In order to individualize instruction for learning disabled students, tasks should be matched to students' abilities and learning styles. Two types of task modifications include modifying the task content to coincide with what students are ready to learn and modifying task processes and features to match how students prefer to learn. Readiness assumes that students must possess the basic skills, and determining if this is so involves three processes: analyzing the task to determine process and needed instructional modification; evaluating the student's previous learning opportunities to explain performance and suggest intervention; and consulting the child about how he/she solves a particular task. Once the content of the task is determined, the student's learning style or approach should be examined. Possible areas of study for the learning disabled child include attention control, internal versus external cognitive styles, slow information processing, overloading with certain types or amounts of practice, modality strengths and weaknesses, impulsivity-reflectivity, need for directed instruction, and need to be taught learner strategies. Learning progress is maximized when classroom tasks are well matched to what the child is ready to learn and how the child prefers to learn. (CL)