The paper reviews research on the pragmatic language skills of language impaired and learning disabled students. Discourse skills are analyzed in terms of communicative intentions, presupposition, social organization of discourse, and context. Narrative skills are examined according to narrative structure, scripts, text cohesion, and audience…

The following aspects of left-handedness are discussed: etiology and associated learning and developmental disorders; right-brain dominance and how to detect it; adaptations to the physical learning environment; behavior patterns; and teaching techniques. (JW)

A step-by-step relaxation technique for teaching spelling to learning disabled students is described. (JW)

A phonics lesson with a learning disabled adult is analyzed to illustrate the author's contention that learning and learning dysfunctions cannot be explained primarily in cognitive terms which seek to reduce complex social-psychological interactions to narrow mental explanations. (CL)

Most of 32 learning disabled children (seven to 14 years old) with neurological lateralization characteristics marked by right and left hemispheres had a normal CT (computerized tomography) scan. (CL)

The interaction place map, a mnemonic device which depicts the five most common places in which humans interact, can be used to teach social skills to elementary learning disabled students. Students can plot movement on the map as they move within an interaction. (CL)

The author offers suggestions to help teachers create a climate favorable to the growth of students with learning disabilities. Stressed are the need for freedom from distraction, the provision of alternative methods of instruction, constructive approaches to testing, and use of simple and inexpensive resources (such as peer teaching and tapes).…

Studies about the characteristics, assessment, and treatment of impulsive children are reviewed and summarized from the viewpoint of their application to school settings. Specific recommendations touch on the need for both performance measures and behavioral ratings and cite the effectiveness of such behavioral approaches as response cost.…

Seven remedial exercises designed to integrate reading and writing skills for learning disabled students are presented. The exercises, part of a model communicative writing program, focus on copying, automatic writing, restoring deleted words, outlining, paraphrasing, projection, and correspondence. Examples of student writing are included. (CL)

Learning disabled students can perform tasks to understand seven "metagrammars," organizational structures in writing: (1) narration, (2) chronology, (3) location, (4) analogy, (5) origin, (6) taxonomy, and (7) description. Charts can sensitize students to the various types of organizations. (CL)

Learning disabled students can be helped to understand figurative language by emphasizing the difference between literal and figurative statements, providing opportunities for practice, and extending the thinking and perceptual skills to other content areas. (CL)

Nine procedures assessing the magnitude or statistical significance of ability-achievement discrepancy dealing only with magnitude were evaluated and found to possess one or more serious statistical deficiencies. The approach with the greatest potential involves assessing the statistical significance (reliability) of a discrepancy score and then…

Learning disabled students were taught to use the LOGO computer graphics language in an integrated fourth- and fifth-grade setting. Instructional strategies (such as providing many reviews) along with the intrinsically motivating nature of LOGO were thought to be responsible for the success. (CL)

To overcome anxiety of learning disabled students regarding story problems, teachers should view the approach as a vehicle for developing thinking skills. Removing the speed factor and focusing on process and relationships between data are among ways to promote success with story problems. (CL)

The neuropsychological approach to studying learning disabilities (LD) has produced two extreme positions: the view of LD as (1) homogeneous and unitary and (2) as a pattern of unique and idiosyncratic characteristics. Resulting classification approaches for determining subtypes of the population have important implications for assessment and…