Deficiency of Activational Components of Activity in Children with Learning Disabilities

This paper focuses on the problem of activational (neurodynamic) components deficiency in children with learning disabilities and outlines the main categories of such children basing on the published data and clinical observation. The main symptoms of activational components deficiency in childhood are described within the framework of Lev Vygotsky and Alexander Luria's culturalhistorical approach in neuropsychology; similarly, the issues concerning the possible structure of the defect and the secondary and tertiary effects of activational deficiency are discussed from the same perspective. In order to reveal the possible structure of the disorder, the paper provides a neuropsychological case study of a girl aged 6 years and 5 months with a pronounced activational components deficiency and associated problems in holistic information processing strategy. This clinical case promotes further discussion in the paper concerning the possible role of activational processes deficiency in the neuropsychological syndrome in children with specific learning disabilities. Some ways of working with such children are described as well.

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