Current Best Practices in Learning Disabilities in Israel

Abstract

We present an analysis of the current state of practice in the diagnosis and treatment of learning disabilities (LD) in Israel. Through an examination of the cultural, historical, and demographic background of the country (“deep structures”), we show how a fragmented society has developed; it segregates different ethnicities and social groups and has led to an educational system (“surface structures”) that perpetuates that separation. Special education law also reflects and perpetuates that social reality. However, since 2002, the Israeli Ministry of Education, through legislation and ministerial guidelines, has embarked on a mission to include children with LD fully in the general education curriculum. This change is meaningful, because it is foreign to the Israeli educational perspective. The development of a response–to–intervention model that includes a specialist (called a Matal) charged with providing diagnostic and prescriptive case management is still in its experimental phase and its efficacy has yet to be evaluated. However, adoption of this model has already had an effect on the testing and diagnosis of LD. Future trajectories of Israeli LD are also discussed.