYSTEM AND IN THE PARIETAL ASSOCIATION AREA

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION

THE VISUAL PATHWAY

PSYCHOPHYSICS

MEMORY AND ATTENTION

FUNCTION OF ASSOCIATIVE PARIETAL CORTEX

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

DISCUSSION

Chapter 3: TOWARDS THE PHYSIOLOGY OF VISUAL DYSLEXIA

Summary

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

DISCUSSION

III: Cognitive Aspects

Chapter 4: READING BY THE DISCONNECTED RIGHT HEMISPHERE: AN APHASIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

Summary

INTRODUCTION

LANGUAGE IN THE DISCONNECTED RIGHT HEMISPHERE

READING FOLLOWING HEMISPHERECTOMY FOR POSTINFANTILE LESIONS

INTERHEMISPHERIC DYNAMICS IN READING

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Chapter 5: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ICONIC PERSISTENCE AND READING DISABILITIES

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION

METHOD

RESULTS AND EVALUATION

EDUCATIONAL CONSEQUENCES

DISCUSSION

Chapter 6: OPHTHALMOLOGICAL FINDINGS AND CONTRAST SENSITIVITY IN CHILDREN WITH READING DIFFICULTIES

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION

MATERIAL AND METHODS

RESULTS

DISCUSSION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

DISCUSSION

IV: Clinical Experience and Pedagogic Aspects

Chapter 7: FUNCTION ANALYSIS OF READING AND WRITING BEHAVIOUR: A METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH TO IMPROVED RESEARCH IN READING DISABILITY

Publisher Summary

Chapter 8: DYSLEXIA AND VISUAL PROBLEMS

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION

FROM THE ABOVE EXAMINATION WE HAVE INFORMATION CONCERNING:

DISCUSSION

Chapter 9: LINGUISTIC AWARENESS AS RELATED TO DYSLEXIA

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION

STUDY 1: CAN READING PROBLEMS BE PREDICTED BEFORE SCHOOL AGE?

STUDY 3: DEVELOPMENT OVER THE SCHOOL YEARS

STUDY 4: METALINGUISTIC SKILLS IN THE BERGEN PROJECT

DISCUSSION

DISCUSSION

Chapter 10: FINAL DISCUSSION

Chapter 11: ADDENDUM: A METHOD TO STUDY AND TREAT DYSLEXIA BY PRODUCING STANDARDIZED ICON-PICTURES FROM FLASHING WORDS ON A COMPUTER SCREEN FROM FLASHING WORDS ON A COMPUTER SCREEN

Publisher Summary

INDEX

Copyright

Copyright © 1982 Pergamon Press Ltd.

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means: electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without permission in writing from the publishers.

First edition 1982

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Main entry under title:

Dyslexia: neuronal, cognitive, and linguistic aspects.

(Wenner-Gren Center international symposium series; v. 35)

Sponsored by the Ministry of Education, the Swedish Medical Research Council and the Wenner-Gren Center Foundation—Pref.

1. Dyslexia—Congresses. I. Zotterman, Yngve. II. Sweden. Utbildningsdepartementet.

III. Statens medicinska forskningsrad (Sweden)

IV. Wenner-Grenska samfundet. V. Series. [DNLM: 1. Dyslexia—Congresses. W 3 WE429 v. 35 1980/WM 475 D9984 1980]

RC394.W6D97 1982 616.85′53 81-17717 AACR2

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Dyslexia.—(Wenner-Gren Center international symposium series; 35)

1. Dyslexia—Congresses

I. Zotterman, Yngve II. Series

616.85′53 RC394.W6

ISBN 0-08-026863-3

In order to make this volume available as economically and as rapidly as possible the authors’ typescripts have been reproduced in their original forms. This method unfortunately has its typographical limitations but it is hoped that they in no way distract the reader.

