Hemispheric laterality for spatial analysis in children with reading problems

Lateralisation for tactile-spatial perception was studied in 21 10- to 15-yr.-old boys of average intelligence who were underachieving in reading and 21 matched controls. Controls showed a significant advantage at recognising shapes on a visual display when they had been actively felt with the left hand. There was no difference between left- and right-hand scores in the poor readers. This supports Witelson's (1977) finding that poor readers are less lateralised for spatial-processing than are average readers.