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The title of Dr. Bernard Rimland’s new book Dyslogic Syndrome (see review in this issue) is taken from a paper by John Wacker, published in 1975 in the Texas Key (the state newsletter of the Association for Children with Learning Disabilities). Below is an edited version of the original paper.
Here is a subject about which you may have read little elsewhere. It is controversial, nebulous, difficult to prove. As you work with these children in the future remember what you read here; it may add to your understanding of and your ability to cope and help with what can be the most frustrating, the most incapacitating, and the most dangerous of the many problems which may occur in individuals with disordered behavior. We call it….
THE DYSLOGIC SYNDROME
THE BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS so often associated with the young learning disabled child are usually described as perseveration, distractibility, hyperactivity. But as the child grows older the description frequently becomes “deviant behavior.” The cause is usually given as a psychological overlay of his learning disability (LD), or as an environmentally caused psychological problem. A ready made excuse is therefore available for the deviant behavior of children with LD. When they cheat or steal it is because they have been rejected; when they fly into a rage, they are venting their frustration. Most frequently, the parents are blamed for it all.
Very little has been written about the deviant behavior being caused by the inability of the brain to compute properly. Those who work with computers talk of “faulty logic” when the computer produces an inappropriate response. This can also be true for the LD child whose neurons in his brain are not “firing” appropriately to enable him to compute logical actions and reactions. Not all LD children have the logic problem, and those who do have different variations, ranging from very mild to very severe. However, the parents and professionals who have really come to know these children have found a cluster of symptoms involving inept logic that are so common that the deviant behavior could be called the Dyslogic Syndrome. Bernard Rimland, Ph.D., Director of the Institute for Child Behavior Research [now the Autism Research Institute-ed.], notes that the difference between dyslogic and illogic is that illogic is generally considered the result of intellectual carelessness, or deliberate lack of integrity, whereas dyslogic is the manifestation of a biological disorder.21
DESCRIBING IT
CAMILLA M. ANDERSON, M.D., is one who is eminently qualified to write about the problem. She was for years Chief Psychiatrist in the world’s largest women’s prison. Much of her experience has been with minimal brain dysfunction (MBD), another term for LD, and with the older and more seriously affected. But by studying her descriptions involving logic, it is easier to see the problem even in those less affected. Here are some perceptive descriptions gleaned from her books and lectures:
“Their ability to appraise themselves, their problems, their needs, or their handicaps is essentially lacking, and they view situations with gross inaccuracy. With little thought or concern or plan for tomorrow they jump in to respond to the detail they have noted, with the result that their behavior is forever ill conceived, illogical and self defeating.”1
“Immediate gratification takes precedence over long range goals; disregard for the welfare of others is to be expected; and protection or enhancement of their primary narcissistic self image or their vanity outweighs realistic goals.”2
“They make inappropriate connections, and they have difficulty assigning priorities or values consistent with reality or even with their own frames of reference. Lack of perspective, poor reasoning capacity, short attention span, problems in planning ahead, ease of feeling stressed, problems in the area of communication, and poor and shallow human relations are so common as to be the rule….
“They contradict themselves without awareness; or they use little discriminative judgment in what they say or what they withhold. One may be struck by their frankness and openness, but it turns out that they are merely naive or lack perspective or have generally poor judgment in a variety of situations….
“Frequently their clichés and their stereotyped patterns give them the superficial appearance of being older than they are, but rarely do they fit in comfortably with their chronological peers. Their perception of what is going on is enough different from the average that other children rebuff them, particularly as they move toward adolescence. They are childish, they are bossy, they are loners, they get hipped on some inconsequential detail, they talk too much, but rarely are they leaders or engaged in truly cooperative endeavors….
“Cruelty for its own sake occurs but is not common MBD behavior. More often it is inadvertent, or there is scarcely any awareness of what the consequences might be, or it occurs in a moment of helplessness or frustration when rage sets in.”3
“One sees them commonly as restless, ‘driven’ youngsters, distractible, immature, not getting along well with other children; frustration tolerance is low; they have extraordinary interests in or preoccupations with some specific activity; they do not display the usual sense of pity, remorse, or sympathy in situations calling for it, and they lack realistic fears.”4
Ernest Siegel, Ed.D., recognizes the problem:
“The MBD child’s faulty feedback mechanism prevents him from deriving optimal benefits from the group experiences he does share. He doesn’t always grasp the essence of a social situation, frequently missing the point. Moreover, he encounters difficulty in ‘reading‘ others correctly, in interpreting nuances, and in taking cues from the facial expressions, tones of voice, and mannerisms. He cannot readily sense another’s mood.” 26
Paul Wender, M.D., has worked extensively with LD children. He believes that:
“Defective impulse control is manifested in poor planning and judgment. Foresight and organizational ability are qualities which develop, if at all, with age…. Parents complain of untidy rooms and failure to dress neatly: unbuttoned buttons, unzipped zippers, untied shoelaces. At school it is seen in their sloppy work, their failure to finish tasks, and their approximations in reading and writing….
