This four-year longitudinal research was designed to study special education determinations of students who participated in Tier 2 intervention in a Response to Intervention (RtI) model focused on reading across Grades 1 through 4. We compared identification rates for learning disabilities and student characteristics of 381 students the year prior…

In this article, we considered evidence from our intervention research programs on whether students with learning disability (LD) in reading and mathematics (comorbid LD) respond differently to intervention, compared to students with reading LD alone (RD) or to students with mathematics LD alone (MD). The goal was to gain insight into whether…

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling abilities. The absence of other high level cognitive deficits in the dyslexic population has led some authors to propose that non-strategical processes like implicit learning could be impaired in this…

This investigation compared attainment in 196,405 students with and without disabilities who were taking courses by distance learning with the Open University in the United Kingdom in 2009. When the effects of demographic variables were statistically controlled, students with mental health difficulties showed poorer course completion than…

The study investigated whether family functioning can predict the self-concept and self-esteem of normally achieving (NA) and at risk for learning disabilities (LD) students in Oman regardless of parent education level and gender status. A total of 259 elementary school students were selected from schools in the main districts of Muscat, the…

This study investigated whether students with reading disabilities (RD) showed greater regression in reading skills than did non-RD students over the summer vacation. The RD group consisted of 30 students in grades 4 to 6 from a private school for students with learning disabilities and a comparison group of 30 average readers in grades 4 to 6…

Explanations of the marked individual differences in elementary school mathematical achievement and mathematical learning disability (MLD or dyscalculia) have involved domain-general factors (working memory, reasoning, processing speed, and oral language) and numerical factors that include single-digit processing efficiency and multidigit skills…

The pediatric literature indicates that children with ADHD are at greater risk for sleep problems, daytime sleepiness, and some sleep disorders than children with no diagnosed disability. It has not been determined whether this pattern holds true among emerging adults, and whether comorbid sleep disorders with ADHD predict GPA. The present study…

"Spelling Mastery" is designed to explicitly teach spelling skills to students in grades 1 through 6. One of several Direct Instruction curricula from McGraw-Hill that precisely specify how to teach incremental content, "Spelling Mastery" includes phonemic, morphemic, and whole-word strategies. The What Works Clearinghouse…

Asperger syndrome (AS) and nonverbal learning disabilities (NLD) are developmental disorders in which linguistic ability is reported to be stronger than in disorders from which they must be distinguished for diagnosis. Children and adults with AS and NLD share pragmatic weaknesses, atypical social behaviours, and some cognitive features. To date,…

Elementary school children with reading disabilities (RD; "n" = 17), mathematical disabilities (MD; "n" = 22), or combined reading and mathematical disabilities (RD+MD; "n" = 28) were compared to average achieving (AA; "n" = 45) peers on working memory measures. On all working memory components, 2 (RD vs. no…

A new method for a quantitative and objective description of drawing and for the quantification of drawing ability in children with learning disabilities (LD) is hereby presented. Twenty-four normally developing children (N) (age 10.6 [plus or minus] 0.5) and 18 children with learning disabilities (LD) (age 10.3 [plus or minus] 2.4) took part to…

In Study 1, children in grades 4-9 (N = 88, 29 females and 59 males) with persisting reading and/or writing disabilities, despite considerable prior specialized instruction in and out of school, were given an evidence-based comprehensive assessment battery at the university while parents completed questionnaires regarding past and current history…

Many students, with and without learning disabilities, have been found to increase their reading skills through the use of data-informed individualized reading intervention; however, less is known about how to use assessments to individualize spelling intervention. Standardized spelling tests commonly assess spelling by asking students to spell…

It is often assumed that current disability constructs exist in conceptual isolation from one another. This article explores the tangled historical relationship between "mental retardation" and learning disability in the writings and speeches of special education pioneer Samuel A. Kirk. Beginning in the 1950s, Kirk repeatedly told an educability…