This research aimed to investigate the experiences of students with learning disabilities (LD) at two universities in Sub-Sahara Africa. While universities are increasingly addressing the needs of students with sensory and physical disabilities, there is less emphasis on LD which does not present physically, thus often referred to as invisible or…

Much of the special education research on writing has focused on skill acquisition and remediation. However, a significant problem with this approach is that it does not account for the sociocultural nature of writing or the importance of culturally sustaining pedagogies in writing instruction. In this article, the author uses practitioner…

Using sociocultural concepts of authoritative and dialogic discourse, I sought to examine 5th-grade teachers' questioning practices during small-group reading instruction to understand the differences between groups reading text on grade level and groups reading texts below grade level. The purpose was also to examine how questions functioned for…

CAST created "Strategic Reader," a technology-based system blending Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) in a digital learning environment to improve reading comprehension instruction. This experimental study evaluates the effectiveness of Strategic Reader using two treatment conditions for measuring…

Students read text through the sociocultural perspective from which they emerge. They interpret the text that is read through personal and cultural cues, through experiences acquired within a particular cultural context. When no cultural cues are familiar, students have difficulty identifying with and understanding literary text. In…

Suspension and expulsion are widely used to exclude students with and without disabilities who present problem behaviors in school, despite contentious legal debate and evidence associating these methods with high ecological stress and problematic developmental outcomes. Using selected participant data (N = 1,824) from the SEELS study, the study…

Psychologists (N=56) participated in an adapted version of Algozzine and Ysseldyke's (1981) diagnostic simulation to investigate the effects of sociocultural background (rural vs. suburban) and assessment data (normal vs. learning disabled) on educational decisions. Findings suggest school psychologists utilize multiple sources of information but…

A lack of clarity continues as to the precise terminology and classification concerning the concepts of learning disabilities in the fields of school psychology and special education. This paper reviews the complex logical and socio-political issues of learning disabilities as they relate to current educational and social realities. (Author/JDM)

Demographic and perception data were collected from 63 teachers (grades 1-5) to determine the effect of sociocultural variables on teachers' perceptions of classroom behavior, management, and referral tendencies. Teachers' perceptions of a learning disability, educational level, grade level, instructional practices, and prereferral intervention…

This case study chronicles the development of reading and writing in a student (age eight) with a learning disability. The study is rooted in cognitive science, sociohistorical, and developmental perspectives of literacy. The study discusses appropriate assistance to be offered while engaging the child in personally meaningful reading and writing…

This case study of the literacy strategies used by a young adolescent male with learning disability revealed that the student produced unsophisticated literacy behaviors in traditional academic contexts, whereas more sophisticated uses were exhibited in contexts that bridged the student's personal and cultural knowledge to literacy use in the…

Investigated teacher-student discourse from a sociocultural perspective to ascertain the nature of effective instruction for students with learning disabilities, examining one teacher's resource room instruction. Results highlight differential discourse patterns across academic domains and emphasize the importance of teacher self-reflection and…

A study of 50 elementary age Mexican-American, learning-disabled children and their parents was undertaken to determine whether sociocultural factors contribute to achievement test scores as they do to intelligence scores. Sociocultural variance reflecting family acculturation level is found to be related to achievement test performance. (24…

This study utilized a sociocultural approach to writing instruction and examined its effects on the motivation of students with learning disabilities. The concept of the Zone of Proximal Development was used to measure changes in five third and fourth grade students' motivation toward literacy activities. Students wrote in journals daily and…

This study aimed to draw upon a sociocultural perspective for elucidating the process and outcome of peer learning interactions between young adults with serious learning disabilities. A heterogeneous group of ten young adults between ages of 18 and 27 participated in the year-long cognitive program based on the principles of Feuerstein's theory…