“MBD children are often reckless and manifest no concern for bodily safety—they act without thinking, are frequently injured, and often seem to be accident prone. The reports of injuries, including head injuries, so often elicited in the histories of these children are often a manifestation of the child’s illness and not a primary cause of it….
“Social impulsivity—antisocial behavior—is often prominent and tends to dominate the clinical picture: many of these children are wanton destroyers, compulsive stealers, and firesetters….
“They are obstinate, stubborn, negativistic, bossy, disobedient, sassy, and impervious. All disciplinary measures seem unsuccessful: rewards, deprivation of privileges, physical punishment. ‘He wants his own way…he never learns by his own mistakes…You can’t reach him…he’s almost immune to punishment’”34
The child may steal, for example, not—as commonly thought—because he isn’t “loved,” but rather because his logic did not foretell him of the impact on others and of the consequences of his actions. It did not show him how immediate gratification may not make sense. And with dyslogic, there is little conscience.
Irritability is one of the most common problems. Yet irritability is not always deviant behavior. It is only when the irritability occurs without logical reason that it becomes a deviant behavior.
The inability to profit from experience is part of this lack of logic. The brain is not “computing” as to how a present, on-going experience should be related to a past one.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
WHEN THIS WRITER asked Milton Brutten, Ph.D., Director of the largest LD school in the U.S. and co-author of Something’s Wrong with My Child, the question, “Do you think that most of the children diagnosed as having learning disabilities have a problem in logical thinking and practical judgment?”, he replied:
“I would say that all of the children who are learning disabled, whether they have been called perceptually handicapped or have a mild coordination problem, have decided difficulties in logical thinking and practical judgment… These become their greatest handicaps as they come into the teen years. Even if the parents have given the child every intelligent care—every advantage—most learning disabled adolescents of 13 or over, even having overcome their learning difficulty to the maximum degree, are going to have the problem in social judgment. Are going to have trouble in getting along with people, in handling emergencies that come up in everybody’s life every day.”7
Camilla Anderson notes that:
“Because they are at a disadvantage, adolescents with MBD tend to find their place in the sun among people who are uncritical and undemanding, and whose value systems are not especially harmonious with those of the prevalent solid society, or with family values.
“Adolescents with MBD may also be exploited by a succession of people who are skillful con men, who keep them inflated or pacified in order to use them, their car, or their possessions. Although it is obvious that these exploiters have no respect or regard for them, the youngsters tend to see nothing strange or harmful in these relationships. It is no small thing to feel accepted, and those who purvey acceptance are highly valued to the point of being made heroes and models.”3
Ernest Siegel, author of Helping the Brain Injured Child, writes:
“Parents of MBD children soon learn that the social immaturity of their offspring constitutes a far graver problem than their shortcomings in academic skills. How often is the MBD child asked to multiply 3 1/2 by 2 1/4? However, he does come face to face with his peers daily, whether in planned activity or in spontaneous informal situations.”26
Janet Lerner, Ed.D., adds:
“A deficit of social skills implies a lack of sensitivity to people and a poor perception of social situations, thus the deficit affects almost every area of the child’s life. This is probably the most debilitating learning problem the child can have.”13
Ralph Reitan, Ph.D., professor of Neurological Surgery and Psychology at the University of Washington, tells of the greatest danger of all:
“Difficulties in reasoning and in abstract thinking can interfere with the appreciation of the concepts of right and wrong…The conceptual deficits that led to learning disorders also contributed to socially unacceptable behavior, which at first glance seemed to be solely a function of psychogenic factors.”20
The relationship between learning disabilities and juvenile delinquency has been thoroughly documented, with research showing that from 70 to 90 percent of juvenile delinquents have learning disabilities.31 When more accurate testing is designed, the relationship may be shown to be even higher. The child we are describing is a prime candidate for delinquency, unless his problem can be diagnosed soon enough and unless adequate help is available for him.
