Jan Frank

DYSMETRIC DYSLEXIA AND DYSPRAXIA: Hypothesis and Study

Of 115 consecutive dyslexic children selected and referred for psychiatric evaluation on the basis of their poor or refractory response to reading instruction, 112 (97%) children showed evidence of a cerebellar-vestibular dysfunction. This cerebellar-vestibular dysfunction manifested itself in the dyslexic children by: positive Rombergs, difficulty in tandem walking, articulatory speech disorders, dysdiadochokinesis, hypotonia, and various dysmetric or past-pointing disturbances during finger-to-nose, heel-to-toe, writing, drawing, as well as during ocular fixation and scanning testing (Dow and Moruzzi, 1958). Goodenough figure drawings (1926; Bender, 1951) and Bender Gestalt designs (1938) revealed in all cases a disturbance in spatial orientation, i.e., rotations of the Bender Gestalt cards, copying paper, drawn Bender Gestalt figures , as well as rotations of the head and body. This, together with tilting of the Goodenough and Bender Gestalt drawings from their intended horizontal and vertical axes and steering difficulties during angle formations, suggested that the

Original ArticleDYSMETRIC DYSLEXIA AND DYSPRAXIA: Hypothesis and Study

Of 115 consecutive dyslexic children selected and referred for psychiatric evaluation on the basis of their poor or refractory response to reading instruction, 112 (97%) children showed evidence of a cerebellar-vestibular dysfunction. This cerebellar-vestibular dysfunction manifested itself in the dyslexic children by: positive Rombergs, difficulty in tandem walking, articulatory speech disorders, dysdiadochokinesis, hypotonia, and various dysmetric or past-pointing disturbances during finger-to-nose, heel-to-toe, writing, drawing, as well as during ocular fixation and scanning testing (Dow and Moruzzi, 1958). Goodenough figure drawings (1926; Bender, 1951) and Bender Gestalt designs (1938) revealed in all cases a disturbance in spatial orientation, i.e., rotations of the Bender Gestalt cards, copying paper, drawn Bender Gestalt figures , as well as rotations of the head and body. This, together with tilting of the Goodenough and Bender Gestalt drawings from their intended horizontal and vertical axes and steering difficulties during angle formations, suggested that the

Compensatory Mechanisms in C-V Dysfunction, Dysmetric Dyslexia, and Dyspraxia.

Jan Frank, MD, 45 East 82nd Street, New York, New York 10028, is an associate professor of psychiatry, Downstate Medical Center, State University of New York. Harold N. Levinson, MD, 15 Lake Road, Lake Success, New York 11020, is a clinical instructor of psychiatry, Downstate Medical Center, State University of New York; he is also a school psychiatrist for the Bureau of Child Guidance, New York City Board of Education; and he is an attending physician in psychiatry at the Long Island Jewish Hillside Medical Center, and at Nassau Hospital. o UR STUDY of dysmetric dyslexic and dyspraxic individuals revealed the presence of &dquo;silently&dquo; active compensatory and overcompensatory neurophysiological and neuropsychological mechanisms which attempt to neutralize and even deny the underlying cerebellar-vestibular disturbances and symptomatology. (Namely, the prognosis for dysmetric dyslexic and dyspraxic children was found to be favorable, provided psychological and educational traumatization and scarring did not occur; their cerebellar-vestibular symptomatology appeared to diminish with age; their &dquo;soft signs&dquo; became &dquo;softer&dquo; and more difficult to diagnose, and their reading, writing, spelling and drawing orientation, coordination and balance so improved by latency and puberty that the authors wondered if so-called &dquo;late bloomers&dquo; and &dquo;developmental dyslexics&dquo; were not in fact dysmetric dyslexic and dyspraxic.)