Handedness as a function of neurological involvement in a clinic-referred sample of disabled learners

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dc.contributor.authorSalter, Karen Michelleen_US
dc.date.accessioned2024-08-15T18:19:18Z
dc.date.available2024-08-15T18:19:18Z
dc.date.copyright1983en_US
dc.date.issued1983
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of Psychology
dc.degree.levelMaster of Arts M.A.en
dc.description.abstractThe present study is concerned with the pattern of hand­edness among learning disabled children. Typically, clinic­-referred learning disabled samples are more likely than those in general school samples to have a higher than aver­age rate of non-dextrality. Reports also indicate that in populations of individuals with neuropathology, such as epi­leptics and retardates, the incidence of left-handedness is at least twice as high as that reported for the normal popu­lation . These excess, "pathological," left-handers are thought to be left-handed by virtue of neuropathology lead­ing to a switch of manual preference, rather than by genetic determination. Higher rates of neuropathology in clinic samples could account for the failure to find differences in general school, but not in clinic, samples. It was thought that in a sample of clinic-referred learning disabled chil­dren, non-dextrality would increase as a function of degree of neuropathology. Children between the ages of 7 and 13, referred to a neu­ropsychology clinic because of learning difficulties, were followed up an average of fifteen years later. On the basis of a neurological examination administered at the time of referral, children were classified into three groups: those with definite neurological abnormalities, those with questionable neurological signs, and those with no neurological abnormalities. subjects were administered a questionnaire concerning their manual preferences for each of seven tasks. They were also given a test of grip strength and asked to write their name with either hand, so that the relative per­formance advantage with either hand could be assessed. These tests were administered both at time of referral and at time of follow-up, fifteen years later. Due to factors such as inconsistencies in test administration and subject attrition, 106 subjects received all three tests at time of referral, 124 at the adult testing, and 83 received all three tests at both times. In addition, 52 matched controls, se­lected from local school district records, were tested at the follow-up assessment, receiving a neurological assess­ment at this time. The main hypothesis was not confirmed. Non-dextrality did not increase as a function of neuropathology across the three classifications, either at time of referral or at young adulthood. It was thought that, although individuals generally become more dextral over time, groups with more neuropathology, and consequently more "pathological" left­-handers, would be less likely to show the normal developmental shift. Change scores, analyzed to determine both magni­tude and incidence of change towards dextrality, produced no significant effects. Since they did not show a greater dex­tral shift than the group with no signs, non-dextrality in subjects with soft signs cannot be considered as evidence of lagging maturation which eventually catches up. The comparison of learning disabled subjects at follow-up with adult controls was meaningful, if not statistically significant. There were two to three times as many learning disabled subjects as controls who were identified as left­ handed on a number of measures. Although the difference was not significant, the close parallel with studies of both clinic-referred learning disabled subjects, and of retar­dates and epileptics, suggests that clinic-referred learning disabled subjects are more sinistral than controls, regard­less of degree of neuropathology. Clinic samples could be biased by a tendency of both physicians and teachers to view left-handedness as a "warning sign" of neuropathology leading to an over-representation of left-handers among referrals. Alternatively, neuropathology, irrespective of degree, may contribute to sinistrality. Even learning disabled sub­jects with no neurological signs were more sinistral than controls, implying that they could have incurred some mild neurological damage. An analysis of the persistence of neu­rological signs (Hern, 1983) indicated that by adulthood these subjects actually presented signs of neuropathology, suggesting that they , too , could be "pathologically" left­ handed. Clinic samples of learning disabled subjects, then, may include individuals with varying degrees of neuropathology. These subjects are more likely to he left-handed than normal controls, irrespective of degree of neuropathology.
dc.format.extent134 pages
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1828/19588
dc.rightsAvailable to the World Wide Weben_US
dc.titleHandedness as a function of neurological involvement in a clinic-referred sample of disabled learnersen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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