Case study of language and numerical disability: A sequential processing deficit?

We report a case study of Christine, an intelligent 30-year-old woman with a developmental learning disability. Psychometric evaluation and extensive interviews revealed several findings: most notably, evidence of anomia, auditory processing problems, difficulty acquiring reading and spelling skills, and an extremely poor sense of number. In addition, Christine showed all four of the Gerstmann symptoms (left-right confusion, finger agnosia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia). We suggest that most, if not all, of these impairments may be explained in terms of a sequential processing deficit (e.g., Bakker 1967; Tallal 1980). In Christine's case, difficulty perceiving serial order appears to have resulted in a major conceptual impairment involving number.HD-To me four is a number that comes after three and before five. It means twice two …C-To me four is a picture.