Specific Learning Disorders and Borderline Intelligence

The literature demonstrates the extreme complexity of the relation between Specific Learning Disorders and Intelligence. The main difficulty is in the construction of the definitions. In fact, the scientific community identifies important limitations in the way in which it now defines and evaluates learning disorders and intelligence.

The nosografic category of Specific Learning Disorders is comprised of different disorders, often in comorbidity with other mental disorders (Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, behavioral disorders, mood disorders, etc.) or heterogeneously, it is on the level of clinical demonstrations of functional profiles.

Intelligence also lacks a clear and universal definition. It still has several meanings, some of the limitations are of logic and deduction, others extend to individual ability to manage different life situations or to relate oneself to the outside world in a functional and adaptive way. Also the techniques of measuring vary greatly and their development often follows an independent route, or even opposite, respective to the process of theorization.

Like all measures of intelligence, that of borderline intelligence is also extremely limited, one must reference the points for the diagnosis of Specific Learning Disorders and those for the diagnosis of mental retardation. Growing evidence puts into doubt the use of the universal measure of IQ as the criteria to define the presence of mental retardation.

Today more often than not, in light of evolutionary theory and new scientific contributions on the construction of intelligence, the debate continues on the opportunity to modify the diagnostic criteria. Until now shared international manuals have been used by the entire scientific community, which define when a person suffers from mental retardation.

If intelligence comes to be measured with instruments of alternative value and in agreement with the most recent theories, the conclusions reached might be different. Many positive correlations found with level of measured intelligence using traditional IQ tests will probably collapse in comparison with an ability that is no longer only logic-deductive and limited to the solutions of problems deprived of any content and subjective meaning and/or relation, but with the individual capacity to cope and functionally manage the complexity of the real environment in the double physical and interpersonal dimensions.

- Associazione Italiana Dislessia (AID) et al. (2007) Consensus Conference sui Disturbi Evolutivi Specifici di Apprendimento: raccomandazioni per la pratica clinica definite con il metodo della consensus conference.

- Bertelli, M. (2006, novembre). Nuove Frontiere e Nuove Sfide nella Salute Mentale della Disabilità Intellettiva. Atti del V Congresso Nazionale SIRM, Firenze.

- Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century. New York: Basic Books.

- Goleman, D.P. (1995). Emotional intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ for character; health and lifelong achievement. New York, NY: Bantam Books.

- Hassiotis, A., Strydom, A., Hall, I., Ali, A., Lawrence-Smith, G., Meltzer, H., et al. (2008).

- Salvador-Carulla, L. & Bertelli, M. (2008). ‘Mental Retardation’ or ‘Intellectual Disability’: Time for a Conceptual Change. Psychopathology 41:10–16.

- Sternberg, R.J. (1990). Metaphors of mind: conceptions of the nature of intelligence. New York, Cambridge University Press.