Tai ji quan, also known as "tai chi," is an ancient Chinese exercise characterized by soft, slow, and meditative movements. It consists of a set of continuous, evenly paced, carefully choreographed, but natural, body shifts. "Tai ji" is an ancient Chinese philosophy, while "tai ji quan" refers to a type of physical activity based on tai ji…

Ms. Carlisi teaches middle school mathematics for students who were retained at least 1 year and who were identified as at risk of failure in mathematics. About half of her class of 14 students has identified learning disabilities and/or emotional and behavioral difficulties. Ms. Carlisi worries constantly that she is not going to be able to help…

Teaching in a regular classroom has become more complicated than ever with increased student diversity and pressure to connect learning experiences to educational standards and test preparation. Although teaching to the middle is often what occurs in traditional classrooms to meet required standards, it is neither an appropriate nor meaningful…

Response to intervention (RTI) is a framework for providing high-quality instruction and intervention matched to students' individual needs. It includes the practice of frequent progress monitoring and use of data to make educational decisions about instructional and grouping practices as well as the duration, frequency, and amount of time…

This article describes a lesson plan model that applies principles of universal design for learning (UDL) and multisensory learning centers to the framework of a traditional direct instruction spelling lesson for elementary students with learning, social, and attention problems. It reviews essential components of UDL and demonstrates how to…

One out of every 11 postsecondary undergraduates report having a disability, and students with learning disabilities are the largest and fastest growing subgroup of this population. Although faculty are becoming more comfortable with providing students with learning disabilities accommodations as mandated by federal law, many instructors are using…

Purpose: This final article covering the topic of the interplay between decoding, comprehension, and content versus structure knowledge describes a set of language initiatives that are focused toward content area learning. Inspired by the work of their colleagues from diverse fields and their own work, the authors offer suggestions to clinicians…

A professor involved with the HELDS project (Higher Education for Learning Disabled Students) describes modifications in a general chemistry course. A syllabus lists program objectives for eight text chapters, evaluation components, and course rules. Two units are described in detail, with information presented on modifications made for LD…

Ways in which to accommodate learning disabled students in a college course on electricity are considered by a professor involved with the HELDS project (Higher Education for Learning Disabled Students). He suggests that knowledge of the student's presentation, imagination in devising new methods, and ability to improvise are important assets.…

The significance of research on hemispheric differences for working with the learning disabled child is considered. Several methods for assessing a student's hemispheric preference are reviewed. It is suggested that the curriculum include teaching strategies that address both left and right brain functioning. Techniques for involving both…

Error Monitoring, a learning strategy designed to enable a student to detect and correct errors in written products, was taught to nine learning disabled (LD) adolescents. The instructional procedure involved an 11 step process including such procedures as describing the steps of the strategy, modeling the strategy, and student practice to…

Multipass, a complex learning strategy designed to enable a student to gain information from textbook chapters, was taught to eight learning disabled adolescents. The instructional procedures involved a 10 step process including such procedures as describing the steps of the strategy, modeling the strategy, and student practice to criterion in…

Research on teaching methods is reviewed for improving the reading comprehension of learning disabled (LD) students. Among the approaches noted are the structured overview, in which the teacher and/or students arrange important concepts and terms in a graphic design for introduction and discussion before reading; use of story grammars to outline…

Using a classroom discussion of the human digestive system as an example, the article promotes the idea that demonstrating abstractions in concrete experiential terms permits the learning disabled youngster to discover concepts for himself, which is the best possible learning experience. (JYC)

Waterlearning, in which water supplements the classroom as the learning center, provides an alternative through which skills and concepts can be taught to learning disabled students for whom regular teaching methods are often ineffective. (SBH)