The first part of this article explains the connection between planning, presenting, and evaluating assignments for students who demonstrate ineffective assignment completion strategies. The second part offers specific guidelines for teaching students to check their own finished assignments according to a set of quality work criteria. (Contains…

This article examines the research surrounding definitions and selection criteria for learning disabilities and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder at the postsecondary level. Implications from and for the courts follow a critical analysis of the professional literature. The need for theory-based models to investigate relationships between…

Constructs a model for successful peer involvement for assessing writing produced by classmates with learning disabilities. Discusses six effective outcome building blocks: (1) cooperative learning from a student perspective; (2) peer as a learning assistant; (3) orchestrating purposeful peer interactions; (4) valuing peer assessment; (5)…

Discusses the rationale for offering study-skills instruction to middle and high school students with learning disabilities, describing a college methods course that was developed to train teachers to use study-skills instructional procedures. The paper also describes a study-skills clinic that was developed to provide guided one-to-one, hands-on…

In response to Kavale and Forness (EC 630 380), this article raises four issues concerning the balance between science and politics in learning disabilities (LD): (1) LD as an objective biological entity; (2) uses of a scientific definition of LD; (3) political advocacy concerning unacceptable achievement and LD; and (4) risks in assuming…

Three fifth graders with learning disabilities received instruction designed to help them incorporate three common planning strategies into their current approach to writing. Students learned to set goals, brainstorm ideas, and sequence their ideas while writing stories and completing assignments. The schematic structure of stories improved, and…

Investigated the contribution of two working-memory systems (the articulatory loop and the central executive) to the performance differences between learning-disabled and skilled readers. Found that, compared to skilled readers, learning-disabled readers experienced constraints in the articulatory and long-term memory system, and suffered…

Examined heritability of reading deficits in dyslexic subtypes. Found reading deficits were heritable in developmental phonological and surface dyslexics, with greater genetic contribution in the former. Findings suggest a partial independence in the development of cognitive processes involved in reading, and affirm accounts of surface dyslexia…

This article presents an overview of two studies that examined the relationship between metacognition and mathematical problem solving in 165 third-graders. Principle components analysis on metacognition revealed that three metacognitive components (global metacognition, off-line metacognition, and attribution to effort) explained 66-67 percent of…

An instructional program designed to help middle school students with severe learning disabilities learn about story themes, and focused on enhancing ability to generalize to themes not included in the instruction, was evaluated. Findings indicate students with learning disabilities can profit from instruction geared toward abstract higher order…

A survey of 89 graduates with learning disabilities of a large public university found they were employed at comparable rates and salaries to graduates from the institution at large and at higher rates than individuals with LD who did not graduate from postsecondary institutions. Also provided are data on postgraduate education, types of…

Three-year-old children (n=41) with mild learning problems and 41 typical children were given a battery consisting of seven simple cognitive tasks shown to contribute toward the differentiation of children with and without mild learning problems. Picture identification, oppositional concepts, identity discrimination, and semantic…

Considers how IQ tests may not be an effective means of identifying English-as-a-second language (ESL) students with learning disabilities due to inherent cultural biases of the tests. Concludes that the use of IQ tests with ESL or English-dialect students is inappropriate when the student's first or primary language is different from the language…

This introductory article discusses the current status of our knowledge as well as critical research needs in the earliest stages of literacy, before formal schooling begins. It summarizes articles addressing this topic that are based on a three-day workshop on emergent and early literacy learning held in September, 2001. (Contains three…

This commentary discusses publication of QCA guidelines on developing the curriculum for pupils with learning difficulties. It links the guidelines to the recent review of the National Curriculum and identifies some of the contributions these guidelines can make to planning, teaching, and assessment. Challenges for practice and research are…