Why is it that despite numerous studies that show a connection between poor coordination and learning difficulties that people like Professors Elliot and Snowling still insist that learning difficulties are relate solely to academic performance? In a study done in 1977, 89% of hyperactive boys had immature coordination. Almost thirty years ago people were making the connection between the brain and the body and yet in the UK the government focuses more and more literacy and numeracy rather than the neurological skills than underpin our ability to learn.
Anomalies of motor development in hyperactive boys: “Forty-eight boys who scored high on rating scales for the hyperactive syndrome but who went without traditional neurological signs of learning disabilities were compared with 50 control boys on coordination tests. Discriminant function scores for speed, rhythm, and overflow correctly classified 89% of the boys as those with hyperactive versus normal behavioral histories. Thus, neurological examination of hyperactive boys does reveal developmentally immature coordination“.