PUBLICATIONS BY O R T O N S O C I E T Y M E M B E R S

A N D O T H E R S

T H E M A N U A L - - E D I T I O N VI Gi l l ingham, A n n a and St i l lman, Bes-

s ie W., R E M E D I A L T R A I N I N G F O R C H I L D R E N W I T H S P E C I F I C DIS- A B I L I T Y IN R E A D I N G , S P E L L I N G AND P E N M A N S H I P . S ix th Edi t ion , New York, 1960. D i s t r i bu t ed by A n n a Gi l l ingham, 25 P a r k v i e w Ave., Bronx- vi l le 8, New York.

T H E G I L L I N G H A M M A N U A L needs no in t roduc t ion to m e m b e r s of The Or ton Society. However , th is new 6th edi t ion di f fers f rom ea r l i e r edi- t ions in some i m p o r t a n t aspects , and t h e r e f o r e dese rves a c loser look t h a n an o r d i n a r y revis ion. The basic p lan is u n a l t e r e d and beg ins wi th t he sect ion which sets fo r th the p rob l ems of chil- d r e n who fa i l to ach ieve in l anguage at a r easonab le level in t e r m s of t he i r ab i l i t y and p e r f o r m a n c e in non-verba l areas. This is fo l lowed by the two chap te r s desc r ib ing the f u n d a m e n t a l t echn iques of t each ing ch i ld ren b y the Gi l l i ngham Alphabe t i ca l Approach . In r e sponse to r epea t ed reques ts , Miss G i l l i ngham has r e in s t a t ed the c h a p t e r devoted to o lder pup i l s and has a l ter- ed the m a t e r i a l on sound symbo l s to h a r m o n i z e w i th the n e w develop- m e n t s in the M e r r i a m - W e b s t e r dict ion- ar ies . T h e i nva luab l e chap te r s on spe l l ing ru les and genera l i za t ions as wel l as t hose on h a n d - w r i t i n g and dic- t i o n a r y t echn iques have prof i t ed b y use and sugges t ion .

I t is now 23 y e a r s s ince the "old b r o w n m a n u a l " a p p e a r e d and the new edi t ion p rof i t s f rom the exper i ence of al l those who have used it. L ike Dr. Or ton ' s book, th is bas ic " tex t" has n e v e r been supe r seded for those who be l i eve in the Or ton po in t of view. I t is good news t h a t i t is aga in avail- ab le as before f rom Bronxvi l l e , w i th i ts a c c o m p a n y i n g m a t e r i a l of cards and books.

- -S.B.C.

Gal lagher , J. Roswel l . M E D I C A L CARE OF T H E A D O L E S C E N T : A Tex tbook Concern ing the M e d i c a 1 Care and U n d e r s t a n d i n g of Adoles- cents The me s lve s and of The i r Dis- o r d e r s. 369 pp. Apple ton-Cen tu ry - Crofts, Inc., New York, 1960.

Dr. Ga l l aghe r emphas izes th rough- out th is text , w r i t t e n w i t h t he s taff phys i c i ans of The Ado lescen t Unit , Chi ld ren ' s Hosp i t a l Medical Center , Boston, the impor t a nc e of cons ide r ing the ado lescen t h imse l f - - h is charac- te r i s t ics , his fears and his hopes - - and of t r e a t i n g h im r a t h e r t h a n his i l lnesses. The impor t a nc e of l anguage p rob lems in th is age g roup is not over looked and in a r ev i ew of the book in the J o u r n a l of the A.M.A., (173; 15, Aug. 13, 1960) the c ha p t e r on Specific Language Disability, to- ge the r wi th a sect ion on gynecologi- cal p roblems, is r a t e d as excel lent . "The p r e s e n t a t i o n s a re excel lent , and the s ign i f icance of adequa te manage- m e n t of these p rob lems , in t e r m s of the fu tu re wel l -being of the ind iv idua l , is p r o b a b l y much g rea t e r t h a n one would suppose," wr i t e s W i l l i a m P. Barba , M.D.

L a n g m a n , Mur ie l Pot te r , The Read- ing Process: A Descriptive, Interdis- ciplinary Approach. G E N E T I C PSY- CHOLOGY MONOGRAPHS, 1960, 62, 3-40.

