In order to properly understand and compare traditional and innovative assessment techniques for students with disabilities, we must be able to access examples of how they work in a logical and thoughtful sequence. This finely curated collection of thirteen chapters presents ideas and research on different disability topics from key leaders in the…

This paper examines the concept of "empathetic validity," that is, the potential of practitioner research in its processes and outcomes to transform the emotional dispositions of people towards each other, such that greater empathy and regard are created. The paper argues that practitioner research that is high in empathetic validity…

This paper explores the ethical issues involved when researchers attempt to study participants who are personally close to them. It describes a case in which two researchers decided to study the experiences respectively of their son and grandson, both with ADD. They had barely initiated the study when ethical concerns led them to abandon the…

The purpose of the present study was to examine self-reported fears and related anxieties in children and adolescents (7-18 years of age) having learning disabilities (LD) or mild mental retardation (MIMR), and whether these fears and related anxieties differ based on gender and age. Students responded to two well validated instruments, The…

Reports that both learning-disabled (LD) and non-learning-disabled (NORM) children recalled disproportionately more adjacent words than semantically related or spaced words in a free recall task. Spaced words were less likely to be recalled by the younger children and by the LDs. NORMs' recalls were governed by purposive semantic processing to a…

Families of language-impaired children (N=76 and mean age 9 years) reported higher rates of first degree relatives with childhood language and/or learning disabilities than did families of matched controls. (Author/DB)

The ability to identify six facial expressions was studied in 48 nondisabled children and 76 children with learning disabilities (LD) ages 9 through 12. Overall, the nondisabled group had better interpretive ability. Among LD children, those with verbal deficits had better ability than either those with nonverbal deficits and or those with both…

Corrects errors in "A Developmental Study of Learning Disabilities and Memory" by Stephen J. Ceci (Volume 38, Number 2 1984), pages 352-371. (AS)

Simultaneous recordings of auditory brainstem and middle latency responses were obtained in both vertex-ipsilateral and vertex-contralateral derivations in 22 children, ages 8-12. For specific recording conditions, the latencies of middle latency responses differ significantly between children with and without learning disabilities, offering…

Repeated impedance measures were given over five weeks to 11 autistic, 20 learning-disabled, and 20 normal children. A repeated measures analysis of variance led to the conclusion that fluctuating, negative middle ear pressure greater than normal characterizes both autistic and learning-disabled children with the more abnormal pressures typical in…

This study compared the speech-in-noise perception abilities of children with (n=63) and without (n=36) learning disabilities (LD) when either speaking style (conversational vs. clear) or signal-to-noise ratio was varied. Children with LD had poorer overall sentence-in-noise perception. The clear speech condition was sufficient to improve some LD…

A study of children (ages 3-5 and 11-13) with autism (n=35), learning disabilities (n=26), or no disabilities (n=90) found that the nondisabled children were more lateralized than others in degree and consistency of handedness. No evidence was found of a dissociation of hand skill and hand preference in children with autism, compared to others.…

In response to a paper on risk and resilience models in learning disabilities research, this article suggests two factors that render this framework appealing to special education researchers: its optimistic empowering nature as the trainability of identified resilience factors is assumed and its emphasis on factors external to the individual that…

Studied was the development of a variety of grammatical-sensitivity and phonological skills in normally achieving, reading-disabled, arithmetic-disabled, and attention deficit disordered children 7 to 14 years old. (PCB)

The authors of an earlier article, which argued that the social skills deficits typically found in children with learning disabilities (LD) are largely due to the comorbidity of LD with psychiatric disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and depressive disorder, respond to a critique that did not find this relationship…