The paper reviews literature relating to selective attention in the learning disabled child. Three processes related to the concept of selective attention (as proposed by D. Berlyne) are discussed: attention in learning, attention in remembering, and attention in performance. It is pointed out that verbal mediation, the use of verbal labels to indicate the relationship between the stimulus and the desired response, is a technique which has proven to be effective in enhancing both selective attention and memory in older students. The question of whether there is a difference in the use of effective discrimination in good and poor readers is answered in part by citing research showing that children trained in selective attention exhibited marked progress in reading achievement. The developmental aspect of selective attention is also considered. A. Ross contends that learning disabled children develop selective attention more slowly than others and so are handicapped in learning. Among the strategies described for facilitating selective attention are task analysis, utilization of conditions to stimulate heightened attention, verbal rehearsal strategies, exaggeration of the differences between relevant and irrelevant stimuli, addition of a motor response commensurate with the stimulus, and the use of extrinsic reinforcers. (SB)