This book clearly explains what Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD) are, and describes the symptoms of conditions most commonly encountered in the mainstream classroom: dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, Autism Spectrum Disorder, ADHD, and OCD. The author provides an overview of the strengths and weaknesses commonly associated with…

We provided a multicomponent academic vocabulary intervention to six English learners with learning difficulties in a fifth-grade general education setting. A multiple probe design across word sets and replicated across students evaluated the effects of the intervention on students' use of expressive language to read and define content-specific…

Visuospatial working memory and its involvement in arithmetic were examined in two groups of 7- to 11-year-olds: one comprising children described by teachers as displaying symptoms of nonverbal learning difficulties (N = 21), the other a control group without learning disabilities (N = 21). The two groups were matched for verbal abilities, age,…

This meta-analysis synthesizes experimental and quasi-experimental research on instruction that enhances the mathematics performance of K-12 students with learning disabilities. It reports the findings from this synthesis, discusses the implications for practice, and suggests next steps for research and professional development efforts in this…

A main aim of this study was to test the claim that individuals with Williams syndrome have selectively impaired memory for spatial as opposed to visual information. The performance of 16 individuals with Williams syndrome (six males, 10 females; mean age 18y 7mo [SD 7y 6mo], range 9y 1mo-30y 7mo) on tests of short-term memory for item and…

The Bender Gestalt test incorporating the Background Interference Procedure was administered to three groups of children. The BIP yielded significantly higher scores for the brain damaged group, while the scores of the controls and emotionally disturbed children did not differ. (Author)

Assessment approaches are described which avoid the attribution of an ability/achievement discrepancy to a learning deficiency, while emphasizing the interaction between the individual and environment. The Guide to the Child's Learning Skills, learning styles inventory, and contract activity packages are discussed. (CL)

The overlap of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) and the Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Battery (HRNB) was investigated in light of their use in diagnosing children's learning problems. Scores for 1,181 children in the WISC-R and the HRNB were related using a canonical correlational analysis. One significant…

Suggests ways the classroom teacher can spot learning problems in the earliest grades and work with other staff and parents to intervene. (SJL)

This dissertation study examined the hypothesis that kindergarten teachers in Rockville, Maryland, perceive that they can identify children with potential or actual learning disabilities as effectively by informal observation techniques as by the use of the structured Maryland Systematic Teacher Observation Instrument (MSTOI). A survey instrument…

A diagnostic screening procedure for developmental dyslexia which analyzes how a child reads and writes rather than at what level, is outlined. Briefly, the test entails a presentation of a word list at each reading level to determine the child's sight vocabulary and his ability to employ word-attack skills. Following the administration of the…