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Why specific developmental disorders are not specific: On‐line and developmental effects in autism and dyslexia
Author(s) -
Frith Uta,
Happé Francesca
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
developmental science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.801
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1467-7687
pISSN - 1363-755X
DOI - 10.1111/1467-7687.00041
Subject(s) - psychology , autism , dyslexia , biological theories of dyslexia , cognitive psychology , developmental dyslexia , phonology , cognition , developmental psychology , specific language impairment , developmental disorder , neuroscience , reading (process) , linguistics , philosophy
In this paper we will suggest that impairments in domain‐specific functions may have wide‐ranging developmental effects which mimic domain‐general impairments. This may explain why ‘pure’ cases of developmental disorders are rare. The understanding of autism and dyslexia has been advanced by theories postulating failure of a specific mechanism against a background of unimpaired general processing. Impairment in the mechanisms underlying ‘theory of mind’ in autism, and ‘phonology’ in dyslexia, predict and explain the pattern of poor and good performance on a range of experimental and real‐life tasks. However, existing accounts deal largely with the on‐line effects of modular deficits, and can be criticised as not truly developmental. Here we attempt to trace developmental or down‐stream effects of specific impairments in mentalising and phonological processing. We argue that these modules act as vital gatekeepers in development. Important in this process is the interaction of cognition with socio‐cultural environment, an effect well‐illustrated by cross‐language differences in dyslexia. We claim that consideration of these developmental effects makes clear why postulating specific impairments may be sufficient for explaining more general deficits.