Margaret C. Silberberg

Bio: Margaret C. Silberberg is an academic researcher from Deaconess Hospital. The author has contributed to research in topics: Reading (process) & Hyperlexia. The author has an hindex of 10, co-authored 18 publications receiving 458 citations.

Hyperlexia—Specific Word Recognition Skills in Young Children:

Abstract: For children who are successful in reading, it is usually assumed that school will not be a stressful or anxiety-provoking experience. It has been the authors' experience, however, that this may not necessarily be so. A number of school children have been encountered who are subjected to certain stresses in school because they can read-or rather, because their ability to recognize words is on a higher level than their ability to comprehend and integrate them. Because elementary teachers probably equate word recognition skills with intellectual functioning, the demands put on these children may be greater than they can handle. Expectations, both by teachers and parents, are unrealistically high, and the child's inability to meet these expectations could create environmental stress and an accompanying high level of anxiety. For this phenomenon of specific word recognition skill we have coined the term hyperlexia. The concept of hyperlexia suggests a continuum of word recognition skills which may exist separate and apart from general verbal functioning. A concept describing dyslexia in a similar manner was proposed by Meyer and Larsen in Scandinavia (Hallgren, 1950), but has not been generally accepted in this country. In more than 20 cases examined by the authors, the children ranged in intellectual functioning from mentally defective to bright normal. In each case, the child's ability to recognize words was significantly higher than either his ability to comprehend the material \"read\" or his evaluated verbal functioning level. More than half of these children had

School Achievement and Delinquency

Abstract: Behavorial scientists have long concerned themselves with seeking explanations for juvenile delinquency. While etiology has been attributed to parental relationships, mental deficiency, etc., the educational system has been largely absolved. Probably there are many reasons why a child commits-and gets caught committing-an antisocial or asocial act. At least some of those reasons may be partially or wholly related to his educational experience.

The Bookless Curriculum An Educational Alternative

Abstract: As more children in this country are exposed to education, and for longer periods of time, the number who are encountering difficulty in school increases. For many of these children, the problem is simply that, in order to learn, they must read. For a large number of children with learning problems or IQ's below 100, this requisite artificially deprives them of comfortable avenues for learning. Modern technology provides equipment to educate many of the children for whom reading is either an uncomfortable or inefficient technique. For such children, a bookless curriculum is proposed which would provide children with an education while reading is relegated to a more realistic role in education, that of a skill area which is only one of the many tools available for learning.Development and preparation of the material was made possible under a Grant RT-2 of the Social and Rehabilitation Service of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, awarded to the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitati...

Hyperlexia: The Other End of the Continuum

Abstract: 1 Development and preparation of portions of this material was made possible under Grant RT-2 of the Social and Rehabilitation Service of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, awarded to the department of physical medicine and rehabilitation of the University of Minnesota Medical School and the Kenny Rehabilitation Institute. Since the early part of this century, research on children with school diffi-

Decoding, Reading, and Reading Disability

Abstract: To clarify the role of decoding in reading and reading disability, a simple model of reading is proposed, which holds that reading equals the product of decoding and comprehension. It follows that there must be three types of reading disability, resulting from an inability to decode, an inability to comprehend, or both. It is argued that the first is dyslexia, the second hyperlexia, and the third common, or garden variety, reading disability.

Understanding normal and impaired word reading: computational principles in quasi-regular domains.

Abstract: A connectionist approach to processing in quasi-regular domains, as exemplified by English word reading, is developed. Networks using appropriately structured orthographic and phonological representations were trained to read both regular and exception words, and yet were also able to read pronounceable nonwords as well as skilled readers. A mathematical analysis of a simplified system clarifies the close relationship of word frequency and spelling-sound consistency in influencing naming latencies. These insights were verified in subsequent simulations, including an attractor network that accounted for latency data directly in its time to settle on a response. Further analyses of the ability of networks to reproduce data on acquired surface dyslexia support a view of the reading system that incorporates a graded division of labor between semantic and phonological processes, and contrasts in important ways with the standard dual-route account.

Academic Performance and Delinquency

Abstract: A meta-analysis of naturalistic studies of the academic performance-delinquency relationship and of intervention studies aimed both at improving academic performance and reducing delinquency found that children with lower academic performance offended more frequently, committed more serious and violent offenses, and persisted in their offending. The association was stronger for males than females and for whites than for African Americans. Academic performance predicted delinquency independent of socioeconomic status. Some intervention and prevention programs, using law-related or moral education components with adolescent children and self-control, social skills, and parent training components with young school-age children, were found to effect significant improvements in academic performance and delinquency.

Psychosis and autism as diametrical disorders of the social brain

Abstract: Autistic-spectrum conditions and psychotic-spectrum conditions (mainly schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression) represent two major suites of disorders of human cognition, affect, and behavior that involve altered development and function of the social brain. We describe evidence that a large set of phenotypic traits exhibit diametrically opposite phenotypes in autistic-spectrum versus psychotic-spectrum conditions, with a focus on schizophrenia. This suite of traits is inter-correlated, in that autism involves a general pattern of constrained overgrowth, whereas schizophrenia involves undergrowth. These disorders also exhibit diametric patterns for traits related to social brain development, including aspects of gaze, agency, social cognition, local versus global processing, language, and behavior. Social cognition is thus underdeveloped in autistic-spectrum conditions and hyper-developed on the psychotic spectrum. We propose and evaluate a novel hypothesis that may help to explain these diametric phenotypes: that the development of these two sets of conditions is mediated in part by alterations of genomic imprinting. Evidence regarding the genetic, physiological, neurological, and psychological underpinnings of psychotic-spectrum conditions supports the hypothesis that the etiologies of these conditions involve biases towards increased relative effects from imprinted genes with maternal expression, which engender a general pattern of undergrowth. By contrast, autistic-spectrum conditions appear to involve increased relative bias towards effects of paternally expressed genes, which mediate overgrowth. This hypothesis provides a simple yet comprehensive theory, grounded in evolutionary biology and genetics, for understanding the causes and phenotypes of autistic-spectrum and psychotic-spectrum conditions.