The ability to write well is more important today than ever to prepare students for success in school and later in the 21st century global workplace. When children are able to express their knowledge and their beliefs in writing they experience the joy and power of making an impact on the world and reaching to their full potential. Children with…

This book is intended to help language teachers to work effectively and successfully with students who have specific learning differences (SpLD) such as dyslexia. The book takes an inclusive and practical approach to language teaching and encourages teachers to consider the effects that an SpLD could have on a language learner. It suggests…

This comprehensive toolkit will bring you up to speed on why RTI is one of the most important educational initiatives in recent history and sets the stage for its future role in teacher education and practice. The authors demonstrate innovative ways to use RTI to inform instruction and guide curriculum development in inclusive classroom settings.…

Psychoeducational assessment, and specifically cognitive testing, is important to the role of school psychologists; however, the utility of such testing has been called into question, and its future is unclear. Researchers are divided into two camps. One side grew disenchanted with cognitive testing after the failure of the discrepancy method to…

Young children who experience severe deprivation or neglect can experience a range of negative consequences. Neglect can delay brain development, impair executive function skills, and disrupt the body's stress response. This working paper from the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child explains why neglect is so harmful in the…

The Idaho State Department of Education (SDE) recently revised its SLD identification policy to include a requirement to document a student's response to intervention coupled with a comprehensive evaluation. To implement this policy, the SDE is using multiple implementation drivers. In this article, we describe how and why the new policy was…

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of the special educator within a response-to-intervention (RTI) framework and to examine what instructional behaviors special educators evidence most frequently in the advanced RTI tiers (i.e., tiers beyond tier 1). Specifically, these two issues were investigated with regard to: (a) proportion of…

As part of a global movement, South Africa is embracing political and academic change designed to enhance the lives of all students. Small, gradual courses of actions serve to level the educational playing field for students with and without disabilities. Kliptown Youth Project by design serves as evidence of a small, but persistent transforming…

Experiences of eight staff working with people who have a learning disability and complex mental health needs were explored by interviews and analysed using the free association narrative interview approach (Hollway & Jefferson 2000). Participants reported that organisational factors such as not having enough permanent staff and having to manage a…

The authors of this current study compared the memory performance of adolescent students with specific reading disabilities (RD) with that of typical adolescent readers on a newly developed verbal learning test, the "Bergen-Tucson Verbal Learning Test" (BTVLT). This multiple trial test was designed to measure memory acquisition,…

This study explored the perspectives of people with learning disabilities on relationships and supports in the Republic of Ireland. A national research network consisting of 21 researchers with learning disabilities, 12 supporters, and 7 university researchers conducted the study. Researchers with learning disabilities and their supporters ran 16…

Learning disabilities (LD) are one of the most frequent problems for elementary school-aged children. In this paper, event-related EEG oscillations to semantically related and unrelated pairs of words were studied in a group of 18 children with LD not otherwise specified (LD-NOS) and in 16 children with normal academic achievement. We propose that…

Students read text through the sociocultural perspective from which they emerge. They interpret the text that is read through personal and cultural cues, through experiences acquired within a particular cultural context. When no cultural cues are familiar, students have difficulty identifying with and understanding literary text. In…

The current study reviews a computer-based math fluency intervention with 216 third- and fourth-grade students who were at risk for math difficulties. The intervention used a computer software program to practice math facts an average of three times per week for 8 to 15 weeks. Data were compared to those of 226 students in a control group. Results…

Background: Longitudinal studies allow us to identify, which specific maths skills are weak in young children, and whether there is a continuing weakness in these areas throughout their school years. Aims: This 2-year study investigated whether certain socio-demographic variables affect early mathematical competency in children aged 5-7 years.…