title: Specific language disability--a medical or an educational problem?
abstract: Specific learning disabilities are often regarded as a medical problem for which medication or other treatment and investigation is requested. However, when problems of concentration are the result rather than the cause of the learning problem, medication is not indicated. This applies to specific language disabilities, which handicap seemingly normal children who do not understand or comprehend the spoken or written word and are therefore failures in a language-orientated classroom. The cause may be an organic disorder of the left hemisphere or a dominant right hemisphere, but the management should be educational, using unconventional learning techniques utilizing right hemisphere abilities.
mesh_terms: D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis; D001519:Behavior; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D002648:Child; D004833:Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe / Q000150:complications; D006801:Humans; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy; D009626:Terminology as Topic