Printed in Great Britain by A. Wheaton & Co. Ltd., Exeter

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

Gunilla Ahlsén,     Department of Physiology, University of Gothenburg, S-400 33 GOTHENBURG, Sweden

Anders Dunér,     Department of Psychology, University of Stockholm, S-113 85 STOCKHOLM, Sweden

Åke Edfeldt,     Department of Pedagogics, University of Stockholm, S-106 91 STOCKHOLM, Sweden

Gunilla Eklund,     The Board of Education, S-106 42 STOCKHOLM, Sweden

Curt von Euler,     Department of Neurophysiology, Karolinska Institute, S-104 01 STOCKHOLM, Sweden

Susan Fowler,     71 A Hamilton Road, READING Berkshire, England

Ove Franzén,     Department of Psychology, University of Uppsala, S-752 20 UPPSALA, Sweden

Max Frisk,     Department of Children, Psychiatry Akademiska Hospital, S-750 14 UPPSALA, Sweden

Albert Galaburda,     Beth Israel Hospital, 330 Brookline Avenue, K-4, BOSTON Massachusetts 02215, USA

Hans-Jørgen Gjessing,     Department of Pedagogical Psychology, University of Bergen, 5014 BERGEN, Norway

Ragnar Granit,     Eriksbergsgatan, 14 S-114 30 STOCKHOLM, Sweden

Sten Grillner,     Department of Physiology III, Karolinska Institute, Lidingövägen, 1 S-114 33 STOCKHOLM, Sweden

Juhani Hyvärinen,     Department of Physiology, University of Helsinki, SF-0017 HELSINKI, Finland

Lea Hyvärinen,     Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, SF-00100 HELSINKI, Finland

Torleiv Høien,     Stavanger Teacher Training College, Ullandhaug 4001 STAVANGER, Norway

David Ingvar,     Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, University Hospital, S-221 85 LUND, Sweden

Sven Landgren,     Department of Physiology, University of Umeå, S-901 87 UMEÅ, Sweden

Pentti Laurinen,     Department of General Psychology, University of Helsinki, SF-00170 HELSINKI, Finland

Gunnar Lennerstrand,     Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital, S-581 85 LINKÖPING, Sweden

Björn Lindblom,     Department of Linguistics, University of Stockholm, S-106 91 STOCKHOLM, Sweden

Ingvar Lundberg,     Department of Psychology, University of Umeå, S-901 87 UMEÅ, Sweden

Brenda Milner,     Montreal Neurological Institute, 3801 University Street, MONTREAL, Canada H3A 2B4

Britt Mogård,     Education and Cultural Affairs, S-103 10 STOCKHOLM, Sweden

Kerstin Norrsell,     The Eye Clinic, Hospital of Mölndal, S-431 20 MÖLNDAL, Sweden

David Ottoson,     Department of Physiology, Karolinska Institute, S-104 01 STOCKHOLM, Sweden

Paul Parlenvi,     Mor Annas väg 35, S-443 00 LERUM, Sweden

Daisy Schalling,     Department of Psychiatry, Karolinska Hospital, S-104 01 STOCKHOLM, Sweden

Per Sennerfeldt,     The Board of Education, S-106 42 STOCKHOLM, Sweden

Herbert Silfvenius,     Department of Physiology, University of Umeå, S-901 87 UMEÅ, Sweden

Pål Skagseth,     Health Council, Engen 39, 5000 BERGEN, Norway

John Stein,     University Laboratory of Physiology, Parks Road, OXFORD OX1 3PT, England

Göran Stigmar,     Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital, S-221 85 LUND, Sweden

Carl-Gustaf Söderberg,     Department of Linguistics, University of Umeå, S-901 85 UMEÅ, Sweden

Gösta uddén,     Götgatan 9, S-116 46 STOCKHOLM, Sweden

Per Uddén,     Hofstrasse 1, CH-6064 KERNS, Switzerland

Britta Wassmouth,     St. Nygatan 6, S-111 27 STOCKHOLM, Sweden

Anne-Marie Wredlund,     The Board of Education, S-106 42 STOCKHOLM, Sweden

Eran Zaidel,     Department of Psychology, University of California, LOS ANGELES, California, 90024 USA

