Research Emphasis Areas

Major Research Domains

Research Affiliates

Research Emphasis Area on Learning Disabilities

Coordinator: Virginia Berninger, Ph.D.

Learning disabilities is an umbrella term referring to a set of complex, multifaceted developmental disorders affecting school learning in as many as 10 to 20 percent of children of normal intelligence. Children categorized as learning disabled are highly heterogeneous but manifest difficulties in specific aspects of reading, writing, and/or mathematical skills. A useful classification system for diagnosing specific types of learning disabilities is a high priority for the field. Such a system could be used for research on etiology, treatment, and prognosis for specific learning disabilities. The Research Emphasis Area on Learning Disabilities is currently focused on two specific learning disabilities: dyslexia and dysgraphia. Specific research issues are:

The Research Emphasis Area on Learning Disabilities is currently focused on two specific learning disabilities: dyslexia and dysgraphia. Specific research issues are:

• Increasing understanding of the language phenotype in dyslexia (a disorder specific to word reading and spelling) and dysgraphia (a disorder specific to handwriting and/or spelling)
• Investigating the genetic bases of dyslexia and dysgraphia
• Applying structural (MRI), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), diffusion tensor  imaging (DTI), and fMRI connectivity to investigating the structural, and functional differences between children with and without dyslexia or dysgraphia in either specific brain regions of interest or in patterns of connectivity among brain regions
• Exploring nature-nurture interactions in dyslexia through a paradigm in which dyslexics or dysgraphics and children without reading or writing disability are imaged, children with disability or both children with and without disability are given a specific kind of treatment, and then all children are re-imaged
• Developing and validating effective instructional treatments for preventing and treating reading and writing disabilities.

Within this REA structure, investigators plan to continue to work with families with dyslexia and/or dysgraphia, characterize the behavioral phenotype and its language markers for these specific learning disabilities, identify language processes that are most likely to be genetically constrained in dyslexia and dysgraphia, conduct segregation models of the probable genetic mechanisms in these specific disabilities, perform chromosome linkage studies, identify brain differences between dyslexics and good readers in orthographic, phonological, and morphological processes and executive functions for regulating language processes that may be eliminated or substantially altered following treatment, and identify and validate early interventions for at-risk readers and writers and treatments for persisting reading and writing disabilities. The group also hopes to resume functional magnetic spectroscopic imaging (fMRS) studies that they conducted early in their work. The work to date has resulted in nationally normed measures for diagnosing dyslexia, dysgraphia, and oral and written language learning disability that are now available for schools to use research supported diagnostic procedures in identifying students who need specialized instruction.

Faculty Investigators

• Virginia Berninger, Ph.D., Professor, Educational Psychology, Coordinator
• Robert Abbott, Ph.D., Professor, Educational Psychology
• Elizabeth Aylward, Ph.D., Professor, Radiology
• Zoran Brkanac, M.D., Assistant Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
• Stephen Dager, Ph.D., Professor, Radiology
• Kenneth Maravilla, M.D., Professor, Radiology
• Wendy Raskind M.D., Ph.D., Professor, Medical Genetics
• Todd Richards, Ph.D., Professor, Radiology
• Ellen Wijsman, Ph.D., Professor Medical Genetics