This paper reviews studies on cognitive processes that may mediate the development of early learning problems. Topics covered include auditory and visual discrimination deficits, integration of information from different modalities, the significance of attentional factors, contributions of memory factors, and the importance of cognitive style…

Investigated in the first of two studies on verbal elaboration in special populations (learning problem and retarded children) were the effects of paragraph elaboration on the paired-associate and reversal learning of 137 brain-injured and familial educable mentally retarded children 8- to 13-years-old. The relationship between brain-injury…

Teaching organizational strategies to language-disordered children can improve comprehension and formulation of written language. The semantic organizer approach involves activating and organizing prior knowledge, understanding text structure, and developing organizational strategies with both a verbal component and a graphic-structure component.…

The article describes the triarchic theory of human intelligence, which is composed of three subtheories: componential, experiential, and contextual. Deficient cognitive strategies and inadequate knowledge in certain domains may result from the inability of the learning disabled to selectively encode, compare, and combine information, or from an…

With this inaugural edition of "Evidence for Education," NICHCY launches a new publication series exploring the best evidence-based practices education has to offer. "Strategy Instruction" is a powerful student-centered approach to teaching that is backed by years of quality research. In fact, strategic approaches to learning…

A study compared the effect of two different lecture pause procedures (pauses used for reflection and notetaking; pauses used for discussion) on the recall and note completeness of 27 college students with learning disabilities. Results show independent reflection meant fewer ideas partially recorded in notes, but otherwise no significant…

Forty children (ages five to nine) with or without reading disabilities, matched for mental age or reading age, completed a phoneme-grapheme learning task. Reading-disabled children took more trials than controls to learn correspondence pairs. Performance on the phonological processing task of short-term memory was the best predictor of overall…

A special education teacher and a reading specialist who team taught fourth-grade students with learning disabilities were observed to determine the ways in which the teachers' beliefs and practices influenced their decisions about strategy instruction. The effects of strategy instruction on their reading and writing workshops are examined. (CR)

Describes the use of activity boxes with 43 young children with blindness, deaf-blindness, or severe learning disabilities and visual impairments. Discusses the contribution such boxes make to intellectual development, particularly the development of voluntary hand function from the integration of the primitive grasp-and-release instincts shown by…

Discusses major outcome goals and proposes the use of a system of learning strategies and instructional procedures known as content enhancement with an academically diverse group of students, including gifted students with learning disabilities. Content-enhancing instructional routines focus on organization, understanding, recall, and application…

This study compared effects of two variations of the constant-time-delay (CTD) procedure on the observational learning of content area vocabulary by seven primary grade students with learning disabilities in a small group instructional setting. Both conditions (every student writes all words or only target student writes) were equally effective…

This study examines recent evidence that many children with learning disabilities (LD) have accompanying behavior problems, especially children who experience academic difficulties in school but who are not formally diagnosed as LD. Subjects were 85 referrals to a university educational assessment center from 1991 to 1994. The subjects, 58 males…

The complexity (fractal dimension value) of responses to the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test (ROCFT) between 10 undergraduate students with learning disabilities and a comparison group of 10 students without learning disabilities were compared. The fractal value of responses was assessed under three conditions (copy, immediate, and delay) by…

The impact of summer vacation on the reading and arithmetic skills of 166 learning disabled pupils (6 to 11 years old) was examined. Ss included pupils in resource programs or special classes. Analysis of scores on the Wide Range Achievement Test (reading and arithmetic subtests) before and after summer vacation revealed significant differences in…

Designed for use with secondary level learning disabled students and slow learners, this guide contains materials for familiarizing students with the Iowa Basic Driver's Manual. The following materials are included: pre- and posttests, chapter tests, vocabulary drills, worksheets to accompany each chapter of the Iowa driver's manual, and answer…