Learning disorder/specific learning disorder (LD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with the following characteristics: developmental impairment with symptoms persisting for at least 6 months, impacting the academic domains of “reading”, “writing” or “mathematics” despite general intelligence within normal range, that significantly interferes with academic, occupational or everyday performance. Recent functional imaging studies have revealed evidence of central nervous system dysfunction in Japanese children with dyslexia.

This article presents concepts of the disorder, diagnostic procedures, and examinations for “developmental dyslexia” and “developmental dyscalculia” currently available for use in Japan. A clinical-symptoms-checklist (CL), consisting of 30 questions regarding symptoms linked to reading and writing, and Hiragana reading tasks are useful for diagnosis of developmental dyslexia. Evaluation of performance on the Kaufman Assessment

Battery for Children 2^nd edition (KABC-II) is helpful for diagnosis of developmental dyscalculia.

The importance of compiling a detailed history on language development, neurological examination, assessment of general intelligence, basic abilities in reading, writing and arithmetic, alongside evaluation of the neuropsychological characteristics of each child are emphasized as the measures the medical community can take to create a basis for the formulation and provision of appropriate educational support tailored to the individual.

Specific learning disorders involve deficits in cognitive function relevant to the acquisition of basic learning skills such as reading, writing, and calculation. Brain dysfunction is the assumed cause underlying the cognitive deficits. Functional neuroimaging (e.g., functional MRI, PET, etc.), neurophysiological testing (e.g., event related potentials, magnetoencephalography, etc.), and structural neuroimaging (e.g., voxel based morphometry, diffusion tensor imaging, etc.) have been used to examine such brain dysfunctions. This study summarizes recent research using these methods in the study of developmental dyslexia and dyscalculia.

Recent functional imaging studies suggest that specific learning disorders result from altered patterns of specialization in the cerebral cortex, including the visual word form area in the left fusiform cortex in developmental dyslexia, and in the bilateral intraparietal sulci in dyscalculia. However, studies have not revealed why cerebral specialization is altered in those ways. Longitudinal studies tracking participants from infancy, and studies combining functional imaging with other neuroimaging and neurophysiological techniques are needed to further understand the etiologies of specific learning disorders.

The present study aimed to review some representative findings on reading and writing (RDs) disorders in English- and Japanese-speaking children with LDs in relation to phonological awareness and verbal short term memory. Follow-up studies and studies comparing groups matched by reading age revealed that deficits in phonological awareness might causally relate to English language RDs. Importance of combined phonological awareness and verbal short term memory was indicated in tasks requiring a full phonological recoding strategy, as in nonword reading and nonword spelling tasks. Regarding verbal short term memory, effects of phonological similarity were not evident in 7 to 8-year-olds with RDs, but were evident in children above age 9. Results of studies on verbal rehearsal process indicated children with RDs showed both effects of phonological similarity and word length in the first to third item of a cumulative rehearsal process. However, this effect was not seen in the fifth and sixth items. It is inferred that children with English RDs might not be using phonological codes in the latter parts of a cumulative verbal rehearsal process. Results from studies on Japanese-speaking children with RDs showed that deficits in phonological awareness may relate to reading disorders of hiragana. Studies examining difficulties with kanji literacy found that malfunction in verbal short term memory might causally relate to occurrence of this difficulty. These findings indicate that deficits in phonological awareness may be a common contributing factor in both English and Japanese RDs, whereas malfunction in verbal short term memory appear to be relating differently to the RDs of each language.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and/or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often have learning difficulties satisfying criteria for specific learning disorders (LDs) in addition to behavioral and/or emotional problems. Prevalence rates of LD have been reported at around 26% in children with ASD, and as high as 30-40% in children with ADHD.

Learning difficulties can be a major factor underlying the behavioral and/or emotional problems in children with AD and/or ADHD, and because the problems may be alleviated by appropriate support for the learning difficulties, academic performance should be monitored to examine for possible LD comorbidity in such children, in addition to addressing the more prominent behavioral or emotional issues.

