Bruce F. Pennington: Diagnosing Learning Disorders (Second Edition): A Neuropsychological Framework

This edition is a substantially revised version of the first edition by Dr. Bruce Pennington, drawing upon his thirty years of experience as a researcher, teacher, and practitioner in the field of developmental neuroscience. Indeed, this edition is compelling because of the author’s major contributions and long active presence in the field. His experience uniquely enables him to integrate the past with present research findings and practice. Past achievements made within the field are interestingly chronicled and fully explained throughout the book to provide a foundation for the understanding of recent advancements. Findings from both clinical and basic science, particularly genetics, are synthesized to explain learning disorders including autism. Although the second edition largely features ‘‘evidence based’’ conceptualizations and applications, occasionally the author ‘‘goes out on a limb’’ by offering intellectually satisfying, empirically testable hypotheses to explain common problems. This can be done persuasively only by an experienced teacher who has a significant mastery of their field. Diagnosing Learning Disorders-Second Edition can be utilized by practitioners (pediatricians, psychologists, therapists), researchers, and students to understand ‘‘the latest’’ in the burgeoning literature on learning disorders, including autism. The user can quickly look up a disorder, find the clinical description and comorbidities, learn about the candidate genes, and how the disorder has been characterized via neuroimaging and neuropsychological studies. Two neuropsychological profiles are presented and then prognosis and treatment are discussed. The book offers easy to use tables which concisely list the genetic studies and clinical summary data (symptoms, comorbidities, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment) for each disorder: This information should be helpful to practitioners who must recognize developmental disorders, to psychologists when writing neuropsychological evaluations, and to already informed parents who wish to know more about their child’s condition. The stated goals of this revision are to: