| This study followed the development of four right hemisphere damaged children to determine whether and how early brain injury affects the development of spatial and class relations. The children were first tested at 2-2 1/2 years of age. Their data were compared with previously collected data from 18 to 42 month old normal children, and with data from four left hemisphere damaged children. The children were tested on a series of manipulative classification tasks.;The right hemisphere damaged children were impaired, relative to same age normal children, in their construction of class relations in space. They also produced a restricted range of spatial relations. Unlike left hemisphere damaged or normal children, they rarely placed objects next to other objects in any grouping. Further, the children's failure to construct next to relations could account for the restrictions we observed in their construction of class relations. Finally, on other nonspatial measures of classification the right hemisphere damaged children showed no evidence of impairment.;Two main conclusions emerge from this work: First, a spatial deficit occurring at a very early age and associated with right hemisphere injury has been identified. Second, the right hemisphere damaged children appear to be developing normally in their construction of class relations, but they are limited in their ability to express that understanding through spatial means. |
