This proposal examines the hypothesis that impaired serial order control for coordinated action is an underlying functional deficit common to reading impairment and the non-reading behavioral correlates of specific reading retardation. Under a neuropsychological frame of reference, various measures of coordinated unimanual and bimanual action, motor speech, and expressive language are examined, with particular emphasis on the interaction between rate and timing precision or rate and serial order control as the dimensions which may best characterize the disorder. Emphasis on the motor system implies no causal relationship between movement disturbances and reading retardation. On the other hand, the motor system is well suited for the objective analysis and decomposition of temporal variables in complex behavior that are shared by speech, expressive language, and skilled action. The study focuses on adolescents and adults with specific reading disabilities to examine which aspects of serial order control may be developmentally invariant. It compares male and female adolescents with specific reading disability; and it uses a matched """"""""pathological"""""""" control group of adolescents with specific learning disabilities who are reading at grade level to test whether the presumed deficit of serial order control is particular to reading retardation or common to various learning disabilities.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01HD016107-02
Application #
3313459
Study Section
Communication Sciences and Disorders (CMS)
Project Start
1985-07-01
Project End
1988-06-30
Budget Start
1986-07-01
Budget End
1987-06-30
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
1986
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Children's Hospital Boston
Department
Type
DUNS #
076593722
City
Boston
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
02115
Michel, George F; Sheu, Ching-Fan; Brumley, Michele R (2002) Evidence of a right-shift factor affecting infant hand-use preferences from 7 to 11 months of age as revealed by latent class analysis. Dev Psychobiol 40:1-13
Michel, G F (2001) A developmental-psychobiological approach to developmental neuropsychology. Dev Neuropsychol 19:11-32
Rousselle, C; Wolff, P H (1991) The dynamics of bimanual coordination in developmental dyslexia. Neuropsychologia 29:907-24
Wolff, P H; Michel, G F; Ovrut, M (1990) Rate variables and automatized naming in developmental dyslexia. Brain Lang 39:556-75