A study examined the executive functioning of 55 elementary school children with and without problems in written expression. A model that reflects some of the executive function domains (initiate, sustain, set shifting and inhibition/stopping) which significantly separate good writers from poor writers was used, however, none of the executive…

A study investigated whether 32 adolescents with reading disabilities (RD) were slower at processing visual information compared to children of comparable age and reading level, or whether their deficit was specific to the written word. Adolescents with RD demonstrated difficulties in processing rapidly presented verbal and nonverbal visual…

A study investigated the relationship between working memory (WM), declarative strategy knowledge, and math achievement in 111 children with and without mathematical disabilities (MD). Results found verbal and visual-spatial WM, stable verbal strategy choices, and expert strategy choices related to visual-spatial processing all contributed…

In response to a previous article, the paper stresses that, in addition to theory development, the field of learning disabilities needs to resolve definitional issues involving disability specificity, intelligence, measurement concepts, and the continua of abilities. Suggestions for developing operational definitions of both learning disabilities…

The literature on metacognition and students having learning problems is reviewed. Investigations of metacognitive instruction to enhance memory skills, to increase text comprehension, and to improve written expression and math performance are reported. The roles of the teacher and learner in acquiring and controlling the targeted cognitive…

Instruction designed to facilitate planning was provided to 12 math students (ages 9-12) with learning disabilities to determine if there would be differential effects on individual students. Teaching control and regulation of cognitive activity was beneficial for all students but was especially helpful for those with poor planning skills.…

The study with 989 learning-disabled students supported the cognitive-based arithmetic problem-solving model of Dinnel et al. under continuous visual stimulus conditions but suggested a more complex neuropsychological underpinning to arithmetic performance in both visual and aural stimulus conditions. (Author/DB)

Two experiments comparing 114 good and poor readers in second and fourth grades as well as 26 college students found poor readers did not interpret spoken sentences as accurately as good readers and that their performance was like that of younger children suggesting a developmental lag in phonological processing skills. (Author/DB)

A sample of 133 Spanish children (ages 8 to 13) was classified by IQ and reading level and given a lexical processing task. The study found that IQ did not explain differences between learning-disabled (LD) or nondisabled (NLD) children in lexical processing. Lexical and sublexical parameters had a greater influence on LD students than NLD…

This article reviews research on the influence of affect on thoughts, cognition, and behavior of students with learning disabilities and finds that induced positive affect leads to more accurate performance on math, greater learning of new vocabulary, and better performance on new learning tasks. (Author/DB)

This article introduces a series of papers on cognitive process-based instruction for students with learning disabilities. Cognitive process-based instruction is defined and differentiated from the process training advocated by S. Kirk in the 1970s. The method's basis of sound theory and academic tasks is stressed. (DB)

This article responds to Sylvia Richardson (EC 602 667), noting a failure to address the definitional issues associated with dyslexia. A definition of dyslexia is offered that considers the nature of the processing limitation underlying the disorder as well as the developmental changes that occur in the manifestation of the disorder. (Author/DB)

This paper proposes an instructional model for integrating cognitive strategy instruction and content area instruction when teaching students with learning disabilities in content area classes. In the model, teacher-mediated instructional devices and routines used to teach content area subjects serve as a basis for teaching students to…

A review of relevant cognitive research in mathematics is presented and applied to instructional practice with students with learning disabilities. The review focuses on the role of three principles of curriculum development in facilitating procedural competence in mathematics: the nature of examples, explicitness, and parsimony. (Author/JDD)