This book offers a comprehensive and readable account of theoretical aspects of the origins and normal development of handedness and its relationship to cerebral lateralization. It reviews the evidence for links between non-right-handedness and various developmental disorders: mental impairment, autism, epilepsy, and disorders of spoken and written language. The emphasis is on understanding the range of underlying mechanisms that might lead to associations between handedness and disorder and on identifying assessment procedures that can distinguish between different explanations.
The term Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is used to describe a group of children who have difficulty. with tasks involving movement such that it interferes with their daily living or academic progress. As with other developmental disorders such as autistic spectrum disorder, attention deficit disorder and dyslexia, DCD is now a prominent concern of both researchers and practitioners. This text is aimed at both researchers and professionals who work in a practical manner with the condition and includes professionals in health, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, health visitors, paediatricians, and - in the educational field - teachers and others who are in daily contact with the children - their parents. The essence of the text is that work with children should be guided by research evidence driving the clinical practice which in turn raisies more questions for research. The authors in this text have both experience in research and are engaged in the day-to-day clinical work with children and bring both of these to bear in the chapters they have written.
Genes and kangaroos -- Criminals or victims? Cesare Lombroso vs. Robert Hertz -- By the numbers : measuring handedness -- Ambiguous attitudes -- Changing hands, tying tongues -- From genes to populations : the search for a cause -- The geschwind hypothesis -- Genetic models and selective advantage -- Uniquely human? -- A gay hand? -- Disability, ability, and the left hand -- Conclusion : does left-handedness matter?
These two companion volumes provide a comprehensive review and critical evaluation of the major DSM-III and DSM-III-R child disorders. Their major goal is to provide diagnostic and assessment guidelines that are based on scientific literature in specific clinical domains. Each chapter contains a discussion of the historical background of a particular diagnosis, definitional issues, a critical but selective review of the literature addressing the diagnosis in question, proposed changes in the diagnostic criteria based on the available literature, and proposed assessment models and methods based on the designated criteria. Given the scientific bases for many of these discussions of diagnostic criteria, these two volumes will serve professionals and graduate students in a wide variety of fields: clinical child psychology, child psychiatry, pediatrics, pediatric and school psychology, special education, social work, and other child mental health specialties.
Since the early 1940s, when first identified as childhood psychosis and autistic psychopathy, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has continued to burgeon into a major focus of inquiry and interest among researchers, practitioners, and the public alike. With each passing decade, the number of scholarly articles addressing ASD and related disabilities continues to soar. Today, thousands of papers on autism are published annually across various disciplines and journals, making it challenging – if not impossible – to keep pace with, let alone synthesize, all the latest developments. Based on a solid historical foundation of autism theory and research, the International Handbook of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders integrates the broad scholarly base of literature with a trenchant analysis of the state of the field in nosology, etiology, assessment, and treatment. Its expert contributors examine recent findings and controversies (e.g., how prevalent autism actually is), along with longstanding topics of interest as well as emerging issues. Coverage includes: A survey of diagnostic criteria and assessment strategies. Genetic, behavioral, biopsychosocial, and cognitive models. Psychiatric disorders in persons with ASD. Theory of mind and facial recognition. Diagnostic instruments for assessing core features and challenging behaviors. Evidence-based psychosocial, pharmacological, and integrative treatments. Interventions specifically for adults with ASD. Training issues for professionals and parents. A review of findings of successful and promising therapies, coupled with guidance on how to distinguish between dubious and effective treatments. The International Handbook of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders is an indispensable resource for researchers, professors, graduate students, and allied practitioners in clinical child and school psychology, child and adolescent psychiatry, education, social work, rehabilitation, pediatric medicine, and developmental psychology.
Lateral preferences are strange, puzzling, and on the surface, not particularly adaptive aspects of behavior. Why one chooses habitually to write or to brush the teeth with the right hand, while a friend or family member habitually uses the left hand, might be interesting enough to elicit some conversation over dinner or a drink, but certainly does not seem to warrant serious scientific study. Yet when one looks at human behaviors more carefully, one becomes aware that asymmet rical behaviors favoring one side or the other are actually a fairly universal characteristic of human beings. In the same way that we are right or left handed, we are also right or left footed, eyed, and eared. As a species, we are quite lopsided in our behavioral coordinations; furthermore, the vast majority of us are right sided. Considering that we are looking at a sizable number of behaviors, and at a set of biases that seem to be systematic and show a predictable skew in the popUlation, the problem takes on greater significance. The most obvious form of lateral preference is, of course, handedness. When studying behavioral asymmetries, this is the issue with which most investigators start. Actually, we entered this research area through a much different route. Around 1971 we became interested in the problem of eye dominance or eye preference. This is a behavior where the input to one eye seems to be preferred over that to the other in certain binocular viewing situations.
