A thematic approach to creating learning activities for learning disabled students is described, and three curricular outlines are presented. The thematic approach, whereby instruction in all Ss revolves around a common theme, is discussed in terms of curricular mode, instructional setting, the specific population, and generalizability of results.…

Examines, in 9- and 12-year-olds, two theories of disabled readers' memory deficiencies. Subjects were compared on diotic and dichotic listening tasks for recall of semantically organized, phonemically organized, and categorically unrelated wordlists. Dependent measures included free recall, serial recall, recall organization, and hierarchical…

The study reports the findings of a meta-analysis, the application of statistical methods of data synthesis from individual studies, reviewing 180 studies assessing the efficacy of perceptual motor training. Perceptual motor training was not found to be an effective intervention technique for improving academic, cognitive, or perceptual motor…

A teacher of learning disabled middle school students relates how she uses picture books to teach reading disabled students the elements of literature. A list of picture storybooks for older readers is followed by activities for teaching theme, setting, plot, and characterization. (CL)

A contingency-based lottery system was implemented to improve the classroom behavior of 18 learning disabled and educable mentally handicapped students, aged 13 to 16 years. Results indicated substantial increases in times students remained in assigned areas, and numbers of students prepared for class; and marked reduction in nonauthorized…

Reviews the literature on learning disabilities, focusing on countertherapeutic styles of interacting with college students. Illustrates problems in the counseling process (e.g., limiting client options, negative dependency, avoidance, premature termination) through a case example. (WAS)

A comparison was made of the performance of 30 learning-disabled students on the Bender Visual-Motor Gestalt Test and the Beery Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration. A significant correlation of -.72 was obtained. No significant difference was found in estimations of age equivalents. (Author)

A career exploration and awareness curriculum was established for a self-contained class in a day school for severely behavior disordered and learning disabled adolescents. The classroom was set up according to a work-stations concept in areas which included business, electronics/electricity, and mechanics. (SW)

Children may understand handicapped classmates and their problems better if they read fictional materials about disabled youngsters. An annotated bibliography of children's fiction dealing with handicapped children and adults is provided. (PP)

Results indicated that cooperative learning experiences, compared with competitive and individualistic ones, promoted more interpersonal attraction between 12 learning disabled and behavior problem fourth graders and 47 nonhandicapped peers and promoted higher self-esteem for all students. Cooperation promoted greater perspective-taking ability…

Untrained normal achievers attributed failure to adoption of specific task strategies, while untrained learning disabled boys attributed failure to task difficulty. Characteristics of learned helplessness were apparent in the impaired performance of the learning-disabled boys. Normal achievers appeared to have developed active and independent…

Discusses a series of six studies that investigated the performance of 66 reading and learning disabilities specialists and classroom teachers who diagnosed simulated reading or learning disability cases and suggested remediation plans. Results indicate that both commonality and individual agreement among participants was very low. (AEA)

The authors look at the developments and events that grew out of the Learning Disability Act of 1969 (P.L. 92-20), particularly in relation to the role of Child Service Demonstration Centers (CSDCs). It is concluded that CSDCs spread the philosophies and technologies of the field of learning disabilities. (SW)

Measured interclinician agreement among 24 school psychologists who assessed a simulated learning disability case. Agreement was found to be moderately high for diagnosis and somewhat less for prescriptions. Little interpretational bias was shown. However the simulated lower-class Black child was judged ineligible for services more often.…

Neuropsychologically based intervention approaches for learning disabled students are reviewed. The approaches, which are in the areas of neurological organization, psycholinguistics, and perceptual motor skills, are also evaluated for their effectiveness in terms of theory and practice. (CJ)