Temporal processing and the left hemisphere

DOES DYSLEXIA DEVELOP FROM LEFT-EYE DOMINANCE?

The purpose of this theoretical analysis and synthesis is to indicate how left-eye sighting dominance may lead to reading failure through dysfunctional right hemisphere letter encoding. Differing compensatory strategies are postulated to lead to outcomes that include the development of the phonologically impaired and phonologically proficient subtypes of dyslexia as well as specific spelling disability. Evidence is presented indicating that these disorders might be prevented by delaying the introduction of letter writing until the age of 8 years. Early childhood speech categorization in children genetically at-risk of developing dyslexia is also considered from this perspective. Convergent support for this premature writing hypothesis is provided by a comparison with the development of the left-hand inverted writing posture.

Rags to riches: our increasing appreciation of cognitive and communicative abilities of the human right cerebral hemisphere

Studies of right hemisphere abilities have grown from focusing on visuospatial and facial recognition in the 1950s to covering a broad spectrum of human behavior. The emergence of better understanding of auditory specializations, affective/emotional functions, personal relevance, idiosyncratic lexical organization, and the various aspects of language use--communicative pragmatics--is briefly reviewed.