The National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities (NJCLD) affirms that the construct of learning disabilities represents a valid, unique, and heterogeneous group of disorders, and that recognition of this construct is essential for sound policy and practice. An extensive body of scientific research on learning disabilities continues to support…

A learning disabilities coping program was implemented in the final year of two primary schools within the context of a whole class coping program and whole school learning disabilities professional development. Using data collected over three years from school surveys, reports, interviews, school documents and a field diary, this paper reports on…

The impact of employment laws pertaining to individuals with learning disabilities in Canada and dyslexia in the UK were investigated via the extant research literature. Currently, there is very little research in this area despite Canada and the UK having laws in effect for decades. Surprisingly, their laws have been revamped despite an absence…

Intervention research in special education tends to rely on comparisons of mean differences to determine instructional strategies that "work" for students with disabilities. This reliance on mean differences obscures individual variation that is always present in educational research. This paper examines the degree to which individual variation is…

Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is a heterogeneous disorder, which is often co-morbid with learning disabilities. However, mathematical problems have rarely been studied in DCD. The aim of this study was to investigate the mathematical problems in children with various degrees of motor problems. Specifically, this study explored if the…

The repetitive behaviour questionnaire (RBQ) (Turner, 1995) is one of the three most commonly used interview/questionnaire measures of repetitive behaviour (Honey et al., in preparation). Despite this there is a scarcity of information concerning its structure, reliability and validity. The psychometric properties of the RBQ were examined when…

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and its amendments have been in existence for a little more than twenty years. Title One, which pertains to employment, has had a bearing on employment for persons with disabilities, particularly the high incidence category of learning disabilities, who for the most part work in competitive…

Self-regulated strategy development instruction or SRSD is a method developed for teaching students how and what to think while writing. SRSD instruction for the persuasive writing strategy POW (Pick my idea, Organize notes, Write and Say more) + TREE (Topic sentence, Reasons, Explain reasons, Ending) helps students by teaching them to develop…

Although there is increasing interest in service user involvement in research, such involvement rarely extends to people with profound and multiple learning disabilities. New developments in visual methodologies offer the potential for people with profound and multiple learning disabilities to be included in research. At the same time, however,…

Staff beliefs about self-harm can influence staff responses to the behaviour. Existing research into staff beliefs about self-harm by people with learning disabilities is limited, with qualitative research restricted to forensic services. The aim of this study was to use Q-methodology to explore staff beliefs about why people with learning…

The aim of the audit was to evaluate the current clinical practice for learning-disabled individuals with psychotic disorders. We evaluated the existing clinical practice in 910 individuals who were under the care of learning disability psychiatrists in Buckinghamshire (population of 480 000). This was compared with the National Institute for…

In this exploratory study, secondary special education co-teachers report about specialized reading instruction for students with learning disabilities in co-taught classes. Almost half of the respondents were concerned that reading instruction was not occurring in co-taught classes. One-third were concerned reading instruction was not occurring…

While claims of the importance of attribution theory and teachers' expectations of students for student performance are repeatedly made, there is little comprehensive research identifying the perceptions preservice teachers have of students with learning disabilities (LD). Accordingly, 444 Australian preservice primary school teachers were…

Recent reports highlight the extent to which many people with learning disabilities are not afforded access to their basic human rights. In addition, traditional approaches to risk management often focus on professional assessments of risks and challenging behaviour and exclude service user perspectives. In this paper, we outline what we believe…

Difficulty with spelling is a perennial challenge for students with learning disabilities. Several decades of research, however, have identified both fundamental linguistic concepts and instructional approaches that, when understood by a teacher, can be applied to teach students with learning disabilities to spell. In this article, a brief history…