Dr. Martha Denckla will present Most Learning Disabilities are Language Based: Remembering the Spoken Language Foundation of the 3 R’s

Dr. Denckla will present Expressive and Receptive Language Disorders, and how these disorders relate to a reading disability, especially a reading comprehension disability. Dr. Denckla will bring awareness and attention to the broader, deeper language competences required for school success.

Dr. Denckla graduated summa cum laude from Bryn Mawr College and went on to graduate cum laude from Harvard Medical School in 1962, where she trained with Dr. Norman Geschwind in behavioral neurology. Dr. Denckla served residencies at Beth Israel Hospital and Veterans Administration Hospital, both in Boston, as well as Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington DC. After positions in neurology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York and Harvard Medical School, she served as the director of the learning disabilities clinic at the Children’s Hospital. She came to the Maryland area in 1982 to serve as chief of the section on autism and related disorders at the developmental neurology branch of the Neurological Disorders Program at the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke (NIH). She came to Johns Hopkins and KKI in 1987. Dr. Denckla is currently director of the Developmental Cognitive Neurology Clinic at the Kennedy Krieger Institute, and holds the Batza Family Endowed Chair at Kennedy Krieger. She is principal investigator of an NIH-funded research Center P50 HD052121.

Dr. Denckla is a past president of both the International Neuropsychology Society, and also of the Behavioral Neurology Society. Dr. Denckla has been awarded the Lucy G. Moses Prize in Clinical Neurology at Columbia University, the Norman Geschwind Memorial Lectureship at Orton Society, the Rita G. Rudel Memorial Lectureship at Columbia University, the Herbert Birch Memorial Lectureship at the International Neuropsychology Society, the Soriano Guest Lectureship of the American Neurological Association and the Bernard Sachs Lectureship of Child Neurological Society. Most recently, she was the American Academy of Mental Retardation Research Center awardee.

For more information, or to rsvp, contact admission@mcleanschool.org or 240.395.0698. Walk ins welcome!