Cerebral Lateralization is Norman Geschwind's last and perhaps most controversial work. Cowritten with Albert M. Galaburda, it presents his bold theory of left-handedness and brain development, exploring as no other current study has done the biology behind cerebral dominance or the specialization of the left and right sides of the brain for different functions.This book, which illustrates and expands material that appeared in three issues of The Archives of Neurology, provides extensive discussions of the anatomical and chemical differences between the hemispheres, their development in fetal life, their evolution, and their relationship to hemispheric function. The various factors that affect brain structure - endocrinological, immunological, and genetic - particularly dominance characteristics in intrauterine life, are fully covered, offering new insights into the nature-nurture question and pointing up the importance of the fetal environment in altering the properties of the brain.Many other intriguing areas are explored - the evidence for anatomical asymmetry during evolution and in other species, the concept of handedness and problems of its assessment, anatomical alterations in the brains of dyslexics, the advantages and disadvantages of cerebral dominance such as the elevated rate of left-handedness in certain highly skilled occupations, its association with childhood learning disorders, immune disease, and twinning. Seyeral sections are devoted to diseases with unilateral predominance in the brain or the body and those associated with particular dominance patterns.The final chapter, which deals with asymmetries in physics and chemistry and their possible relationship to the eventual development of dominance in both humans and other species, shows the importance of asymmetry of the nervous system in probably all animals.Norman Geschwind, M.D. (1926-1984) was James Jackson Putnam Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Director of the Neurological Unit, Beth Israel Hospital, and Professor of Psychology at MIT. Albert M. Galaburda, M.D. is Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. A Bradford Book.
Offering a bold new understanding of the causes of such disorders as autism, ADHD, Asperger's, dyslexia, and OCD, an effective drug-free program addresses both the symptoms and causes of conditions involving a disconnection between the left and right sides of the developing brain, with customizable exercises, behavior modification advice, nutritional guidelines, and more.
Brain asymmetry for speech is moderately related to handedness but what are the rules? Are symmetries for hand and brain associated with characteristics such as intelligence, motor skill, spatial reasoning or skill at sports? In this follow up to the influential Left, Right Hand and Brain (1985) Marian Annett draws on a working lifetime of research to help provide answers to crucial questions. Central to her argument is the Right Shift Theory - her original and innovative contribution to the field that seeks to explain the relationships between left-and right-handedness and left-and right-brain specialisation. The theory proposes that handedness in humans and our non-human primate relations depends on chance but that chance is weighted towards right-handedness in most people by an agent of right-hemisphere disadvantage. It argues for the existence of a single gene for right shift (RS+) that evolved in humans to aid the growth of speech in the left hemisphere of the brain. The Right Shift Theory has possible implications for a wide range of questions about human abilities and disabilities, including verbal and non verbal intelligence, educational progress and dyslexia, spatial reasoning, sporting skills and mental illness. It continues to be at the cutting edge of research, solving problems and generating new avenues of investigation - most recently the surprising idea that a mutant RS+ gene might be involved in the causes of schizophrenia and autism. Handedness and Brain Asymmetry will make fascinating reading for students and researchers in psychology and neurology, educationalists, and anyone with a keen interest in why people have different talents and weaknesses.
Handedness is a multidimensional phenomenon co-determined by polygenetic and developmental aspects, multifactorial influences and in some cases, pathological impact. It is important for professionals working with children, including those who are still undecided about their writing hand, to assess, analyse and understand the complexity of handedness comprehensively to prevent problems related to switched or atypical handedness. Beyond Left and Right Handedness uses a practice-based approach to handedness and systematically integrates theory, research and practice. Part I, ‘Theory and Research,’ critically evaluates and utilises the broad spectrum of the handedness literature as a theoretical basis for the development of handedness instruments. Part II, ‘Assessment and Analysis,’ presents diagnostic and analytical instruments developed by the author based on numerous in-depth studies and extensive clinical practice over 20 years. These include the Handedness Profile, a standardised assessment of various handedness dimensions; and the Handedness Typology, an analytical framework to interpret different types of handedness. Part III, ‘Implications for Practice,’ contains detailed case studies on assessment and treatment by professionals working with children presenting with unclear and/or atypical handedness. “This book provides the reader with a comprehensive and scholarly discussion of the topic, presenting a careful, in-depth description of all aspects of the topic and providing professionals with the necessary, evidence-based tools to address handedness in practice. It is an invaluable resource that is well situated in the latest evidence-based understanding of handedness and provides a comprehensive guide to addressing the important development of handedness.” - Prof. Dr. Helen Polatajko
