Important legal and policy changes in recent years have made postsecondary education an increasingly viable option for students with learning disabilities. These include substantive changes in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004) in the area of transition planning, research examining the importance of a college degree on…

Writing performance for a large number of adolescents, with and without learning disabilities (LD), in the United States is below the level required for success in college and in the world of work. Despite the importance of writing and students' with LD documented difficulties in this academic domain, writing intervention research for adolescents…

The changing job market requires a sophisticated array of literacy skills that adolescents with learning disabilities reading below grade level have not yet acquired. This summary of the research on reading comprehension highlights emerging findings and related instructional conditions necessary to achieve optimal student outcomes with limited…

Developmental dyslexia is associated with functional abnormalities within reading areas of the brain. For some children diagnosed with dyslexia, phonologically based remediation programs appear to rehabilitate brain function in key reading areas (Shaywitz et al., Biological Psychiatry 55: 101-110, 2004; Simos et al., Neuroscience 58: 1203-1213,…

Schools are increasingly using curriculum-based measurement reading procedures to conduct universal screenings as a means of identifying students whose level and rate of growth are discrepant from peers. Despite abundant evidence supporting the reliability and validity of curriculum-based measurement-reading procedures, researchers have not fully…

Concerns about the ability-achievement discrepancy method for specific learning disability (SLD) determination led to alternative research-based methods, such as failure to respond to intervention. Neither of these "regulatory" methods address the "statutory" SLD definition, which explicitly includes a deficit in "basic…

This study examined whether audiovisual computer training without linguistic material had a remedial effect on different learning disabilities, like dyslexia and ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). This study applied a pre-test-intervention-post-test design with students (N = 62) between the ages of 7 and 19. The computer training lasted eight weeks…

Spelling errors in the Wide Range Achievement Test were analyzed for 77 pairs of children, each of which included one older child with spelling disability (SD) and one spelling-level-matched younger child with normal spelling ability from the Colorado Learning Disabilities Research Center database. Spelling error analysis consisted of a percent…

The number of students who are being identified as having a learning disability is rising at an alarming rate, creating concerns regarding misdiagnoses and overrepresentation of minority groups in special education. Response to Intervention (RtI) has emerged as a scientifically validated approach to delivering quality interventions early in a…

A fundamental assumption in the identification of specific learning disabilities (SLD) has been that the presence of a severe discrepancy between ability and academic achievement is a valid marker for the presence of a SLD. This assumption is based on the notion that discrepant low achievers constitute a unique group of children who are different…

Forest Grove School District v. T.A. involved a student with learning disabilities, Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and depression (T.A.) whose parents had moved him to a private academy for students with special needs without first consulting with his public school. In the past, the school district had found T.A. to be ineligible…

The purposes of this study were to investigate the reliability and construct validity of measures of reading component skills with a sample of adult basic education (ABE) learners, including both native and nonnative English speakers, and to describe the performance of those learners on the measures. Investigation of measures of reading components…

A program for adults with learning disabilities is being conducted at the Educational Testing and Learning Clinic (ETLC) at Orange Coast College (OCC). The program has five components. In order to enroll, the student's basic skill level must be below the eighth grade in reading, spelling, and writing, and below the sixth grade in mathematics. The…

The conditions of learning and the causes of learning difficulties are defined; identification of children with learning disabilities is considered. Half of the document is a curriculum guide for remediation through the visual, auditory, and motor approach; problems, symptoms, diagnoses, representative activities, and materials are detailed. About…

The final report of 3 years activity in the Area Learning Center of Kent Intermediate School District in Michigan presents its proposed design and objectives, operations, statistics on referrals, and an overall evaluation of its programs. Included are discussions of interdisciplinary approaches to educational diagnosis, prescriptive educational…