The specific learning disabilities (SLD) identification literature is replete with competing narratives concerning the advantages and disadvantages of various techniques and methods. Until a widely accepted and empirically proven SLD identification methodology is universally supported, evaluators should seek to improve the existing alternatives.…

Prescreening children for specific learning disabilities, e.g., dyslexia, is essential for effective intervention. With a quick and reliable prescreening result, special education coordinators (SENCOs) can provide students with early intervention and relieve their learning pressure. Unfortunately, due to the limited resources, many students in…

The field of specific learning disabilities (SLDs) has faced three kinds of challenges. "Constitutional challenges" arise from classification and definitional complexities, identification issues, comorbidity, and ontological debates. "Internal challenges" include the inherent difficulties of scientific thinking that compete…

Evidence-based reviews are a type of systematic literature review used to identify evidence-based practices. When conducting an evidence-based review, researchers apply predetermined standards to identify evidence-based practices--practices that have been shown to reliably improve an outcome for a population of learners, according to evidence from…

Though music educators work with students who have a special learning need or a gifted ability on a daily basis, encountering a student who has both can be unexpected. The literature presented here can be used as a basis for information pertaining to terminology, studies and theories that attempt to explain the savant syndrome, how to identify it,…

When education works, it creates productive, innovative citizens eager to contribute to a well-functioning democracy. In contrast, educational failure has lifelong consequences, with some individuals experiencing decades of preventable hardship. Dawn Flanagan and Joel Schneider write in this response that, like Kranzler, Floyd, Benson, Zabowski,…

In this rejoinder, the authors describe the aim of the original study as an effort to conduct a critical test of an important postulate underlying the Cross-Battery Assessment PSW approach (XBA PSW; Kranzler, Floyd, Benson, Zaboski, & Thibodaux, this issue). The authors used classification agreement analysis to examine the concordance between…

Between c.1945 and 1965 across the West special education has grown and differentiated substantially. In the Netherlands this expansion ran parallel to the academic recognition and rapid development of the study of learning disabilities. How are these two processes related? This article argues that in this country child science and special…

Mathematical skills are becoming increasingly critical for achieving academic and professional success. Developmental dyscalculia (DD) is a childhood-onset disorder characterized by the presence of abnormalities in the acquisition of arithmetic skills affecting approximately 5% of school age children. Diagnosing students with possible dyscalculia…

The regression-based discrepancy definition of learning disabilities has been suggested by Rutter and Yule as an improvement of the well-known and much criticized achievement-intelligence discrepancy definition, whereby the examinee's predicted reading attainment is substituted for the intelligence score in the discrepancy expression. Even though…

This paper reviews current proposals concerning the definition of dyslexia and contrasts it with reading comprehension impairment. We then discuss methods for early identification and review evidence that teacher assessments and ratings may be valid screening tools. Finally, we argue that interventions should be theoretically motivated and…

Response to intervention (RTI) remains a major issue in both the professional literature and school practice. A series of previous "snapshot" studies traced the development of RTI in state laws concerning identification of students with specific learning disability (SLD). In the last article in this series, Zirkel and Thomas (2010) reported that…

The aim of the audit was to evaluate the current clinical practice for learning-disabled individuals with psychotic disorders. We evaluated the existing clinical practice in 910 individuals who were under the care of learning disability psychiatrists in Buckinghamshire (population of 480 000). This was compared with the National Institute for…

The 2004 Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) and subsequent regulations published in 2006 have significantly changed the identification process for students suspected of having specific learning disabilities. Rather than using a discrepancy model contrasting intellectual and achievement test results, assessment…

Gifted students with coexisting disabilities, also known as twice-exceptional, are increasingly recognized in America's schools. This increasing awareness needs to be met with equal enthusiasm for empirical investigation into the identification and treatment needs of this group of students. In this article, a 20-year review of the empirical…