As a p ro fessor of Educa t i on teach- ing Read ing Methods ( E a s t e r n Michi- gan Un ive r s i t y ) and a p rac t ica l psy- chologis t (Read ing Consul tant , Haw- t h o r n Center , Nor thv i l l e , Mich igan) , Dr. L a n g m a n combines theo re t i ca l w i th c l in ical cons ide ra t ions in he r dis- cuss ion of the process of r e a d ing and i ts d i s tu rbances in th i s monograph . A chap t e r on the p re - read ing l anguage and v o c a b u l a r y d e v e l o p m e n t of chil- d r en is fo l lowed b y sec t ions on va r i ous aspec ts of the r e a d ing p rocess i tself:

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(A) L i s t en ing Behavior; (B) Acquisi- t ion of Vocabulary - - Labels for Con- cepts and E m p t y Categories; (C) Vis- ual Percept ion Skills; (D) Audi to ry Disc r imina t ion Skills; (E) Generaliza- t ions Related to Let ter-Sound Rela- t ionships Necessary in Word Analysis ; (F) The Associat ion of Meaning wi th Visual Symbols, and (G) The Impor- tance of Set and At ten t ion in Begin- n i n g Reading Skills. Dr. L a n g m a n be- lieves tha t the difficult ies in percep- t ion, vocabula ry acquisi t ion, generali- zation, abi l i ty to form " language sets," abi l i ty to control and direct a t tent ion , etc., may not only ser iously in te r fe re wi th the reading process bu t may like- wise p reven t the child from funct ion- ing adequate ly "in the whole com- plex of language use" and in its social implicat ions, and thus explain the ex- t r emely i m m a t u r e social behavior and emot ional a d j u s t m e n t tha t is so fre- quen t ly noted in chi ldren who are ve ry poor readers.

Dr. L a n g m a n points out tha t lan- guage does not exist as an all-or-none h u m a n t ra i t bu t has an enormous range in its d i s t r ibu t ion th roughou t the general populat ion, l i k e other measurab le h u m a n traits. We recog- nize the highly-gif ted ind iv idua ls at the upper end of the scale, who seem to be the product of genetic factors, so why not accept the existence at the lower end, of ind iv idua ls ve ry low in language apti tude, who are in no way "abnormal" bu t wi th verbal abi l i ty inadequate for func t ion ing in the world of today, or even to cope "with the mul t i t ude of high-level generali- zat ions requi red in ar i thmetic , social studies, and science as they are t augh t in the e l emen ta ry school cur r icu lum."

Dr. L a n g m a n concludes wi th a plea for more research into the qual i ta t ive aspects of this lack of language apti-

tude, in order tha t the exact ways in which it l imits the func t ion ing of some individuals can be bet ter understood, and for the deve lopment of a new plan of educat ion more sui table for the i r abilities, inc lud ing early identi- fication, a cu r r i cu lum emphas iz ing concrete experience, genera l iza t ion and t r ans fe r in social behavior , and prepara t ion f o r realist ic vocat ional choices. All ORTON SOCIETY mem- bers would cer ta in ly agree wi th her s t a t emen t in regard to the need for special educat ional facilities:

"The segment (of our popula t ion) abou t which we have been w r i t i ng ce r ta in ly inc ludes not on ly the smal l percentage of ex t remely handicapped readers . . . bu t also m a n y ch i ldren whose ach ievement in school is three or more years below expectation. If we genu ine ly believe in the educa- t ional phi losophy we verbalize, and desire to provide schooling, which ac- cept ing ind iv idua l differences, enables each ind iv idua l to fulfi l l his potenti- alities great or small, we mus t beg in to take difference in language apti- tude into account as we are jus t be- g i n n i n g to do wi th gifted chi ldren and the in te l lec tua l ly handicapped."

* $ *

MRS. ROMALDA SPALDING wri tes f rom Rome, Italy, on a t r ip wi th her husband a round the world, tha t she will be in Boston and New York in J u n e to see about a second edit ion of "THE W R I T I N G ROAD TO READ- ING" (about 10,000 copies of the f i rs t edi t ion have been sold). She is plan- n i n g to give a course for publ ic school teachers and others at Oberlin, Ohio. f rom June 26 to Ju ly 7. The fee is n o m i n a l and anyone in teres ted may enrol l th rough the Supe r in t enden t of the Oberl in City Schools, Mr. R. W. Duncan.

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P S Y C H O L O G I C A L D I A G N O S I S

French , Edward L., "Psychological Factors in Cases of Reading Diff icul- ties," Article 57, T H E E X C E P T I O N A L CHILD: A book of Readings, edited by Magary, J. F. and Eichorn, J. R., Holt, R ineha r t a n d Wins ton , I n c., New York, 1960, pp. 427-436.

