Journal of Learning Disabilities

This article highlights several concepts that appear important to the social and educational development of learning disabled children. Self-esteem, overcompensation, nondefensiveness, structure and self-discipline are discussed with commentary from a learning disabled youngster.

The following case studies describe the idiosyncratic responses of two learning disabled students involved in an experimental number fact program for children with special learning needs. Central to this progam was the development of strategies matched to individual learning needs in a non-traditional approach to the organization of addition facts. The major goal was to facilitate mastery of these facts. Analysis of results and videotape recordings indicated that the two students benefited from these strategies and showed major improvement in fact mastery.

Primary school boys with reading disability were divided into two groups (dysphonetics and dyseidetics) on the basis of learning style defined by an analysis of spelling errors. Dysphonetics and dyseidetics clearly differed in their cognitive strategies in visual sequential memory tasks, yet were able to remember items presented sequentially provided that the nature of the stimulus was congruent with learning style. In memory for order tasks incorporating both spatial and serial formats, dysphonetics chose spatial order in preference to serial order whereas preferences of dyseidetics were in the opposite direction. When they were required to recognise both spatial order and serial order, dysphonetics made more correct spatial order responses than dyseidetics. The converse was the case for correct serial order responses. As a composite group, children with reading disability were shown to be no less competent in these tasks than normal readers who also revealed strong strategy preferences and little flexibility in switching strategies.

This study investigated the development of the cognitive stage of concrete operations, specifically conservation, in learning disabled children who had significant deficits in mathematics achievement.

Twenty-two 9-12 year old learning disabled children with severe mathematics disabilities, and eighteen normal control students with average achievement in mathematics, were given six tests of conservation. Significant group differences appeared which indicated that many learning disabled children have not yet developed the concept of conservation, even in the upper elementary grades. This lag in cognitive development may constrict the ability to understand mathematics instruction as it is often taught today.

In this paper an effort is made to bridge the gap between some of the more basic experimental research and theoretical concepts in cognitive psychology and information processing on the one hand and applied clinical research on the other hand. Prior studies have revealed significant linear relationships between independent visual functions and school readiness, however, the additive nature of perceptual-motor factors and their correlation with reading ability often has been neglected. Tests using tachistoscopic exposures with 2 digits at 0.1 sec. and 0.01 sec., the Divided Form Board, and the Grooved Pegboard, dominant and nondominant hand, all showed significant correlations with readiness in a population of 48 kindergarten children. The results of the Auditory-Visual Integration Test were not significant at the kindergarten level. To increase the strength of the relationship between perceptual-motor development and readiness, three factors were considered simultaneously in a multiple regression scheme: Tachistoscopic exposure of 2 digits at 0.01 seconds, Divided Form Board, and Grooved Pegboard, dominant hand. The resulting correlation supports the hypothesis that an individual whose perceptual skills are good is likely to have a high readiness score. The corresponding r² confirmed that variations in perceptual skills explain more than 50% of the variations in learning readiness in this study.

Twenty-six children, ages nine-18, who had recovered from Reye's syndrome were tested for possible memory deficits. In reviewing school histories, an unexpected finding was the disproportionately high number of students who were Learning Disabled before contracting Reye's syndrome. Seven of the children had been receiving special education services for being Learning Disabled and another two were viewed by their schools as being hyperactive. This is 10 times the expected incident rate. This group of Learning Disabled students did not score significantly worse on any measure than did the other children who had Reye's syndrome.

For the past several years, the study of memory processes in children with reading disabilities has been a very popular area of inquiry. The goal of most recent research has been to understand why reading disabled children have problems on memory tasks, rather than simply to document the fact that they perform poorly in comparison with children who achieve normally. This month's Topical Review provides a general framework for understanding memory problems in reading disabled children by considering some of the factors that can influence memory performance. This general framework provides a useful background for understanding two important issues in current research: the relationship of memory to general intelligence, and causal relations between memory disabilities and reading failure.—JKT

Though Professor Blatt died this past January, he provided me with a number of dialectic pieces which I shall utilize throughout this year. In forwarding this particular piece, Blatt wrote, “I'm trying to avoid getting too deeply into the writing of a new book—always the hardest part of writing (as you know). So I've been writing book reviews, professor stories, and polemics of one sort or another.” It is this writing of last fall that I shall print in the dialectic column thoughout 1985.

He continued, “Enclosed is something I just finished which may be a suitable candidate for Dialectic. Everybody reads journals such as the Journal of Learning Disabilities, and everybody knows that there have to be people to write those articles and books. But I don't think we try to understand sufficiently the connections between reading and writing, as well as how those activities relate to the art of teaching. Hence this paper.”

Do read this piece carefully, for there is much to learn; first about your motive as the reader, second how as teacher/writer you change your relationship to the printed word, and ultimately how you resolve these two perspectives. In this resolution is potentially much self-understanding, if only you'll give it a thought.—G.M.S.

Special education has been at the cutting edge of pedagogy since Itard. The authors of this article have taken the most effective techniques of special education and have condensed them into the course which is lacking in most of our schools of education: how to teach. Here is a distillation of the theory behind Madaline Hunter's ITIP, behind contingency management, behind direct instruction and other successful teaching methods into lessons which are intelligible to the regular class teacher—H.N.C

For handicapped students mainstreamed into the regular classroom, use of teacher—made tests to evaluate performance may be an obstacle to successful functioning in that environment. This article presents educators with specific strategies to consider in constructing teacher-made tests to optimize the performance of mainstreamed students. Guidelines relating to content and format of tests as well as test-taking behaviors are discussed.