Developmental language disorders: evidence for a basic processing deficit.

Although there is still some disagreement whether developmental reading and language disorders are neurologically based, recent research provides increasing evidence that these disorders may be due to both abnormal cerebral lateralization patterns and neurological pathology at the cellular level. Technological advances in the field of neuroscience have led to increasing knowledge about brain-behavior relationships, particularly in the area of higher cognitive functions. Hypotheses about the underlying causes of the functional deficits characterizing developmental language and reading disorders are now focusing on specific neurological processing mechanisms, the disruption of which may be at the heart of these disorders.