Specific learning disability (SLD) identification and eligibility practices are evolving and sometimes contentious. This article describes the historical context and current status of the SLD definition, legislation, regulation, and case law related to the identification of students eligible for special education services. The first part traces…

The purpose of this cohort sequential study was to extend previously reported latent transition analyses conducted by Swanson, Kudo, and Guzman-Orth (2016) by determining the role of cognitive measures in identifying English learners (EL) at risk for late emerging reading disabilities (LERD). To this end, EL students (N = 450) in Grades 1, 2, and…

The use of response-to-intervention (RTI) to identify children and youth with specific learning disabilities (SLDs) is described with multiple illustrations. Essential components of the RTI process are specified at multiple tiers of intervention, each essential to valid SLD identification. The RTI goals are prevention in general education, early…

Learning disabilities (LDs) have long been presumed to be a neurological disorder resulting from a deficit in 1 or more cognitive processes. Although the emphasis on cognitive processing disorders has been included in the definition since the term was coined, and although it arguably represents the key distinguishing characteristic of LDs, it also…

This article addresses ways in which speech-language pathologists can play a proactive and substantive part in schoolwide reading disability prevention and intervention efforts within the responsiveness to intervention framework. First, the driving forces that led Congress to alter how schools may operationalize learning disabilities are…

Discusses the cognitive characteristics, neurobiological bases, and language and reading abilities of individuals with hyperlexia. A study of 12 children (ages 7-13) with hyperlexia is summarized that illustrates the dissociation between decoding and comprehension and the limited use of meaningful context to aid decoding. (Author/CR)

This article describes the characteristics of college students with language learning disorders and other at-risk students who have difficulty learning a foreign language. Research which points to deficits in native language abilities and poor phonological processing skills as the cause of foreign-language learning problems is discussed. (Contains…

This article presents the Triune Assessment-Intervention Model (TAIM), which uses the constructs of sensemaking and dynamic literacy as its conceptual framework. The model assesses use of semantics/syntax, phonology/orthography, organization, and scripts/schemas rule systems though analysis of oral and literate discourse events, communication, and…