The conversational strategies of the learning disabled and nondisabled children were analyzed for discourse and turn taking behaviors. Learning disabled children asked fewer questions and were less likely to produce open ended questions than nondisabled children. In turn, their conversational partners were less likely to provide elaborative…

Research at the Chicago Institute focused on the social competence of learning disabled (LD) children, including investigation of communicative competence (e.g., adapting one's style to listeners, conversational skills), reading abilities (oral reading and comprehension), causal attributions of success and failure, and the immediate impression LD…

Mothers of 23 learning disabled and 23 nondisabled elementary school children were interviewed to determine their perceptions of their child's strengths and weaknesses, causal attributions for these strengths and weaknesses, predictions for future performance, and evaluations of their child relative to other children. Mothers of learning disabled…

The selection of subjects for research on learning disabilities is a function of contemporary notions about learning disabilities, the purpose of the study and level of knowledge about the topic, and practical constraints. Denigrations of the extant research database, along with unaffordable demands for subject selection and descriptions, threaten…

Results indicated that the mothers of LD children attributed successes less to ability and more to luck, while attributing failures more to a lack of ability and less to bad luck. (Author)

The conversations of 17 learning disabled elementary grade children were recorded during a summer school session in an effort to determine possible explanations for the sociometric rejection of learning disabled children reported in earlier studies. (Author/DB)

The differential diagnosis of learning disabilities (LD) and emotional or behavioral disorders is complicated by the high incidence of concomitant emotional or behavioral disorders in LD children. (DB)

Research is reviewed on the communicative ability of learning disabled (LD) adolescents and its effects on acceptance by peers. Difficulties are noted in social perception, oral language, and social experience. Suggestions for enhancing communication and social skills include using group-contingent reinforcements and exposing LD students to normal…

Results suggest that mothers of both learning-disabled and nondisabled children engage in conversational buffering, although there were few differences between the mothers and the learning-disabled and nondisabled children. Learning-disabled Ss were more likely to agree with and less likely to disagree with their mothers than were nondisabled Ss.…

Students with learning disabilities (n=88) and without (n=84) were interviewed about 10 scenarios in which a teenager was caught after participating in misconduct. Students with learning disabilities were more likely to suggest escaping and less likely to suggest accepting the consequences. (Author/DB)

Thirty learning disabled boys from a segregated private school for learning disabled children and 22 from a public school mainstream program and 22 nondisabled boys performed two physical fitness tests. Normal achievers performed significantly better on one of the tests; there were no differences between the two samples of learning disabled…

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…

The effects of modeling on conversational skills and on metaconversational knowledge of 52 learning disabled and normally achieving boys (grades 2 to 8) were investigated. Ss listened to one of two brief audiotapes: (1) a dialogue of a child interviewer modeling open ended questions, conversational devices, and contingent comments and responses;…

The study investigated whether learning disabled fifth, sixth, and seventh graders who were given an easy opportunity to look good would be as likely to take the opportunity as other children. Ss were given the Children's Social Desirability Scale, a questionnaire which lists a series of statements which indicate exaggerated claims of socially…

The authors discuss how learning disabled (LD) children's beliefs about themselves may be affected by mainstreaming and how those beliefs may influence their social and achievement related behaviors. Using LD and nonLD elementary and junior high school students, a series of studies examined group differences on a variety of self report and…