This is one of the few books avail- able to s tudents in courses on "The Except iona l Child" tha t inc ludes any men t ion whatsoever of the child of average in te l l igence who is education- a l ly retarded. Dr. F r e n c h cont r ibu tes an a r t i c l e f rom the D E V E R E U X SCHOOLS in which he uses the t e rm "psychological diagnosis" to include cons idera t ion of such factors as "vis- ual and audi tory acuity, motor integ- rity, nu t r i t i ona l and endocrinological factors, school a t tendance, educat ional condit ions, b i l ingual s i tuat ions, and subcu l tu ra l e n v i r o n m e n t s " and he stresses the in te r re la tedness of all fac- tors in the dynamic process of learn- ing. He fu r the r groups psychological factors which may be related to etiol- ogy in cases of read ing disabi l i ty as: intel lectual , perceptual , and emotional . Unde r perceptua l factors, no t only vis- ual and audi tory ones are considered of s ignif icance bu t also the organiza- t ion of k inaes the t ic s t imuli . (This area was inves t iga ted by Dr. F r e n c h him- self earlier: "Kinaes the t ic Recogni t ion in Retarded Readers," EDUCATION- AL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL MEAS- UREMENTS, 13: 636-654, 1953).

Dr. F r e n c h discusses the cause-and- effect cont roversy in regard to the emot ional d is turbances found in most of the chi ldren wi th read ing disabili- ties and admits tha t it is often diffi- cul t to u n r a v e l the re la t ionsh ip be- tween closely- interwoven emot ional in- s tabi l i ty and read ing failure, particu- la r ly at the late e l emen ta ry and sec- onda ry level, bu t he wa rns tha t "re- gardless of cause or effect, we mus t be aler t to the na tu re of the emot ional d is turbance , because of the f r equen t necess i ty for repa i r ing a damaged per- sonal i ty b e f o r e l ea rn ing can take place."

Dr. F r e n c h also p o i n t s out the presen t inadequacy of studies of a child's readiness for reading and pre- dicts tha t reading problems wil l con- t inue to be with us un t i l we cease ex- posing all ch i ldren in the f i rs t grade to reading ins t ruc t ion , regardless of the deve lopment of the ind iv idua l child in the var ious physiological and psychological areas which are prere- quisites.

Hirst , L y n n e Schellberg, The Use- fu lness of a T wo . W ay Analys i s of WISC Sub-Tests in the Diagnos is of Remedia l Reading Problems. JOUR- NAL OF E X P E R I M E N T A L EDUCA- TION, XXIX--Dec. , 1960.

In this repor t f rom the U n i v e r s i t y of Wisconsin , the sub-test scores on the Wechsler In te l l igence Scale for Chi ldren given to 30 chi ldren wi th reading disabi l i ty were analyzed in re- la t ion (1) to the m e a n scores for the i r age group and (2) to the indiv idual ' s own m e a n score. The group was di- vided according to sever i ty of read ing difficulty, those two or more years re tarded classified as "severe disabili- ties" and less t h a n two years as "mild- ly re tarded" readers. No clear-cut pat- t e rns were found but in genera l the whole group scored high on Pic ture Complet ion and Pic ture A r r a n g e m e n t and "possibly high" on Block Design and Object Assembly. They tended to be low on Digit Span, Ari thmet ic , Cod- ing and possibly on Vocabulary. The mild cases proved to be ei ther high or low on Block Design. The severe cases were high also on Object Assembly and possibly low on Vocabulary and Similari t ies. The au thor recognizes the need for compar ison wi th scores of men ta l ly deficient and emot iona l ly d is turbed groups and says f rankly , "We do not know the s ignif icance of these pa t t e rns or wha t these tests represen t" bu t she is convinced tha t the two-way analys is is bet ter t h a n the one-dimensional approach of the usua l "scat tergrams."

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L A N G U A G E : C O N T R I B U T I O N S F R O M S P E E C H P A T H O L O G I S T S

L A N G U A G E DEVELOPMENT AND LANGUAGE DISORDERS: A COMPENDIUM OF LECTURES com- piled by Nancy E. Wood. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, Vol. 25, No. 3, 1960, 95pp. Child Development Publications, Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind.

