Helmer Myklebust

1910 to 2008

The focus of Helmer Myklebust's early work (from 1946 to 1957) was on two groups of children: those who are deaf and those diagnosed aphasic. His emphasis in relation to both groups of children was on their auditory processing. His book in 1954 on Auditory Disorders in Children offered a way to distinguish different causes of auditory disorders: peripheral deafness, psychic deafness (emotional disturbance), mental deficiency, and childhood aphasia.

Myklebust shifted his focus in his later work (from 1957 to 1968) to what he called conditions caused by "psychoneurological learning disabilities." He developed a modality-based processing model for identifying and remediating children with different sorts of psychoneurological learning disabilities.

Myklebust's types of psychoneurological learning disabilities and his recommended treatment:

Disorders of auditory language: identifiable when child is from 2-4 years of age. There are three types of such disorders, one affecting the overall system (generalized auditory disorders), another affecting only the reception of symbols (auditory receptive language) and a third affecting only the expression of symbols (auditory expressive language).

Disorders of reading: Dyslexia, according to Myklebust is an inability to read normally due to brain damage. Two common forms of dyslexia are visual and auditory. The visual child has trouble mastering whole words as well as letters and syllables. Auditory dylexic children are likely to have visual strengths, being able to respond to whole-words in reading, but not able to respond to analytic, auditory based tasks such as phonetic word attack, reauditorizing phonemes and words, and sound blending.

Disorders of written language

Disorders of arithmetic

Nonverbal disorders of learning

Writings of Helmur Myklebust, arranged chronologically

Burchard, E. & Myklebust, H. (1942). A comparison of congenital and adventitious deafness with respect to its effect on intelligence. American Annals of the Deaf, 87, 140-154.

Myklebust, H., & Burchard, E. M. (1945). A study of the effects of congenital and adventitious deafness on the intelligence, personality, and social maturity of school children. J. Ed. Psych., 36, 321.

Myklebust, H. (1946a). Significance of etiology in motor performance of deaf children with special reference to meningitis. Am J. Psych., 59, 249.

Myklebust, H. (1946b). A study of the usefulness of objective measures of mechanical aptitude in guidance programs for the hypacoustic II. American Annals of the Deaf, 91, 205-225.

Myklebust, H. (1946c). A study of the usefulness of objective measures of mechanical aptitude in guidance programs for the hypoacoustic. I. American Annals of the Deaf, 91, 123-150.

Myklebust, H. (1946d). The use of individual hearing aids in a resedintial school for the deaf with implication for acoustic training. American Annals of the Deaf, 91(4), 255-261.

Myklebust, H. (1947). Remedial reading for children with impaired hearing. Training School Bulletin, 43, 170-176.

Myklebust, H. (1949). The relationship between clinical psychology and audiology. J Speech and Hearing Disorders, 14, 98.

Myklebust, H. (1950). The use of clinical psychology screening techniques by audiologists and speech pathologists. Journal of Speech Disorders, 15, 129-134.

Myklebust, H., & Brutten, M. (1951). A survey of research needs in the education of the deaf. American Annals of the Deaf, 96, 512-523.

Myklebust, H. (1952). Aphasia in childhood. J. Exceptional Children, 19, 9-14.

Myklebust, H., & Brutten, M. (1953). A study of the visual perception of deaf children. Acta Otolaryngologica (Suppl. 105).

Myklebust, H. (1954). Auditory disorders in children: A manual for differential diagnosis. NY: Grune & Stratton Inc.

Myklebust, H. (1955). Training aphasic children. The Volta Review, 57, 149-157.

Myklebust, H. (1956). Language training, a comparison between children with aphasia and those with deafness. American Annals of the Deaf, 101, 240-244.

Myklebust, H. (1957a). Aphasia in children. In L. Travis (Ed.), Handbook of speech pathology (pp. 503-530). NY: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

Myklebust, H. (1957b). Babbling and echolalia in language theory. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 22, 356-360.

Myklebust, H. (1958). The deaf child with other handicaps. American Annals of the Deaf, 103(4), 496-509.

Myklebust, H. (1960a). The psychology of deafness: Sensory deprivation, learning and adjustment (Second edition in 1964 ed.). New York, NY: Grune and Stratton, Inc.

Myklebust, H. (1960b). Reseach facilitites at Northwestern University. American Annals of the Deaf, 105(3), 277-278.

Myklebust, H., & Boshes, B. (1960d). Psychoneurological learning disorders in children. Rehabilitation Literature, 77, 247-256.

Myklebust, H., Neyhus, A., & Mulholland, A. (1962). Guidance and counseling for the deaf. American Annals of the Deaf, 107(4), 370-415.

Myklebust, H. (1963). Psychoneurological learning disorders in children. In S. A. Kirk & W. Becker (Eds.), Conference on children with minimal brain impairment. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.

Boshes, B., & Myklebust, H. (1964). Neurological behavior study of children with learning disorders. Neurology, 14, 7-22.

Myklebust, H. (1964). Learning disorders: Psychoneurological disturbances in childhood. Rehabiitation Literature, 25, 354-359.

Johnson, D., J., & Myklebust, H. (1965). Dyslexia in childhood. In J. Hellmuth (Ed.), Learning disorders (pp. 259-292). Seattle: Special Child Publication.

Myklebust, H. (1965a). Development and disorders of written language ( Vol. 1). NY: Grune & Stratton.

Myklebust, H. (1965b). Picture story language test. NY: Grune & Stratton.

Johnson, D., J., & Myklebust, H. (1967). Learning disabilities: Educational principles and remedial approaches. NY: Grune & Stratton.

Myklebust, H. (Ed.). (1968). Progress in learning disabilities. NY: Grune & Stratton.

Myklebust, H., & Boshes, B. (1960). Psychoneurological learning disorders in children. Archives of Pediatrics, 77 (247-256).

Myers, P., & Hammill, D. (1976). Helmer Myklebust. In P. Myers & D. Hammill (Eds.), Methods for learning disorders (2nd ed., pp. 123-142). NY: Wiley.

Myklebust, H. (1997). Conscience: Knowing right from wrong. Sioux Falls, SC: Center for Western Studies.

Myklebust, H. (2000). Understanding ourselves as adults: The meaning of emotional maturity. Sioux Falls, SD: Augustana College Press.