This article describes ways in which pragmatic language abilities may play a role in the writing performance of children and adolescents with language learning disabilities. First, a brief overview is presented of how pragmatic language difficulties might negatively influence writing performance. Next, research on the writing performance of…

The dominant approach to research in learning disabilities utilizes experimental and quasi-experimental designs to identify the most effective instructional strategies for students with learning disabilities. Research is always undertaken from a point of view, yet the discourse on "what works?" is generally silent on how theoretical frameworks…

Currently students who struggle with language and literacy learning are classified with various labels in different states--language learning disabilities, dyslexia, specific language impairment, and specific learning disability--in spite of having similar diagnostic profiles. Drawing on the research on comprehension of written language, we…

An important goal of research on specific learning disorders (such as dyslexia, or specific reading disability, or dysgraphia, or specific writing disorder) is to elucidate the universal characteristics and cross-linguistic and cross-cultural differences of literacy acquisition and disability. However, despite the acknowledged necessity of…

This book captures the diversity and richness of writing as it relates to different forms of abilities, skills, competencies, and expertise. Psychologists, educators, researchers, and practitioners in neighboring areas are interested in exploring how writing develops and in what manner this development can be fostered, but they lack a handy,…

Beginning foreign language (FL) courses in high school often have high numbers of learning disabled (LED) and at-risk students, perhaps because many students who are considered to be college bound begin foreign language study in middle school. This paper examines FL difficulties as well as effective strategies that others have used to conquer…

Relative efficiency of strategies in eliciting word identifications was explored with 11 aphasic and 11 nonaphasic adults. Though number of words identified were similar, and low infralogical and low logical clues were equally efficient in eliciting target words, high logical and high infralogical clues were more efficient with nonaphasic…

Spelling error patterns of 30 disabled readers (grades 3 through 6) were compared to error patterns of 40 younger able readers (grades 1 through 3), and 37 able readers of the same age. Discriminant analyses indicated distinguishing patterns, primarily between the disabled readers and the older able readers. (Author/SEW)

Analyzes the interaction strategies employed by a conversational participant who is unsure that he or she understands the content or the context of the interaction well enough to contribute appropriately to it but feels impelled to continue participating anyway. (FL)

Describes the investigation of a number of lexical diversity measures in connection with speech samples taken from 20 aphasic and 20 normal subjects. (TO)

Recently, talk of a new type of learning disability (LD)--a foreign language learning disability, or FLLD--has made its way into the LD and foreign language (FL) literature. However, no empirical evidence has been published to support the concept of a "disability" for FL learning by those professionals who use the term. In this article, the author…

Attempts to answer several questions posed by researchers in agraphia. The questions concern analysis of errors in sensory aphasia; a typology of sensory agraphia; a possible relationship between sensory agraphia and sensory aphasia; and questions of a neurolinguistic order and those of a purely linguistic order. (Text is in French.) (AMH)

Presents the background, rationale, and examples for a comprehensive psycholinguistic study of free speech samples obtained from 50 adult aphasics in comparison with those obtained from 50 adult normal speakers. (TO)

Describes a study of gist recall in language impaired children. Stories were read to groups of normal and language impaired children and oral recall was requested immediately. The groups differed primarily in the amount of accurate recall. It seems that language impaired children are deficient in recall for material within their linguistic grasp.…

A report on a study of a large number of subjects afflicted with sensory aphasia. Topics covered are: the distributional pattern of grammatical categories; paraphasia; a statistical analysis of associated syndromes; possible relationship to the location of the lesion. Some examples of spontaneous language are included. (Text is in French.) (AMH)