As a parent recently said of his teenage child:
“I love my son very much. I have tried over the years not to be too hard nor too easy. I have tried to treat him as another human being, and to gently guide him into the adult world. But I have the terrible feeling that his course was set by other than me; that the gun is cocked; and that it will go off at some insignificant event; and that what I have done or do now will not stop the explosion.”
WHY SO LITTLE PUBLICITY
DIAGNOSING THE PROBLEM may be a problem in itself. Parents are the ones in the best position to discover it early. Unfortunately they seldom have the information nor have they had experience handling enough children to know what the “norm” is.
The teacher, hopefully, can detect early problems in specific learning disabilities. But the classroom is entirely too “structured” an environment for the teacher to uncover to any great extent the Dyslogic Syndrome. Furthermore, few teachers have had training in the many manifestations of learning disabilities.
It would seem that the most likely person to discover this syndrome is the pediatrician or psychologist. Yet, instead, these are the least likely. Their offices are even more structured than the classroom.
When Mark A. Stewart was professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, he wrote:
“Hyperactive children often behave very differently from their usual selves when they are under tension. A child who has been described by his mother as a demon may be an angel when he comes to the psychiatrist’s office… The explanation may lie in a stress-induced release of norepinephrine in the brain cells. Thus a state of anxiety may produce the same effect as a dose of amphetamine—through exactly the same mechanism.”30
Another factor involved in concealing from the professional the extent of the syndrome is that many of these children simply cannot be believed. Camilla Anderson realizes this clearly:
“This is not only because of their propensity for falsification, but because of their poor capacity for appraisal and integration. They literally do not see what is there to be seen, and their interpretations and conclusions tend to be grossly inaccurate. They use clichés so effectively it does not occur to us to challenge them by asking for corroborative evidence.”5
“Both their inability to give a reliable or competent history and their facility in projecting blame have long confused therapists and the sociologists who have believed their stories because they sounded plausible. The sincerity of persons with MBD is usually no pose, for they really believe what they are telling.”3
WHAT CAN BE DONE
TREATMENT OF THE problem is not easy. Dr. Anderson notes:
“Taking care of a child who does not respond as other children do, who resists bodily contact or cuddling, and who makes parents feel they never get through to him verbally or emotionally is a very hard load to carry, for love is ordinarily a reciprocal experience…Trying to maintain some semblance of stability in the home with a child who overreacts to practically everything, who has temper tantrums on almost no provocation, who seems to gravitate to the most undesirable companions, or who cannot be made to understand why the reins must be tighter on him than on more normal children would try anyone’s patience.”3
Most who are closely associated with these children seem to concur that psychotherapy, per se, does not help. These kids are the ones who need it the most—but can use it the least, for logic is necessary for psychotherapy to be effective.
John Smythies, M.D., one of the world’s foremost authorities on the brain, writes:
“Our knowledge of the actual processes by which the brain organizes emotion, thinking and behavior is daily increasing. When these actual processes are known, the need for employing interim models such as contained in much of Freudian psychopathology becomes progressively less useful.”27
George Watson agrees:
“When we seek to understand the origins of disturbed behavior we must forget the idea that it makes psychological ‘sense.’ For it is this assumption that underlies all schools of psychotherapy, and it is this assumption that has proved fruitless both in helping us to understand abnormal behavior as well as fruitless in helping us to treat it.”33
Although Dr. Anderson is a psychiatrist, she has little regard for psychotherapy in handling the problem:
“Psychotherapy is not the answer for people with this handicap. Specific, definite, and concrete advice can often be helpful, but habit training early in life will stand them in good stead when there is no one to offer direction.”3
....Research by Martin Gold of the Institute for Social Research has shown that once a person becomes involved in the judicial system he is much more likely to stay involved.11 For this reason it is even more important that those involved with dyslogic should do everything possible to try to keep the juvenile out of the justice system. …
Because of dyslogic, any effort at management may fail. The way the parent decided to handle a given situation may turn out to be the wrong way. What is difficult to understand: the other way may not have worked either. This can cause serious dissension between the father and mother, who are already in a highly stressful situation. It could be that the oft-heard phrase, “That kid is the way he is because of a broken home,” might should be changed to, “that broken home is because of that kid”.
Since dyslogic is a brain dysfunction—a physiological problem—it would seem that there would be a physiological means of remediating it. The evidence suggests that the problem is a result of a biochemical imbalance, with the imbalance causing a cerebral dysfunction.