Yngve Zotterman,     Wenner-Gren Center, Sveavägen 166, S-113 46 STOCKHOLM, Sweden

EDITOR’S PREFACE

This volume contains the proceedings of an international symposium on Dyslexia: Neuronal, Cognitive and Linguistic Aspects, held in Wenner-Gren Center, Stockholm, on June 3–4, 1980, sponsored by the Ministry of Education, the Swedish Medical Research Council and the Wenner-Gren Center Foundation.

The meeting was organized by a small group of people within the field of neurophysiology, psychophysiology, ophthalmology and teaching. We had a strong feeling that although dyslexia is a rather frequent phenomena in Sweden as anywhere else, very little is known of its etiology. As long as this basic knowledge is lacking we will be limited to pure empirical methods in the training of these children to learn to read and write. For that reason we invited a small group of scientists and teachers from Canada, England, Finland, Norway, USA and Sweden who thanks to their own research in the field of motor and sensory mechanisms of speech could give us valuable data for the analysis of the deficiencies in the behaviour displayed by dyslectic children.

Although the transactions did not lead to any definitie solution as regards the cause of dyslexia, the discussions here published nearly in extenso gave, however, definite clues of several lines of approach for future research elucidating the cause of the different kinds of disorders in the ability of reading and writing.

On behalf of the organizing committee I wish to express our sincere thanks to the scientists who took part in this conference and wish them luck in their future endeavours to the benefit of the children suffering from impairments in their ability to read and write.

Stockholm in June 1981

Yngve Zotterman

OPENING ADDRESS

BRITT MOGÅRD

Cabinet Minister

The great majority of children starting school do so with great expectations of learning to read. Surveys have actually shown that this interest is so powerful that hardly anything can prevent an inquisitive seven-year-old from learning the letters of the alphabet and eventually putting them together into something intelligibile. Exaggerating somewhat, the method by which reading is learned could therefore be said to be of fairly minor importance. Most children are so determined to learn that they overcome the difficulties in their path.

Some of these beginners will experience things differently. To begin with they are just as interested in penetrating the mysteries of the alphabet, but in their case the learning process goes awry. The letters get jumbled and will not let themselves be marchalled into a meaningful text. The children see their classmates forging ahead while they themselves wrestle with letters which are hard to copy, comprehend or enjoy. The other children can, they cannot. This situation takes the wind out of their sails.

These are pupils of normal intelligence. No damage has been discovered in terms of speech, vision or hearing. They have played quite naturally together with other children and enjoyed the same things, but now they suddenly discover that they can’t manage.

Since so much of our acquisition of knowledge is dependent on the written word, the effects are of course amplified in all the subjects studied by those who are unable to read or write. Reading becomes a bore, and even books for children and young persons and, later on, adult books and newspapers remain inaccessible to these pupils.

There are figures indicating that between 70 and 80 per cent of the inmates of our prisons, suffer from reading and writing disabilities. I am not saying that reading and writing disabilities lead to criminality, but it is obvious that a person who is unable to read or write is more vulnerable than person of normal ability in these respects.

Here in Sweden, alarming reports of one kind or another are published from time to time. Last autumn a great deal of attention was aroused by a television programme showing how adults who are ‘functionally illiterate’ experience their eductional career and their everyday life. In the debate to which the programme gave rise in the Swedish press, it was said that there were between 1.2 and 1.6 million functional illiterates in this country, in other words that one Swede in five was unable to read and write properly. But the definition of reading ability is quite a problem in itself. No doubt many people feel functionally illiterate in certain situations. The instructions accompanying our income tax forms or other printed matter from our public authorities are sometimes couched in such language that one begins to doubt one’s own literacy. But we do have a problem here: many adults today are’ genuinely unable to read and understand instructions and information which they need to assimilate in order to cope with life in our society. This, however, is a problem which should be tackled from another angle: the authorities must learn to write in a language which all citizens can understand.

