Medical Considerations and Assessment

Abstract

The notion of what underlies learning and attentional disabilities has ranged from frank brain damage to subtle biological differences in temperament. We have known for years that children with documented brain damage often have learning and attentional difficulties. Hence, it has been assumed that other children with isolated learning and/or attentional difficulties were similarly harboring brain impairments that were not as severe—dysfunction rather than damage—even though there was little or no hard evidence for it. Most children with Specific Learning Disabilities and a smaller portion of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder most likely fit into this notion of dysfunction.