Changing Definitions of Learning Disabilities

Chapter 1

Historical Phases

Clinical (1920-1940) LD differentiated from other disabilities

Classroom Transition (1940-1960) classroom instruction

Consolidation (1962-1975) political pressure to consolidate various groups into one field

Expansion (1975-1988) increase number of children identified as services are ensured

Retrenchment (1988-2001) lack of adequate definition, increased #s ID and questions about services provided with recommendations for inclusion

Revitalization (2002) President’s Commission recommend changes

Clinical Phase

Recognized group of children different from children with MR

Research took place in non-school setting where students with LD received their education

Medical model

Visual-Perceptual/Motor

Impaired visual perception and delayed motor development, emphasis on brain-based perceptual & motor disabilities

Kirk Goldstein: studied veterans after WWI – figure-ground problems (Gestalt), letter-reversal errors and design-copying. Used the term brain injured

Visual-Perceptual Cont.

Strauss and Werner (Wayne County Training School) clinical setting w/ children whose retardation resulted from nongenetic factors-exogenous. Recommended educational program with reduced exposure to distracting stimuli

Cruickshank & Frostig:problems with intrasensory integration (optic nerve to motor nervous system)

Language Theorists

Viewed academic achievement in terms of language usage

Samuel Kirk:worked with children with speech delays, neurological basis

Samuel Orton:normal dominance of one brain hemisphere in language (usually left side by age 7)was lacking. Developed educational approach that included phonic and kinesthetic aids

Grace Fernald: developed teaching approach focusing on multisensory basis, using visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile means

Classroom Transition Phase

Education for students with learning disabilities was not legally mandated, students received services in clinics. Used the term minimal brain dysfunction

Visual-Motor: Cruickshank focused on distractibility & hyperactivy, wrote influential methods text concerning the education of individual with LD

Language: Samuel Kirk publication of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities to identify visual & auditory-based language deficits

Consolidation Phase

Advocacy groups joined with parents with children with learning disabilities

Kennedy created a national office – the Division for Handicapped Children to oversee research – opened the door for public funding

First Definition of LD

Kirk recognized common element among perceptual and language problems with inability to learn not caused by low intelligence or environmental factors: A retardation, disorder, or delayed

development in one or more of the processes of speech, language, reading, spelling writing, or arithmetic resulting from a possible cerebral dysfunction and/or emotional or behavioral disturbance and not from mental retardation, sensory deprivation, or cultural or instructional factors. (Kirk, 1962)

Task Force I Definition

Imperative to establish a national identity for individuals with LD and to exclude them from MR –group used term minimal brain dysfunction Children of near average, average, or above

average general intelligence with certain learning or behavioral disabilities ranging from mild to severe, which are associated with deviations of function of the central nervous system. These deviations may manifest themselves by various combinations of impairment in perception, conceptualization, language, memory, and control of attention, impulse, or motor function. (Clements, 1966)

Early Federal Definition

Definition to include all children who needed services but excluded other low-achieving children whose performance is not related to disability. Children with special learning disabilities exhibited a

disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using spoken or written languages. These may be manifested in disorder of listening, thinking, talking, reading, writing, spelling, or arithmetic. They include conditions which have been referred to as perceptual handicaps, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, developmental aphasia, etc. They do not include learning problems which are due primarily to visual, hearing, or motor handicaps, to mental retardation, emotional disturbance, or environmental disadvantage. (Kirk, 1988)

Emergence of Behavioral Perspective

Concentration on specific measurable behaviors rather than cognitive processes

Argued that instruction in special education classes should concentrate on specific skills that students would utilize in their everyday world

Specific academic skills that form the school curriculum should be the basis for assessment and remediation

Instituted criterion reference testing

Expansion Phase

Passage of Pl 94-142 in 1975: special ed. classes were established nationwide.

With the vague definition of LD, the school-aged population skyrocketed from 2% to 3.8% in 1983 to 5% in 1990’s

Today, 50% of students with disabilities are identified as LD

Federal Definition (IDEA ‘97)

The term “specific learning disability” means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which disorder may manifest itself in imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations. Such term includes such conditions as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. Such term does not include a learning problem that is primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, of mental retardation, of emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.

National Joint Committeeon Learning Disabilities

Learning disabilities is a general term that refers to a heterogeneous group of disorders manifested by significant difficulties in the acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning, or mathematical disabilities.These disorders are intrinsic to the individual, presumed to be due to central nervous system dysfunction, and may occur across the life span. Problems in self-regulatory behaviors, social perception, and social interaction may exist with learning disabilities but do not by themselves constitute a learning disabilities.

National Joint Committeeon Learning Disabilities

Although learning disabilities may occur concomitantly with other handicapping conditions (for example, sensory impairment, mental retardation, serious emotional disturbance) or with extrinsic influences (such as cultural differences, insufficient or inappropriate instruction), they are not the result of those conditions or influences.

Metacognition Theory

Torgesen: suggests children with LD do not or cannot develop the type of task-planning and task-execution strategies to complete school work. Children need to think about and plan out their thinking

Students were unengaged or inactive in learning Included emotional and personality factors-low

concepts High external control (grades and success was

based on chance or the whim of the teacher Deshler: learning strategies for secondary school

students using acronyms and specific plans for particular learning situations

Retrenchment Phase

Definition problems and over-identification problems, plus movement toward inclusion questioned the field of special ed.

Controversy on whether inclusion can address the specific needs of students with LD

Inclusion may reduce the stigma associated with special education

Emerging Theoretical Views

Constructivism: learners construct knowledge based on background information and connections between ideas, facts and concepts. “Holistic” thought conceptualizing of the whole rather than task-analysis.

Multiple Intelligences: IQ is multifaceted, various abilities in various areas (linguistic, logico-mathematical, musical-rhythmic, visual-spacial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal)

Brain-Compatible Learning: MRI and PET scans have increased our understanding on how learning takes place. Additional phases of memory (short-term is refined to working memory). Suggestions to teachers: provide verbal practice, “wait time” (10-20 sec.) for a response

Revitalization Phase

Bush appointed a Commission on Excellence in Special Education in 2001 concerned with retrenchment phase

Recommended simplifying the assessment procedures for special education

Collapsing the current 13 disabilities into 3 broad categories Sensory dis. – visual, hearing imp. deaf/blind Physical/neurological dis. – multiple disabilities,

autism, traumatic brain injury, and other health imp. Developmental dis.- learning dis., speech/language,

emotional disturbance, and mild MR

Basic Psychological Processes

Memory (short and long term) Auditory, visual, haptic

discrimination Sequencing Attention Organization Psychomotor skills/visual motor

integration Conceptualization/reasoning skills Social perception

Academic Discrepancy Areas

Oral expression Listening comprehension Written expression Basic reading skills Reading comprehension Mathematical calculation Mathematical reasoning

Criticisms of the Discrepancy Method

Problems with IQ tests Intelligence of students with LD may

be underestimated; high correlation with achievement measures

Failure to discriminate between groups of poor readers

Difficulty in identifying students in the early grades