This monograph consists of nine selected papers from a symposium pre- sented in 1958 at The Cleveland Hear- ing and Speech Center as par t of a new curr iculum in language pathology at WESTERN RESERVE UNIVER- SITY. It includes a paper by Dr. Wood delineating in par t icular the language disorders in children caused by cen- t ral nervous system impai rment which results in the l imitat ion or inabil i ty of the child to use symbols in communi- cation: aphasia (reception or expres- sion of oral, spoken symbols); alexia (reception of wri t ten symbols-- read- ing); agraphia (expression of wri t ten symbols - -wr i t ing) . The terms dyspha- sla, dyslexia, dysgraphia are offered when the problem in the use of sym- bols is p a r t i a l ra ther than total. Trends from 100 consecutive case his- tories of school children between six and nine are discussed, showing the usual higher incidence of males, sug- gestions of problems in cerebral domi- nance, delayed speech and language development, confusion in spatiaI or- ientation, insecuri ty in school, anxiety, etc.

Dr. Wood makes a strong plea for grea ter educational provision for the child with a language disorder. "Ade- quate legislation must be obtained to support the introduction or expansion of diagnostic and educational pro- grams in clinics and schools for chil- dren with these problems. Universi- ties must t ra in more specialists in diagnostic services that include edu- cational recommendations. Until this is done, the child with a language dis- order will continue to be a confusing educational enigma, for a language disorder is an educational problem."

DR. NANCY WOOD has recent ly been appointed head of the U. S. De- par tment of Special Education in the new federal administrat ion. THE OR- TON SOCIETY, INC. offers her its

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enthusiast ic suppor t in any efforts which she may under take to fur ther educational programs to m e e t the needs of chi ldren with language dis- orders.

Ingram, T. T. S., Paediatric Aspects of Specific Developmental Dysphasia, Dyslexia and Dysgraphia, CEREBRAL PALSY BULLETIN, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 254-277, 1960, published by National Spastics Society, 28 Fi tz roy Square, London, W. 1, England.

This comprehensive s tudy of lan- guage disorders in children from the Depar tment of Child Life and Health of the U N I V E R S I T Y OF EDIN- BURGH reviews the historical litera- ture on these three types of develop- mental delays, with par t icular empha- sis upon the relat ionship of ear ly speech re tardat ion to la ter problems in acquiring reading and writ ing. Dr. Ingram points out that there is still a tendency to t reat these various forms of language disorders as discrete clini- cal entit ies ra ther than recognizing that they are closely related condi- tions. However, he notes that "Orton (1937) was careful to point out that though he had described 'developmen- tal word deafness, ' 'developmental motor aphasia, ' 'developmental alexia,' and 'developmental agraphia ' separate- ly, these disorders were, in fact, com- monly found together in individual patients, and he emphasized t h e i r common aetiological and clinical fea- tures."

The author at tempts to clar i fy the differences in terminology which so often make it difficult to compare dif- ferent studies of language abnormali- ties, and he offers a series of tables of outlines and classifications with m a n y subdivisions: I. Aetiological Classification of Dysphasia in Child- hood; II. Some Classifications of Spe- cific Developmental Dysphasia, Dys- lexia and Dysgraphia (Kerr, 1897 to Ingram, 1959); III . Classification of Symptoms (with Speech Therapis ts ' equivalent terms); IV, Clinical Classi- fication of Reading and Wri t ing Dif- ficulties; V. Classification of Symp- toms in Developmental Dyslexia and Dysgraphia (genetically determined and brain damaged). This presentat ion

should be of p a r t i c u l a r va lue in st im- u l a t i ng speech and r ead ing t he rap i s t s to b r ing toge the r t he i r s epa ra t e funds of knowledge and exper ience t o w a r d a b r oade r u n d e r s t a n d i n g of the lan- guage func t ion and i ts d isorders . The b i b l i og raphy inc ludes m a n y E u r o p e a n and A m e r i c a n references .

Wepman , J., Jones, L. V., Bock, D. D. Van Pelt , D., Studies in Aphasia: Background and Theoret ical Formula . t ions. J O U R N A L OF S P E E C H AND H E A R I N G DISORDERS, Vol. 25, No. 4, Nov., 1960.

