It is evident from reading research that students with learning disabilities (LD) greatly benefit from teacher-student interactions during small group comprehension instruction (e.g., Berkeley, Scruggs, & Mastropieri, 2010). Given that questioning takes up the vast majority of instructional interactions between teachers and students (Chin,…

The educational community has raised several concerns regarding the identification of students with disabilities. Growing numbers of students classified in the Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) category have prompted much discussion. Available research on SLD classification raises issues regarding the traditional ability/achievement discrepancy…

Proficient reading is a necessary skill for a quality life. While educators would like to believe that most students master the art of reading and can understand what they read, national reports indicate that learning to read and becoming a skilled reader is not mastered by all (No Child Left Behind Act, 2001; NICHD, 2000a). One component of…

Response to Intervention provides a continuum of instruction across intensity levels through multitiered intervention models. A lot of work to date has been devoted to how to configure tiers to ensure the appropriate increases in intensity. Much less work has been devoted to making adjustments "within" tiers to attempt to forestall the need for…

The assessment of cognitive ability in students with the most severe disabilities presents a challenge to the clinicians who are charged with this task. This article is the second of a two-part series that summarizes what is currently known about effective assessment of the cognitive ability of students with significant impairments in order to…

Secondary school administrators are increasingly finding themselves in the position of implementing Response to Intervention (RTI). This system of providing progressively intensive levels of intervention for the purposes of preventing academic failure and identifying children with learning disability may be useful at the secondary level. However,…

Background: Specificity and transfer of learning have been examined in experimental studies. However, their findings may not be relevant to practitioners because of the difference between the experiment conditions and teaching situations. This case study investigates the theoretical issue of specificity vs. transfer of learning by conducting…

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of activity with an educational electronic book (e-book), as compared with adult reading of the printed version of the same book, on the vocabulary, phonological awareness as well as concept about print of preschool children at risk for learning disabilities. The study involved the…

Spelling skills are essential for school success (Fulk & Stormont-Spurgin, 1995; Matz, 1994). Teachers need an efficient method for teaching spelling strategies to students with learning disabilities. Although research in spelling has attempted to improve spelling instruction for teachers in classrooms (Henderson, 1985; Graham & Miller, 1979;…

People with learning disabilities have talents and skills, but rarely do they get the chance to start their own business. In Business was designed to challenge this and to make self employment a realistic option for some by setting out to support and capture the journey to business for people with a learning disability and those who support them.…

Systemic therapy works not just with the individual but those around them in trying to address difficulties and find ways forward. This approach has received increasing attention in learning disability settings over recent years. To date little is known about the provision of systemic therapy in learning disability services in the UK. This article…

The most recent Office of Special Education report (2006) showed a persistent school completion gap between general education students and peers identified as having "high-incidence conditions," including a specific learning disability, behavior or emotional disability, other health impairment under Section 504, or milder levels of intellectual…

Commissioning has been defined as "The process of translating aspirations and need into timely and quality services" (CSCI 2006). This paper describes the development of some practical guidance for people involved in commissioning services for individuals with learning disabilities. A national conference was organised in November 2005 to…

This paper focusses on the need and benefit of using multimedia applications to cater to the needs of children with learning disabilities. The children with special educational needs found in various schools may face difficulties in acquiring academic skills such as reading, spelling, writing, speaking, understanding, listening, thinking or…

The number of students with disabilities arriving on college and university campuses is increasing. Of those students reporting a disability, over half of them state they have a learning disability. Unlike high school, the burden is on the student in college to demonstrate the need for services and communicate this need to the institution in a…