The present symposium is concerned with a smaller group, but a group which is still far too large, namely people who cannot even read a simple text or who have great difficulty in reading.

It is not easy for a reading person to appreciate the implications of this situation. For my own part I have worked with reading and writing disabilities and have succeeded, after a great deal of effort, in penetrating the experiences of pupils labouring under these difficulties. At least, I thought so until recently I was given a further reminder of our lack of empathy. Reading whodunnits is one of my relaxations, and recently I obtained a copy of A Judgement in Stone by Ruth Rendell. She describes, most acutely, a woman who is only able to recognize a few letters of the alphabet but has learned at an early age to conceal her handicap, so that when she is 40 years old there is still nobody who knows. We are shown, through her, what it is like living in a world where reading comes naturally to everybody else, how suspicious she is when she sees something written on a notice board, how helpless she is when given a piece of paper with instructions written on it, how she has longed for a television set for years but is incapable of the formfilling which this requires, how she eventually gets a television set through her job but when it breaks down is unable to look up the appropriate number in her telephone directory, how she goes to a railway station and whenever she asks which platform she is to go to receives the same answer: It’s on the notive board. She develops a fear of other people, a craving for isolation, emotional coldness - until in the end, of course, disaster supervenes. It is compulsive reading.

In my opinion it is absolutely essential for more people to realize the implications of the handicap which reading and writing disabilities amount to. Otherwise it will be impossible for us to provide adequate assistance and we will fail to observe that not the least of our tasks must be to sustain the pupils’ self-confidence. This applies to everybody, but it applies especially to teachers. I am convinced that our junior level teachers fully realize the problems which reading and writing disabilities can entail. On the other hand I know that the problem and its consequences are not always observed at higher levels. Many people imagine that reading and writing disabilities only affect language subjects, but all subjects - mathematics included - require an ability to read and write. A superficial knowledge of the problem is not enough; an active determination to achieve empathy is called for.

Reading education is a pre-eminently individual process, and it must proceed in such a manner that the pupil is not subjected to stress, is allowed to work at his or her own speed and is given the right stimulus, added to which the teacher-pupil relationship must be one of confidence and trust. Reading and writing practice is not the exclusive concern of our Swedish teachers or our remedial teachers. Everybody who in one way or another gets the children to, read or receives written work from them must pay attention to the problems of pupils with reading and writing difficulties.

What use is it to the pupil our having instructions to the effect that special allowance must be made when awarding marks to pupils with reading and writing disabilities, if the problems are not observed and treated with all the means at our disposal? The outlook for eleven-year-olds with a poor command of reading and writing is often very bleak. Teaching goes on regardless. Most knowledge is derived from books, and the poor reader has difficulty in keeping up. In practice he is put out of the running, and the struggle for the really high marks is reserved for others. Difficulty in expressing oneself is writing means poor marks for tests.

The teaching of many school subjects in Sweden has come to be dominated for a great deal of the time by work books in which the pupils have to give predetermined answers on a particular line. There are cases of pupils experimenting with acids and bases and then having to turn to their work books and tick off the right alternative for the colour assumed by the litmus paper. Teaching of this kind is definitely not calculated to strengthen the learning of language or concepts, and certainly not where poor readers and writers are concerned if the answers have to be extracted from textbooks with vast quantities of small print.

It is important to remember that we are talking about pupils of normal ability, pupils who would do well with other teaching materials or other teaching routines. Sweden has developed quite a few ways of assisting children with reading and writing disabilities. Unfortunately I cannot claim that we have been successful in helping all of them. Particularly those with grave disabilities remain unhelped - owing to lack of resources, but also for lack of knowledge and empathy.