A phonological processing deficit is considered the core deficit in the pathology of LD associated with ASD and/or ADHD, similar to the common types of LD. However, executive functioning and working memory are also disturbed in many cases, pointing to possible difference in the cognitive characteristics of LD when associated with ASD and/or ADHD.

Although educational support for children with LD with ASD and/or ADHD is much the same as that for LD alone, the characteristics of ASD and/or ADHD need to be taken into account. In this context, because inattention can largely impact improvement in learning, active pharmacological treatment for the ADHD is recommended in providing support for LDs in children with ADHD.

Learning disorders (LD) refer to deficits in basic academic skills such as reading, writing, calculating and mathematical reasoning, while developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder affecting motor coordination. In addition, although many children suffer from problems with processing of visual data, there is no diagnosis corresponding to this aspect to date. DCD and visual problems as well as LD are matters of brain development with negative impact on academic performance that often occur together. Thus, it is important to recognize DCD as an independent factor in learning difficulties alongside others such as attention deficit, and to determine the factor(s) responsible for the difficulty being experienced by each child, as the first step to providing appropriate support. This paper outlines DCD, visual processing issues, effects on learning, as well as their relationship to LD.

There are few reports on cognitive behavior therapy for psychological hearing loss. The purpose of this report was to examine how cognitive behavioral intervention contributed to improvement in one such case of psychogenic hearing loss.

The patient was a male in his late teens with no history of developmental problems. He first expressed difficulty with hearing in junior high. Entering high school, marked reduction in spontaneous speech was noted both at school and in the home, for which he was diagnosed with psychological hearing loss by an otolaryngologist. His hearing loss involved difficulty understanding what people were saying when he felt tense, such as in meeting new people, or during a conversation. Therefore, intervention was designed to help circumvent avoidance of tense situations, through reinforcement of asking behavior as an alternative to responding with equivocal perplexed expressions when experiencing difficulties hearing. After this cognitive behavioral intervention, his cognition changed from “What should I do if I can't hear?” to “I can ask the person to say it again even if I can't hear”, reducing anticipatory anxiety and increasing asking behavior in tense situations. This in turn led to improvement in subjective hearing ability, and subsequent significant increase in social activity level.

The outcome of this case was taken to suggest possible efficacy of cognitive behavior therapy in patients with psychogenic hearing loss due to anxiety and tension.

Background: Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is recommended for anxiety symptoms in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) as a first line of intervention. However, considering the large number of ASD children with anxiety symptoms, an ideal approach would be that allowing for early intervention in the education setting.

Objective: A group CBT program was developed to address anxiety symptoms in children with ASD, which was implemented to: 1) investigate the feasibility of implementation in ASD children (Study 1), and 2) the feasibility of teacher delivery of the program in an educational setting (Study 2).

Method: In Study 1, the 10-session program was conducted by a clinical psychologist in a clinical setting on 3 boys with ASD (age 8-11 years). Study 2 was delivered by a trained teacher in a special resources classroom for children with relatively mild impairments within the regular school system. The three boys (grade 5), parents, and regular homeroom teachers were requested to complete separate questionnaires addressing understanding by the children, and social validity of the program by the adults.

Results: Findings from Study 1 indicated feasibility and promise of conducting the program in ASD children through attendance rate and parent comments regarding favorable change in the children's behavior. Study 2 indicated feasibility of teacher-delivered program implementation in an education setting. Some of the children showed indications of lasting improvement. On the other hand, it was noted that long school hours and teaching responsibilities made the burden of preparation for program implementation too heavy to be borne by a teacher alone.

Conclusion: The findings suggested feasibility of implementing the teacher-delivered program as group intervention for anxiety symptoms in children with ASD, given prior training, and provision of help and support from school staff and outside experts. Further study is required to examine efficacy and validity of the program for alleviating anxiety in ASD children, enlisting larger groups of subjects and study designs allowing for randomized comparison.