The communication effectiveness of 15 learning disabled and 15 control adolescent boys was compared employing a referential task entailing repeated communication failure. The learning disabled boys provided less effective messages and their descriptions tended toward egocentricity. (Author/DB)

Issues in the transition of youth (of which 50 percent are special education students) from the community to correctional programs and then back to the community are identified and three programs which facilitate this transition in Louisiana, Washington, and Kentucky are briefly described. (DB)

Teaching suggestions are offered for teaching spelling to poor spellers strong in auditory processing skills but weak in visual processing skills. (Author/DB)

Compares the communicative behaviors of 18 learning disabled/language impaired (LD/LI) children with two matched groups of normally developing children. LD and normal groups were matched up by age and language mates, and observed for evidence of communicative effectiveness and verbal output. Findings of the study are discussed and related to the…

Wright State University (Dayton, Ohio) has provided special educational services to learning disabled students since 1974. Among program components are basic skills courses, special tutoring and test-taking arrangements, a library of taped textbooks, and counseling. Student characteristics and their attitudes toward self and the program are…

A review of the research on metacognition explores the impact of this concept on learning-disabled individuals, focusing on the positive effects of such research on teaching and on the importance of broadening teachers' understanding of their learning-disabled students' academic failures. (Author/CB)

The article examines the foreign language requirement in college and its impact on universities and students with specific learning disabilities (SLD). Noted are SLD foreign language learning subtypes, factors affecting SLD students' language learning ability, college expectations and requirements, and ways universities are dealing with these…

Extracts from "Experimenting with Numbers" by Margaret Stern demonstrate the use of Stern Blocks to develop the conceptual base on which learning disabled students can build further mathematical skills. (DB)

The article details an instructional procedure (based on the effective instruction research) to enable learning disabled adolescents to master three types of algebraic word problems: relational problems, proportion problems, and problems with two variables and two equations. (Author/DB)

In view of popular press coverage of controversial approaches to treating learning disabilities, the article briefly reviews evidence concerning the following: neurophysiological retraining (patterning, optometric visual training, cerebellar-vestibular remediation, and applied kinesiology); and orthomolecular medicine (concerning megavitamins,…

The effectiveness of two approaches (direct instruction and discussion/workbook) to teaching 25 elementary level learning disabled students three critical reading skills (argument analysis, embedded argument analysis, skill classification) was evaluated. Subjects in the direct instruction group were found to significantly outperform subjects in…

Comparison of the differential text structure skills in reading and writing of elementary level learning disabled (N=42) and three groups of regular class students indicated significant differences between learning disabled students and their peers in the use of text structure in both reading and writing of expository prose. (Author/DB)

The position paper (1981) of the National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities presents a revised definition of learning disabilities and identifies issues and concerns (such as the limitation to children and the exclusion clause) associated with the definition included in P.L. 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act. (DB)

Results indicated that attainability levels of learning goals affected the students' reading comprehension. LD adolescents had significantly higher comprehension when assessed on information associated with a learning goal completely attainable than on information associated with a partially attainable learning goal. (Author/CL)