Marking major changes in professional role performance, response to intervention (RTI) is now in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004) as a possible method to improve the identification of specific learning disabilities. Moreover, RTI and related concepts and initiatives have fundamentally influenced more general methods of…

Constructing well-formed sentences is an important element of writing. However, many students struggle with this skill; in particular, writers with learning disability (LD). In this study sentence-combining practice with a peer-assistance component was used to improve the ability of four young students with LD to construct sentences and compose…

This article describes the use of a set of evidence-based quality indicators to assess performance by 15 NHS Boards across Scotland in a national review, with a particular focus on the quality of services for people with complex health needs. Evidence based best practice and evaluative data from previous inspections were used to develop Quality…

In this paper we argue that video recording of actual practice should be a central tool for organisations attempting to improve services for people with learning disabilities. Since an important site for the disempowerment of service-users is in everyday, mundane interactions with service staff, an approach to staff development is needed which…

The study examined perceptions of family relationships and communication in 52 families who have an adolescent child diagnosed with learning disabilities (LD) with a matched group of 52 families who have a child without LD. Parents and youth completed a self-reported "Family Relations and Communication Scales" assessment. Findings…

Intended to be an instructive, yet sobering, introduction to the complex and disturbing nature of the juvenile justice system, this article details the "numbers," including selected percentages, ratios, and dollar amounts, that are relevant to developing a better understanding of the juvenile justice system. General statistics about juvenile and…

Batsche, Kavale, and Kovaleski (this issue) have done an outstanding job of summarizing arguments for and against the use of response-to-intervention (RTI) procedures for identifying learning disabilities. In this response, we raise issues relevant to the concept of learning disabilities, the nature of problems associated with standard…

This digest presents definitions of 30 important terms in the field of learning disabilities. They are: accommodations, assistive technology, attention deficit disorder, brain imaging techniques, brain injury, collaboration, developmental aphasia, direct instruction, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, dyslexia, dysnomia, dyspraxia, learned helplessness,…

The proceedings of the 1980 first National Meeting of Learning Disabled (LD) Adults are presented. Topics focused on the history and current status of the consumer movement among LD adults. The concern of national and local LD groups with problems facing LD adults is traced, and current movements within ACLD (Association for Children and Adults…

Two digit span distraction tasks were used to compare performance of 32 learning disabled (LD) and 32 normal children (mean ages 16 and 15 years). On the first set of tasks, where the neutral and distraction conditions were matched for their ability to discriminate between groups, no differential distraction effect was found. The second task's…

In rebuttal to seven responses to a paper (EC 081 334) on differences between the fields of learning disabilities and reading, the author notes the disagreement among the respondents as to points of overlap and difference, and reaffirms that two fields of study continue to exist. (DB)

After an eight-lesson program in body awareness, learning disabled students demonstrated improvement in self portrait drawings and in the accuracy of body part connections. (CL)

The author addresses the problem of defining the learning disabled population and considers a solution to the dilemma in which different definitions serve different functions. (SBH)

Differences in visual-ocular function, particularly optokinetic nystagmus (OKN), were compared with 40 learning disabled and 40 normal children (8-12 years-old). No significant differences were found between groups on the variables tested (refixation saccades, smooth ocular pursuit, spontaneous nystagmus, gaze nystagmus, and OKN). (Author/DB)