Considerable evidence, including studies of identical twins and adopted children, indicates that the biochemical imbalance is most often genetically acquired. There is also evidence that the problem can sometimes be a result of prenatal, perinatal or postnatal trauma. For example: malnutrition during pregnancy; lack of oxygen during birth; severe illness or blow on the head during early childhood.
Many believe that deviant behavior can be caused by an allergy that affects the ability of the brain to perform. Wunderlich, in his book, Allergy, Brains, & Children Coping, writes:
“Allergy is often responsible for brain dysfunction. In the author’s experience, brain dysfunction itself is very often accompanied by a significant allergic process, and the neurological disturbance is the precipitating factor in the development of the allergy.”36
Marshall Mandell, M.D., said at the 1974 ACLD International Conference in Houston:
“How else are we going to explain the good days and the bad days? The performance that goes from fair to poor, or maybe from good to excellent, then down to fair?…If a child has one little bit of sparkle every now and then the capacity must be there or you couldn’t see it, and I think you all should become optimists and hang on to that. What you are seeing most of the time obviously must be a malfunction on a chronic basis.”14
It is not easy to find professional help for the child with dyslogic. Most psychologists, psychiatrists and pediatricians were not trained to cope with the problem. The parent must be the Program Director. There is no one else who sees the problem closer and who can monitor the results of treatment better because of that closeness. Since dyslogic is usually associated with learning disabilities, treatment may need to include a number of disciplines, and the parent must coordinate the effort. To do so, the parent will need to learn as much as possible about the problem.
WE HOPE THAT this paper has been a start on a learning process. If the child has dyslogic to any appreciable extent, the child, the parent and the teacher will need all the help they can obtain.
EXCERPTED REFERENCES: DYSLOGIC SYNDROME, 1975 (see text inside)
1. ANDERSON, C. M. Minimal Brain Damage. Mental Hygiene. Vol. 56, No. 2, 1972.
2. ANDERSON, C. M. The Female Criminal Offender. Am. J. of Corrections. 1967.
3. ANDERSON. C.M. Society Pays. Walker & Co. 1972.
4. ANDERSON, C.M. Jan, My Brain-Damaged Daughter. Durham Press. 1963.
5. ANDERSON, C.M. et al.
7. BRUTTEN, M. An interview in TEXAS KEY, Oct. 1973.
11. GOLD, M. and WILLIAMS, J.R. Effect of “Getting Caught”: Apprehension of the Juvenile Offender as a Cause of Subsequent Delinquencies. Prospectus: A Journal of Law Reform. Vol. 3, No. 1, 1969.
13. LERNER, J.W., NE Ill. St. College, quoted in SLD Gazette, January 1975.
14. MANDELL, M. From the lecture “Cerebral Allergy as a Major Cause of Learning Disabilities, Hyperactivity and Emotional Problems,” at the International Conference of ACLD, 1974.
15. McCLOSKEY, K.R. Early Identification of Minimal Brain Dysfunction. NW Community Hospital Med. Bulletin. Dec. 1973.
16. NALL, ANGIE. Angie Nall School-Hospital, Beaumont, Texas. Personal communication. February 1975.
18. PFEIFFER, C. and ILIEV, V. A Study of Zinc Deficiency and Copper Excess in the Schizophrenias. Intern. Rev. of Neurobiology. 1972.
20. REITAN, R.M. and HEINEMAN, C. Interactions of Neurological Deficits and Emotional Disturbances in Children with Learning Disorders: Methods for their Differential Assessment. Learning Disorders. Vol. 3, 1968.
21. RIMLAND, B. Personal communication. July 1975.
26. SIEGEL, E. The Real Problem of Minimal Brain Dysfunction. Learning Disabilities: Its Implications to a Responsible Society, edited by Doreen Kronick. Academic Therapy Publications, 1974.
27. SMYTHIES, J.R. Brain Mechanisms and Behavior. Academic Press, 1970.
29. STEWART, M. A. For Parents of Hyperactive Children. Expectations. September/October 1972.
30. STEWART, M.A. Hyperactive Children. Scientific American. Vol. 222, No. 4, 1970.
31. WACKER, J.A. The Reduction of Crime thru the Prevention and Treatment of Learning Disabilities. A report to LEAA. 1974.
33. WATSON,G. Nutrition and Your Mind—The Psychochemical Response. Harper & Row, 1972.
34. WENDER, P.H. Minimal Brain Dysfunction in Children. Wiley-Interscience, 1971.
36. WUNDERLICH, R.C. Allergy, Brains & Children Coping. Johnny Reads, Inc., 1973.
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