Linguistics Encyclopedia.pdf

A-Z 155
dyslexia lies in the normal ‘flash’ or global identification of a word as a
whole, as a symbolic entity. Still further, the dyslexic also experiences a
difficulty—though of a lesser degree—in synthesising the word itself out
of its component letter units.
Since then, many eminent scientists have sought understanding in the patterns of links
between sensory, motor, perceptual, linguistic, and directional mechanisms of the two
hemispheres of the brain. It would appear from their studies that language, symbolic
order, analytic, timing, and discrete skills are processed in the left hemisphere of the
brain in most people, whereas global, visuo-spatial, and design skills have a preeminence
in the right hemisphere in most people. The above localization of function would be the
constellation for the right-dominant (right-handed) individual, whereas the left or
ambilateral individual could have these skills subserved at random in either or both
hemispheres. In relating such organizations of brain function to motor and language
performance, Dimond and Beaumont (1974) report on the negative findings of the
relationship between left-handedness and reading disabilities, and yet a positive
relationship between reading disabilities and mixed lateral preference. He concludes that
reading difficulties could be associated with indeterminate lateral preference, but not with
clearly established left-preference. Zangwill (1971) refers to the complex organization
between left-handers and right or left brain for language. Birch (1962) has postulated a
theory of hierarchical unevenness in development, i.e. between auditory, visual, motor,
perceptual, and linguistic mechanisms, causing inconsistency and confusion in language
perception.
Cerebral dominance is viewed by some researchers more as a decision-processing
system that is responsible for bringing order to our various mental activities and their
final cognitive path. In this view, as expressed by Dimond and Beaumont (1974), the
term refers to the cerebral control system that institutes order in a chaotic cognitive space.
It involves itself in language, but at the same time it is a superordinate system that is
independent of the natural-language mechanism per se. Similarly, Gazzaniga (1974, p.
413) writes: ‘It is the orchestration of these processes in a finely tuned way that is the
task of the dominant mechanism, and without it being formally established, serious
cognitive dysfunction may result.’ Other researchers have linked findings from cognitive
psychology to the dyslexia phenomenon. Professor Miles and his team at Bangor
University have postulated that lexical-encoding difficulties could be at the root of
dyslexia; they compare access to verbal-labelling strategies between good and poor
readers and spellers. The dyslexic population seem much poorer at using such linguistic
facilitation (Miles andPaulides, 1981).
Following upon these neurological and neuropsychological observations on the nature
of information processing in the central nervous system, other intriguing findings emerge.
Clinical and psychological observation reveals that dyslectic persons are often superior in
the so-called right-hemisphere skills, i.e. in skills which require basic aptitudes in spatial
perception and integration. Dyslectic persons often succeed in the areas of art,
architecture, engineering, photography, mechanics, technology, science, medicine,
athletics, music, design, and craft. Some also succeed in mathematics, but there is also an
overlap in percentages of cases between dyslexia and mathematical difficulties. The
above would indicate probabilities of inherent differences in patterns of human central-