This article offers characteristics and definitions of gifted, learning disabled, and gifted learning disabled. Principles of identification and programing are summarized. The five dimensions of the Autonomous Learner Model (including orientation, individual development, enrichment, seminar, and in-depth study) are applied to program development…

Many schools are implementing collaborative, interdisciplinary approaches (cooperative teaching, collaborative consultation, and teacher assistance teams) to help teachers meet students' diverse needs. This article, which shows how a rural eastern Virginia middle school developed coteaching as an alternative to special education pullout programs,…

A study assigned children aged 6-8 with sensory integration (SI) dysfunction to 3 groups: 35 used sensory modalities, 32 received psychomotor (PM) training, and 13 no intervention. SI and PM administered one hour per week for six months proved equally effective in improving academic and motor performance but had little effect on self-esteem. (SK)

This meta-analysis of 33 studies compared the pragmatic language skills of 825 students (ages 3-12) having language and/or learning disabilities with the skills of nondisabled peers. The students with disabilities demonstrated consistent and pervasive pragmatic deficits in conversation, which were more attributable to underlying language deficits…

Techniques for using a terrarium to teach principles of environmental science and environmental awareness to mildly retarded, learning-disabled, or gifted students are suggested. Environmental cycles (water, respiration, photosynthesis), appropriate plants, and terrarium construction and care are covered. (DB)

This article explores implications of the call for reforming curricula according to sameness analysis for teaching children with learning disabilities. Replacement and modification of existing curricula are reviewed as alternate reform options. Modification is divided into good teaching approaches, supplementary activity approaches, and major…

Four studies, involving 8 learning-disabled (LD) children with extreme memory difficulties, 8 LD children with average short-term memory skills, and 8 average children (ages 9-11), found that LD children have difficulties recalling both item and order information. These difficulties appear to be related to inefficiencies in phonological coding…

A goal-attainment intervention dealing with completion of project-type assignments was used with 6 students, ages 12-14, with learning disabilities. Training in the goal-attainment procedures increased the number of projects successfully completed and the quality of goal setting and goal actualization responses. Subjects had difficulty generating…

Conducted descriptive study with college students with learning disabilities (n=40). Results provided overview of students specific support service needs. Overwhelming needs of learning-disabled students in this study fell into areas of study strategies and written expression. Discusses implications for college student affairs personnel.…

The paper reviews the literature on teachers' perceptions of sexual differences among learning-disabled students. It was concluded that perceived sex differences tend to compound the problems of learning-disabled students with boys rated substantially higher on conduct and behavior problems and girls as more withdrawn. (DB)

SHOP, or Search Handicapped Outreach Program, identifies gifted/learning-disabled students, develops enrichment activities using J. Renzulli's Triad Model, and implements effective delivery models to provide an environment in which the students can utilize their strengths and interact with gifted peers. (JDD)

A mother recounts the first experience of her 5.5-year-old son who has muscular dystrophy and learning disabilities with mainstreaming in a summer day camp. (DB)

Assisted and unassisted performance of 14 average readers and 14 readers with learning disabilities (ages 10-13) were compared on a reading comprehension task. The groups differed in how easily they learned to find the main idea under different topic sentence placement conditions, with the learning-disabled readers requiring significantly more…

Examined differences in home environment scores among educable mentally retarded, learning-disabled, emotional/behavior disordered, and nonhandicapped students. Found differences in home environments, independent of socioeconomic status. Home environments for learning-disabled and nonhandicapped students were rated significantly higher than home…

Investigates the written syntax of 81 college-able individuals demonstrating a specific learning disability. Supports a control impairment hypothesis, predicting that sentence production errors will be of the same kind as found in the language of writers demonstrating no handicapping conditions. Investigates the correlation of specific cognitive…