We use three data sources to build a rationale for why intensive interventions are necessary for students with pervasive reading disabilities: current data on the performance of students with disabilities on reading achievement measures over time, observation studies on students with reading disabilities in general and special education…

Learning disabilities (LDs) describe a number of disorders that affect the way information is acquired, retained, organized, and understood. This article aims to address the critical issue of improving the career well-being of LD youth. It first examines several critical issues that affect LD high school students/youth in their career development.…

An increasing evidence supports the role of industrial chemicals as contributors to the development of neurobehavioral disorders, including autism spectrum disorders, whose prevalence has progressively increased in recent years. Heavy metals, in particular, are recognized as neurodevelopmental toxins since they can be responsible of fetal damages…

Statistical analyses of data from an academically diverse sample of 276 adult basic and secondary education learners extends understanding of the relation of and interactions between oral reading fluency and reading competence indices. Significant interactions between total word rate and word error rate that differed in relation to two measures of…

The purpose of this article is to inform teachers about the dangers of misalignment between core (Tier 1) instruction and Tiers 2 and 3 supplementary instruction for struggling readers and students with learning disabilities. Misalignment between core and supplementary instruction is problematic for students at risk of academic failure because it…

In this paper, we describe an in situ study that examined the diverse design features and effects of three pre-algebra games for middle school children who have either challenges with learning or different language backgrounds. Data were collected through in-field observation, artifact analysis, school performance report and knowledge test during…

How can teachers integrate rap and technology strategies to teach students with learning disabilities the art of persuasive argument writing? This teacher research study presents creative new approaches for teaching argument writing. Strategies used in the study helped college freshmen with learning disabilities (LD) succeed in developing…

The aim of the study was to investigate differences in cognitive and metacognitive strategy use in the reading comprehension of narrative and expository texts among students with learning disabilities (SLD) and without learning disabilities (SWOLD). A total of 122 fifth and sixth graders took part in the study. Half of them (n = 61) were SLD…

The phenomenon of the use of cell phones as a primary source of communication among teens is having an impact on our society in profound ways. Children are creating and utilizing a different language and mechanism of communication--texting. The authors conducted research to determine if this cell phone phenomenon is as prevalent among students…

Three methodological approaches were applied to understand the role of interest and self-efficacy in reading and/or writing in students without and with persisting specific learning disabilities (SLDs) in literacy. For each approach students in grades 4 to 9 completed a survey in which they rated 10 reading items and 10 writing items on a Scale 1…

This article explains a process for improving specific learning disabilities (SLD) eligibility guidelines in a special education cooperative in Nebraska. The Central Nebraska Support Services Program (CNSSP) is a special education cooperative that serves four public school districts and seven parochial schools in central Nebraska. Children birth…

The body of research concerning college students with learning disabilities is sparse relative to the percentage of college students with learning disabilities who attend college. Further, the majority of existing research fails to capture the student voice and the lived experiences of the students themselves. The purpose of this study was to…

This randomized controlled study investigated the efficacy of a Tier 1 intervention, schema-based instruction (SBI), designed to help students with and without mathematics difficulties (MD) develop proportional reasoning. Twenty seventh-grade teachers/classrooms were randomly assigned to a treatment (SBI) or control (business-as-usual) condition.…

Ensuring equal access to digital learning skills for all students is a timely goal. This paper describes results of a quasi-experiment study to test the effectiveness of an online professional development (PD) model to prepare teachers to implement web-based Strategies for Online Academic Research (SOAR) with middle school students, including…

In the last decades, learner autonomy has received a bevy of attention in education literature in the context of leadership dimensions and student-centered learning. The construct of learning disabilities has also experienced significant growth in empirical studies from the primary, secondary, and postsecondary educational arenas. However, there…