Oddly enough, the underlying causes of dyslexia are still to a great extent unknown. But we know that persons who receive little or no support in their early linguistic development are quite hard hit by these problems. I have studied with interest the research findings of the Norwegian Kirsten Pauss at the Nic Waals Institute. His theory that developments in early infancy, from birth to eighteen months, affect subsequent ability to learn a language is well worth pondering. His method of treatment, with the stipulation of parental participation as well as powerful therapeutic elements for the pupil, may be a signpost for persons with really grave reading and writing disabilities. Moreover, some of these pupils also have other problems to contend with, such as retarded speech, vision impairments or perhaps hearing damage.

I have also studied theories maintaining that reading disabilities stem from vision defects of various kinds. Of course, the correct reproduction of letters of symbols in a simple vision test is one thing, but a completely different mechanism may need to be checked in order to ascertain whether co-ordinated vision functions, whether symbols can be put together to form an intelligible message and so on.

And this brings me on to a field with which I am not at all familiar, namely the functioning of the brain, the way in which concepts originate and skills are trained, and the nature of the finely adjusted mechanisms which have to cooperate in order for correct perception to be achieved.

If in the course of your work you can help us to identify the causes which combine to bring about dyslexia, we will be able to take steps to diagnose the children concerned at an early stage. We would then be able to provide the necessary support and stimulus far more promptly. Even if reading and writing disabilities cannot be prevented, action may perhaps be needed to ensure that these problems will not be so great in future. We know that early support in the form of conversations with children, story-telling and frequent association with books helps to build up concepts and vocabulary in a positive way. If all parents were aware of the influence they can exert by such simple means as a bedtime story every evening, a great deal would be gained. As it is, many children are left on their watching television without anybody to talk to about what they have seen.

What I want is for research findings to be translatable into concrete programmes of action and for the results of researchers’ endeavours to be made available to ordinary people. This means that you must try to explain, in terms which everybody can understand, what we should all do in order to help our pupils to attain the knowledge which is such a fundamental ingredient of their continuing success in life. We must do everything in our power to deploy our resources in such a way that no pupil - I repeat, no pupil - need leave school without the necessary command of reading and writing.

If in the course of this symposium you can help us to chart some of the impediments to reading education, the time and the resources involved will have been well spent. I wish you every success.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

RAGNAR GRANIT

We take pleasure in hearing from our Cabinet Minister, Mrs Britt Mogård, that the Ministry of Education is concerned about the serious problem whose understanding we are trying to promote by inviting a number of distinguished experts to discuss it. Developmental dyslexia appears in otherwise intelligent school children as a shortcoming in processing spoken and written language so well, as one would be entitled to expect from them. Some improvement, often quite considerable, takes place as they grow up, indicating the operation of mechanisms of compensation.

We shall hear at this Conference that dyslexia in some cases is likely to be the sign of structural deficiencies in the language centres. If in such cases some improvement takes place the compensatory processes are likely to operate outside those centres. We know from much physiological and clinical work that the plasticity of the young brain is of a remarkable order. But wheresoever the compensatory events take place, their progress and nature deserve to be followed with particular attention. To the science of pedagogy, keen on mitigating the tribulations of dyslectic children, study of nature’s ways in compensating for their deficiences offers means of devising curative measures.

I cannot speak about the field of dyslexia with the authority of our distinguished guests. It is not my own. Faced with the enormous number of papers in this field, an outsider like myself must thread warily through the brushwood of tests designed to extricate factors such as phonemes, words, sequences, intervals, iconic memory etc. The physiologist likes to stand closer to his material than is possible in the study of dyslexia, simply because the only speaking animal cannot be investigated with the microelectrodes that have meant so much for understanding the way in which the brain handles information. Does this dearly acquired knowledge mean anything also for the understanding of dyslexia?

Assuming validity of the principles discovered with single cortical cells in, for instance, vision, the neurons in speech centres would also exhibit re-representation and recombination of elements of information, whose nature so