Developmental Variations in Learning: Applications to Social, Executive Function, Language, and Reading Skills edited by Dennis L. Molfese and Victoria J. Molfese Mahwah, NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 2002, 359 pp, $89.95. This book reviews the literature on developmental changes in cognitive capacities in different domains, relating this basic research to the applied science of early identification of cognitive delay and its treatment. Using a multidisciplinary approach combining historical background with the latest investigations in the field, the authors comment on the development of cognitive abilities in the realms of intelligence/achievement, social relations, executive functioning, communication/language, and reading and writing abilities. Developmental variations and interpersonal and intrapersonal differences are addressed, along with applications to children with various developmental disorders. The first domain addressed is intelligence and the measurement of achievement. Research into the predictor variables that identify children at risk for difficulties in the development of cognitive abilities is discussed, and included among these variables are combinations of biomedical, socioeconomic, environmental, and verbal measures. The progression of students’ learning and behavioral characteristics are described in a longitudinal study using the Multigrade Inventory for Teachers (Shaywitz, 1987), a teacher-based instrument for evaluating school-aged children with learning or attention difficulties to demonstrate gender differences and developmental trends. Social Interaction and its basis in neurobiology is the next domain discussed in this book. Distinctive patterns of aberrant social interaction, as seen in Down syndrome, Rett syndrome, Williams syndrome, and autism, are presented as a paradigm of developmental brain deficits producing characteristic patterns of atypical social interaction. Research on the development of social communication competence in very low birth weight preterm infants and its modification by parenting styles are presented as a model for facilitation of development of social cognition and to provide a basis for understanding the complex integration of cognitive skills required for social communication. Executive functioning, including the development of working memory and inhibition, is explored from a developmental perspective in the domain of cognition. A review of historical case studies of people with executive functioning deficits after brain injuries is presented at the start of the chapter as a springboard into the neurophysiology of executive functioning disorders and as an exploration of developmental and clinical variations. Normal development is explored, as well as the aberrant development of executive functioning seen in children with phenylketonuria, Down syndrome, autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, learning disabilities, and epilepsy. The emergence of communication and language skills is a hallmark of child development and is central to establishing and maintaining meaningful relationships. Language development and brain activity is discussed using research with electroencephalograms and Event-Related Potentials to predict language development in infants who are “at risk” for language delay, and in children with various reading abilities. The authors state that by using this new tool to identify children at risk for language delay, successful treatment may be implemented earlier, before behavioral disturbances occur secondary to impaired communication. Another example of brain differences in language abilities is the subtle differences in naming ability between children with and without brain tumors. The authors argue from this that assessment in children with brain tumors must be comprehensive. Communication in mentally retarded individuals is explored through the System for Augmenting Language (SAL), using data from a longitudinal study. This study not only showed that nonverbal children with moderate and severe mental retardation could learn to communicate through the SAL, but that they could also examine the paths by which this communication was learned. Reading and writing development is the final domain discussed in this book. Traditional and alternative approaches to the investigation of the acquisition of these skills are discussed. The authors support the alternative approaches, commenting that the stage theory of the traditional approach does not allow for overlapping, nonsequential development of the skills necessary for the development of reading and writing. They also argue that the applications of the different trajectories in the acquisition of reading skills are related to the differences in response to reading remediation. Basic research in developmental psychology can inform an applied area, such as learning proficiency. This book is written for the specialist in learning or development to inform the reader about trends in research; it is not written as a practical guide for a clinician. With that in mind, this book does an excellent job of interweaving history and basic science with applied psychology to the identification and treatment children who are either at risk for or have cognitive delay. With its multidisciplinary perspective, the book does a fine job of bringing together various fields toward an understanding of the individual variations in development that arise from both normal and pathological sources.
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Sharon Gelman (2002) studied this question.