Childhood learning disabilities

Salyer, K., Holmstrom, R., Noshpitz, J. (1991). Learning disabilities as a childhood manifestation of severe psychopathology. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 61, 230-240. 

Also falling within the scope of modern psychiatric diagnostic systems are organic mental disorders (e.g. dementia in Alzheimer s disease), disorders due to substance misuse (e.g. alcohol and opiate dependence—see Chapter 10), personality disorders, disorders of childhood and adolescence (e.g. attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Tourette s syndrome) and mental retardation (learning disabilities). 

Although this theory was popularized in the 1970s, well-controlled studies conducted since then have produced no evidence that food and drug color additives such as azo dyes (FD C yellow 5, FD C yellow 6, etc.) cause hyperactivity or learning disabilities in children. A Consensus Development Panel of the National Institutes of Health concluded in 1982 that there was no scientific evidence to support the claim that colorings or other food additives cause hyperactivity. The panel said that elimination diets should not be used universally to treat childhood hyperactivity, because there is no scientific evidence to predict which children may benefit. The FDA s Advisory Committee on Hypersensitivity to Food Constituents concluded in 1986 that FD C yellow 5 (tartrazine) might cause hives in fewer than 1 out of 10,000 people. The Committee found that there was no evidence the color additive in foods provokes asthma attacks or... 

I will focus in this chapter on major neuropsychological developmental disabilities that may involve a prenatal environmental impact cerebral palsy, epilepsy, vision and hearing deficits, speech deficits and learning disabilities, ADHD, and, in greater detail, autism. Childhood emotional or behavioral problems will be discussed in a later chapter. Mental retardation and growth delay are discussed in the book in various places. 

One of the major learning disabilities is childhood developmental dyslexia, a difficulty with written language (for example,... 

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