The paper relates early work of Samuel Orton on cerebral dominance to current neuropsychological concepts of laterality as reciprocal functions of the two cerebral hemispheres. The genetic-cultural perspectives of laterality and functional asymmetry in relation to learning disorders are discussed. (Author/CL)

Research is reviewed concerning the current state of knowledge about normal hemispheric specialization; distinctions among such terms as dominance, laterality, and lateralization; and models of abnormal cerebral organization in dyslexic children. The question of dyslexic subtypes is undertaken along such dimensions as handedness, eyedness, and…

Five theories were tested relating to the suspected connection between organic brain dysfunction and poor reading, or dyslexia. Results failed to support the poor lateralization, right hemisphere, global, imbalance theories. Among juvenile offenders, poor reading appears to relate to left-hemisphere dysfunction. (Author)

This article discusses the hypothesis of unilateral left hemisphere damage as an explanatory model for the neurological basis of specific language impairment considering both evidence challenging the theory as well as evidence supporting it. (Author/DB)

An alternative way of attempting to understand visual hemispheric specialization is presented. A theory of certain high-level processing subsystems is formulated in light of an analysis of problems that must be solved by the visual system and the constraints on the solutions to these problems. (Author/LMO)