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 is the story of a college professor with learning disabilities that were undiagnosed until age 17. Failing school, he was excluded from a college bound academic track in junior and senior high school. He eventually went on to earn a doctoral degree after first becoming a special education teacher, certified reading teacher, and school…

Students with disabilities often have difficulty understanding expository history texts in high school. This article presents an integrated curriculum/instruction/assessment approach to teaching history that increases content comprehension and problem-solving skills of students with learning disabilities in inclusive classrooms. Concept-based…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was recently reauthorized as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004. Several significant changes were made in the most recent reauthorization. These included requirements for "highly qualified" special education teachers; a track that will result in full…

This study examined the operationalization of one of the key reforms initiated by the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (U.S. Congress, 1975) and continued through the 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (U.S. Congress, 2004)--namely, nondiscriminatory assessment. The original and current…

This study presents a longitudinal examination of the development of reading and reading-related skills of 22 Grade 4 children identified as having reading disabilities (RD) who had been followed since kindergarten. The analyses were conducted to investigate the patterns of emergence of RD as well as reading ability and risk status across the 5…

The recent reauthorization of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA; 2004) is first discussed in its historical context. Then, a programmatic line of research (funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development since 1989) is described that is relevant to a proposed model for universal…

Special education research has undergone one of the most significant developments in the history of education during the past two decades (Gersten, Vaughn, Deshler, & Schiller, 1997). These developments can be related to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1997 and the resulting knowledge about teaching individuals with…

This paper proposes that learning and teaching for pupils with severe and profound and multiple learning difficulties could be enhanced by a closer focus on emotional factors and on the careful identification of what is meaningful for them. Phil Goss, senior lecturer in counselling and psychotherapy at the University of Central Lancashire draws on…

The analysis identified discursive strategies used by general education teachers in inclusion classrooms to orchestrate and scaffold the verbal participation of all students, including students with learning disabilities (LD). The context was writing instruction. A whole-class lesson involving teacher student collaboration to write a text was…

The purpose of this study was to test the effects of a comprehensive writing program for students with and without learning disabilities (LD) in inclusive general education classrooms. The program incorporated research-based components including instruction in a prewriting planning strategy, narrative text structure, writing strategies, and the…

The researchers examined the educational outcomes of three groups of college students who received an evaluation due to academic difficulties: those diagnosed with a learning disability (LD) who subsequently registered for services through the university student disability resource center; those diagnosed with an LD who did not register for…

This study examined validity of the School Function Assessment (SFA) and interrater reliability of occupational therapist and teacher ratings of students' school function. The validity of the SFA was examined using the known-group method in 35 participants in kindergarten through 7th grade attending elementary schools; 15 students with learning…

`Mainstream schooling is a key policy in the promotion of social inclusion of young people with learning disabilities. Yet there is limited evidence about the school experience of young people about to leave mainstream as compared with segregated education, and how it impacts on their relative view of self and future aspirations. Methods: Sixty…

A classroom intervention employing math racetracks was carried out to teach math facts to two elementary students with learning disabilities. A math racetrack is a drill and practice procedure where known and unknown facts are placed on a sheet of paper like an oval racetrack. The effectiveness of using math racetracks was evaluated with a…