The nature of strategy instruction combined with prevailing teaching models necessitated that the University of Kansas Institute for Research in Learning Disabilities create a new inservice teacher education format, based on such "best practices" as having ongoing training, requiring active and continued participation by key…

This article describes constructivist principles of learning in geometry specific to children's imaginal anticipations in line measurement and fractions. Application with seven sixth grade students with learning disabilities found that students had difficulty coordinating and imagining second-order and higher nested relationships that could be…

Discusses the failure of students with learning disabilities to complete their homework assignments, lists criteria for planning assignments to motivate secondary students, and offers suggestions on procedures and outcomes for inviting students to participate in the assignment completion process. An Assignment Idea Chart is provided. (CR)

A study involving 28 teachers found Peer-Assisted Literacy Strategies (PALS) enhanced reading performance of first-grade students, although not equally for all learner types. Students who were low-achieving who participated in both PALS and teacher-directed small-group mini-lessons benefited more greatly than students who participated only in…

Thirty-six learning disabled (LD) and 36 nondisabled children (mean age = 12) were presented with sentences under either of 2 conditions and then given a recognition and source attribution task. The study concluded that, though LD children did not differ in recognition performance, results did suggest that children with LD possess a general…

Responds to an earlier article that introduced the concept of foreign language reading anxiety and reported the results of a preliminary study of reading anxiety. Argues that the explanations for the study findings are misguided. (Author/VWL)

Reports on studies of students with severe learning difficulties and shows that they could, under appropriate conditions, display impressive concentration and curiosity, and often appeared to achieve valuable learning. Describes some of the dilemmas that may arise in developing these kinds of activities for special education. (Contains 35…

Historically, most of the professional literature in the field as well as federal funding initiatives in research and program development have been directed at younger students with learning disabilities (LD). The prevailing assumption (or hope) has been that if intervention took place at a young age, many of the manifestations of the learning…

Between 5% and 8% of school-age children have some form of memory or cognitive deficit that interferes with their ability to learn concepts or procedures in one or more mathematical domains. A review of the arithmetical competencies of these children is provided, along with discussion of underlying memory and cognitive deficits and potential…

Science has been an important partner of the field of learning disabilities since its inception. Special educators have used science to confirm or reject approaches to identifying and teaching students with disabilities. Current research and practice is using science to find better approaches to preventing learning difficulties and reducing the…

Universal design for instruction is presented as a new paradigm for approaching equal educational access for college students with learning disabilities. Topics covered include changing student demographics, instructional challenges, the universal design concept, universal design in educational settings, and applying universal design to college…

Classroom discussion is often underutilized by teachers and students alike; however, it remains a viable pedagogical choice for actively engaging students in learning. The combination of Book Club discussions and intentionally designed simple strategies as tools in resource rooms or co-taught general education classrooms may increase the speaking…

WebQuests are gaining popularity as teachers explore using the Internet for guided learning activities. A WebQuest involves students working on a task that is broken down into clearly defined steps. Students often work in groups to actively conduct the research. This article suggests a variety of methods for adapting WebQuests for students with…

In education, the term learning disability is used to describe specific kinds of problems that an individual has with understanding or using spoken or written language. A student with a specific learning disability may have difficulty listening, thinking, speaking, reading, writing, spelling, or doing math problems. You may have heard of dyslexia.…

Background: To what extent do genetic and environmental influences on reading disability overlap with those on mathematics disability? Multivariate genetic research on the normal range of variation in unselected samples has led to a Generalist Genes Hypothesis which posits that the same genes largely affect individual differences in these…