This g roup of speech pa tho log i s t s f rom CHICAGO and C H A P E L H I L L , N. C., offers a new class i f ica t ion and i n t e r p r e t a t i o n of aphas ic problems, based on obse rva t ions of pa t i en t s in t he rapy , and l ead ing to a new test : The L a n g u a g e Modal i t ies Tes t for Aphas ia . They be l ieve tha t l anguage is not hand l ed in the b r a i n as a two- pa r t - senso ry -moto r m e c h a n i s m b u t tha t t he re is a t h i rd stage, be tween re- cep t ion and t r ansmiss ion , an in tegra- t ive factor . In ce r ta in condi t ions , on ly the in-coming or out-going t r ansmis - s ive non-symbol ic processes m a y be d i s rup t ed and these r e spond bes t to d i rec t t h e r a p y : a u d i t o r y agnosia, vis- ual agnosia , ve rba l aprax ia , m o t o r ag raph ia . In o ther cases, for w h i c h the au tho r s r e se rve the te rm, aphasia, t he re m a y be ne i t he r a sensory nor a m o t o r p rob l em bu t r a t h e r a d i s rup t ion of the i n t eg ra t ive process , and t h e y r e spond bes t to genera l ized , non-spe- cific t he rapy . In th is schema, t he re is also recogni t ion of the t h ree levels, "a h i e r a r c h y of a l t e rna t ives" ; (1) t he ref lex; (2) the percep tua l ; and (3) t he concept - format ion level, ( ve ry much as ou t l ined by Dr. Orton wi th d i f fe ren t t e r m i n o l o g y bu t w i thou t cons ide ra t ion of t h e i r b i - la te ra l and un i - la te ra l as- pects - - ce reb ra l dominance) .

The au tho r s ' a t t e m p t s to s epa ra t e t h e cases of aphas i a wi th d i s tu rbances in symbol ic t h i n k i n g and concept for- ma t ion f rom those in which the th ink- ing is in tac t b u t the pe rcep tua l or ex- p re s s ive processes a re impai red , migh t p rove usefu l in the s t u d y and classi- f ica t ion of deve lopmen ta l r ead ing dis- ab i l i t y cases.

N e l s o n , Ol iver W., The Spoken Word in the Fo lk Schools of Den- mark. T H E S O U T H E R N S P E E C H

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JOURNAL, XXVI, 2, Win te r , 1960. Dr. Nelson, Assoc ia te P rofessor of

Speech at the U N I V E R S I T Y OF W A S H I N G T O N , offers a s tudy of the F o l k Schools o f D e n m a r k f rom a n e w po in t of v i e w - - t h e i r use of the spo- ken word" r a t h e r than the " w r i t t e n word" as the i r p r i m a r y means of in- s t ruc t ion and genera l communica t ion . This a p p a r e n t l y o r ig ina t ed f rom the ph i lo sophy of the founder , B i shop Nikola i G r u n d t v i g (1783-1872), who be- l ieved tha t e n l i g h t e n m e n t r e g a r d i n g l ife m u s t come t h r o u g h w h a t he t e r m e d the sp i r i t of the l iv ing word, and he s t a r t ed the t r ad i t ion of g rea t t eacher - l ec tu re r s at t h e s e schools. More p rac t ica l r easons advanced b y the l eaders today are tha t the s p o k e n word: awakens pup i l ' s in teres t ; is more d i rec t and adap tab l e t h a n the w r i t t e n word: r eaches the s tuden t s w i th va- r ious degrees of r ead ing abi l i t ies and genera l educat ion; is in t imate ; b r i ngs poss ib i l i t ies for pe r sona l contact , " the founda t ion for all educat ion ." Al- though r e a d ing occupies much more of the s tuden t s ' t ime now then i t did in the ea r ly y e a r s of the F o l k School movemen t , the lec ture r e m a i n s a pri- m a r y means of c ommun ic a t i on and in- s t ruc t ion . The a u t h o r ci tes the t r emen- dous co n t r i bu t i on of t he F o l k Schools to the da i ly life of the Danish people and to the high pos i t ion tha t the coun- t r y en joys t oday and concludes: "It is p e r h a p s doub t fu l w h e t h e r the spoken word has a n y w h e r e or at any t ime per- fo rmed a more d i s t ingu i shed se rv ice for i n sp i r a t i on and educa t ion for a people."

A n o t h e r w r i t e r in the same JOUR- N A L f rom the field of Speech, M. Bla i r H a r t of the U N I V E R S I T Y OF A R K A N S A S , w onde r s w h e t h e r the ora l i n t e r p r e t a t i o n ( read ing a loud) of w r i t t e n l anguage should not be g iven more a t t en t ion in the schools "because the r a p i d increase in s t ude n t popula- t ion has also g r e a t l y inc reased the n u m b e r of s tuden t s poor ly equ ipped in l anguage ski l l s and because s truc- t u r a l l inguis t i cs c l ea r ly recognize the impor t anc e of ' hea r ing ' the l anguage in opera t ion ." This is an i n t e r e s t i ng cha l lenge to bo th speech t eachers and r emed ia l r ead ing t eache r s to exp lore and e x p e r i m e n t w i th such courses spec ia l ly des igned to he lp s tuden t s wi th low language faci l i ty .