This paper suggests that Edwin Ellis' model for integrative strategy instruction, as applied to teaching adolescents with learning disabilities, requires further development in two areas: (1) the issue of what constitutes a thorough and valid educational model, and (2) the issue of how educational change can be successfully implemented. (JDD)

This response to Vaughn and Hogan (EC 608 627), who reported a longitudinal study on the social competence of 10 children with learning disabilities, looks at problems in doing longitudinal research; the influence of environmental factors; and developmental issues. Possible interventions with children having consistent social problems are noted.…

The authors consider recent research on brain lateralization in learning disabled children that has used three different experimental paradigms, noting that these studies have advanced knowledge about factors that can affect performance on the tasks that measure lateralization, but they do not produce a conclusive picture of abnormal…

The author discusses the implications of the attempted Division for Children with Learning Disabilities (DCLD) withdrawal from its parent organization, the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC). Events of the 1979 business meeting in which secession of DCLD was discussed are reviewed, and the implications of secession for the members, the…

This article uses discourse theory in arguing that learning disabilities, by explaining several contradictions and anomalies of schooling, function to sustain dominant assumptions of schooling and society and to maintain inequitable distribution of social goods. Educators are urged to actively confront the inequities of schooling and society.…

The article examines the General Education Initiative of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in light of (1) the failure of past major reform efforts to help students with learning problems, and (2) questionable assumptions about how such students learn. The expansion of special education support to other at-risk students…

This article considers the ramifications of early reading failure within the context of J. Chall's five-stage model of reading development: (1) initial decoding, (2) fluency, (3) reading for meaning, (4) relationships and viewpoints, and (5) synthesis. Instructional implications include learning disabled students' special need for good instruction…

This current response to a reprinted 1968 article by Ray Barsch (EC 602 662) focuses on legal aspects of learning disabilities, especially problems in implementing IDEA (the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) and continuing controversies concerning definition, evaluation, instructional intervention, and placement or service delivery…

This article examines and illustrates four assumptions of the sociocultural perspective for writing instruction of students with learning disabilities: writing is a holistic cognitive activity; cognitive processes are learned in dialogic interactions with others; cognitive development occurs in students' zones of proximal development; and…

This article on transition for students with learning disabilities (LD) reviews the transition concept from a life-span perspective and considers transition planning, including the role of the planning team, the importance of timing, and forces influencing transition programs. It then provides background information, themes, and highlights for…

Responsiveness to intervention (RTI) is being proposed as an alternative model for making decisions about the presence or absence of specific learning disability. I argue that there are many questions about RTI that remain unanswered, and radical changes in proposed regulations are not warranted at this time. Many fundamental issues related to RTI…

This paper examines learning-disabled students' change in legal status as they leave high school, which is structured by Public Law 94-142, and enter college settings structured by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The paper discusses implications of the change, transition programs, and guidelines for developing legal transition…

Determining whether stimulant medication improves learning or long-term academic achievement in children with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder involves consideration of (1) the prescription of higher than optimal doses, and (2) overinclusive treatment involving adverse responders. A study designed to overcome these theoretical deficiencies…

This commentary on C. Addison Stone's paper on the scaffolding metaphor for the learning disabilities field identifies issues in the metaphor's use and concludes that effective special education has been inhibited by isolation of interventions from theory and by the way teacher education is structured. Use of the scaffolding metaphor to refocus…

This article introduces a series of papers that explain and illustrate how a higher order thinking curriculum can be designed for a full spectrum of students, including students with learning disabilities. The article discusses an approach in which concepts, rules, and strategies are taught by organizing content around the process of noting…