Developmental Factors in Reading and Writing Backwardness

Two groups of patients referred on account of backwardness in reading or writing or both were studied. These were selected on the basis of a discrepancy of more than 20 points between ‘verbal’ and ‘performance’ I.Q.'s on the W.I.S.C. or W.A.I.S., the verbal I.Q. being the lower in group 1 (6 cases) and the performance I.Q. the lower in group 2 (7 cases). Other clinical evidences of language disorder were found in group 1, but were almost completely absent in group 2. A specific difficulty with tests of finger differentiation and order, as well as impairment on constructional tasks and mechanical arithmetic, was found in group 2, but not group 1. These two groups represent syndromes of developmental cerebral deficit based on difficulties in sequential ordering and in the language sphere respectively. Each syndrome may give rise to a characteristic type of delay in learning to read and write. Children with such cerebral cortical deficits probably represent a minority within the population of retarded readers and writers.