(Press-News.org) Up to 10 per cent of the population is affected by specific learning disabilities (SLDs), such as dyslexia, dyscalculia and autism, translating to two or three pupils in every classroom, a new study has found.
Led by Professor Brian Butterworth, a Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne's School of Psychological Sciences and Emeritus Professor of cognitive neuropsychology at University College London, the study gives insight into the underlying causes of specific learning disabilities and how to tailor individual teaching and learning for individuals and education professionals.
The study found children are frequently affected by more than one learning disability and that specific learning disabilities co-occur more often than expected.
For example, in children with attention-deficit or hyperactivity disorder, 33 to 45 per cent also suffer from dyslexia and 11 per cent from dyscalculia, a learning disability in mathematics.
Professor Butterworth said the results showed there were many neurological development disorders that result in learning disabilities, even in children of normal or even high intelligence.
Specific learning disabilities arise from atypical brain development with complicated genetic and environmental factors, causing such conditions as dyslexia, dyscalculia, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder and specific language impairment.
As part of the study, Professor Butterworth and colleague Yulia Kovas have summarised what is known about SLD's neural and genetic basis to help clarify how these disabilities develop, helping improve teaching for individual learners, and also training for school psychologists, clinicians and teachers.
The study suggests causes of SLDs are due to difficulties processing speech, language and numbers at a cognitive level. From a neurological basis, evidence suggests each SLD is associated with an abnormality in a distinct neural network. A single neurophysiological cause may affect distinct regions in the brain, affecting an individual's learning ability.
"We are also finally beginning to find effective ways to help learners with one or more SLDs, and although the majority of learners can usually adapt to the one-size-fits-all approach of whole class teaching, those with SLDs will need specialised support tailored to their unique combination of disabilities," he said.
### END
Learning disabilities affect up to 10 percent of children and co-occur at higher than expected rates
2013-04-26
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Movement of pyrrole molecules defy 'classical' physics
2013-04-26
New research shows that movement of the ring-like molecule pyrrole over a metal surface runs counter to the centuries-old laws of 'classical' physics that govern our everyday world.
Using uniquely sensitive experimental techniques, scientists have found that laws of quantum physics - believed primarily to influence at only sub-atomic levels – can actually impact on a molecular level.
Researchers at Cambridge's Chemistry Department and Cavendish Laboratory say they have evidence that, in the case of pyrrole, quantum laws affecting the internal motions of the molecule ...
Fish win fights on strength of personality
2013-04-26
When predicting the outcome of a fight, the big guy doesn't always win suggests new research on fish. Scientists at the University of Exeter and Texas A&M University found that when fish fight over food, it is personality, rather than size, that determines whether they will be victorious. The findings suggest that when resources are in short supply personality traits such as aggression could be more important than strength when it comes to survival.
The study, published in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, found that small fish were able to do well in contests ...
Forthcoming study explores use of intermittent fasting in diabetes as cardiovascular disease
2013-04-26
Los Angeles, CA (April 26, 2013) – Intermittent fasting is all the rage, but scientific evidence showing how such regimes affect human health is not always clear cut. Now a scientific review in the British Journal of Diabetes and Vascular Disease published by SAGE, suggests that fasting diets may help those with diabetes and cardiovascular disease, alongside established weight loss claims.
Intermittent fasting –fasting on a given number of consecutive or alternate days – has recently been hailed as a path to weight loss and improved cardiovascular risk. A team led by ...
Flu and bacteria: Better prognosis for this potentially fatal combination
2013-04-26
This press release is available in German.
The flu is caused by an infection with the influenza virus, which mainly attacks the upper respiratory tract – the nose, throat and bronchi and rarely also the lungs. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around five to 15 percent of the population are affected by upper respiratory tract infections during seasonal flu outbreaks, and between 250 000-500 000 people die of the illness every year. However, a main cause of death in people having the flu is actually a secondary infection with bacteria.
Influenza increases ...
Developmental neurobiology: How the brain folds to fit
2013-04-26
During fetal development of the mammalian brain, the cerebral cortex undergoes a marked expansion in surface area in some species, which is accommodated by folding of the tissue in species with most expanded neuron numbers and surface area. Researchers have now identified a key regulator of this crucial process.
Different regions of the mammalian brain are devoted to the performance of specific tasks. This in turn imposes particular demands on their development and structural organization. In the vertebrate forebrain, for instance, the cerebral cortex – which is responsible ...
Using mobile phone apps in weight-loss programs
2013-04-26
Mobile phones using text messaging and monitoring have been shown to be useful additions to health programs. The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate a weight-loss intervention delivered by a smartphone app that supported individuals embarking on a diet and that was evidenced-based. Researchers developed and tested a mobile phone application (app) to support individuals embarking on a partial meal replacement program (MRP).
Overweight or obese women were randomly allocated to one of two study groups an intervention group and a control group. The intervention ...
Protein shaped like a spider
2013-04-26
This press release is available in German.
The protein C4BP is similar to a spider in its spatial form with eight "arms". The structure of the "spider body" has recently been described in detail by researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig and the Technische Universität Darmstadt. This leads the scientists to unconventional ideas – the protein is possibly suitable as a scaffold for the transport of active pharmaceutical substances, particularly biomolecules. The researchers are publishing their results in the current edition ...
New excavations indicate use of fertilizers 5,000 years ago
2013-04-26
Researchers from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have spent many years studying the remains of a Stone Age community in Karleby outside the town of Falköping, Sweden. The researchers have for example tried to identify parts of the inhabitants' diet. Right now they are looking for evidence that fertilisers were used already during the Scandinavian Stone Age, and the results of their first analyses may be exactly what they are looking for.
Using remains of grains and other plants and some highly advanced analysis techniques, the two researchers and archaeologists ...
Computer scientists suggest new spin on origins of evolvability
2013-04-26
Scientists have long observed that species seem to have become increasingly capable of evolving in response to changes in the environment. But computer science researchers now say that the popular explanation of competition to survive in nature may not actually be necessary for evolvability to increase.
In a paper published this week in PLOS ONE, the researchers report that evolvability can increase over generations regardless of whether species are competing for food, habitat or other factors.
Using a simulated model they designed to mimic how organisms evolve, the ...
Sea surface temperatures reach highest level in 150 years
2013-04-26
Sea surface temperatures in the Northeast Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem during 2012 were the highest recorded in 150 years, according to the latest Ecosystem Advisory issued by NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC). These high sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are the latest in a trend of above average temperature seen during the spring and summer seasons, and part of a pattern of elevated temperatures occurring in the Northwest Atlantic, but not seen elsewhere in the ocean basin over the past century.
The advisory reports on conditions in the second half of ...