The Learning Disability Association of America's Specific Learning Disability Evaluation Principles and Standards

Abstract

This paper presents the new principles and standards for Specific Learning Disability evaluations. The research informed principles and standards are the product of a yearlong, research-based collaboration between professional ambassadors from the fields of school psychology, cognitive psychology, speech and language pathology, special education, literacy, mathematics education, and medicine. These principles and standards are designed to provided professionals with a process that can be used to develop a comprehensive evaluation and written report describing: the nature of the specific learning disability; the area and levels of impairment; academic areas and personal areas of strengths; cultural and linguistic diversity of the student; and specific considerations for practitioners to develop individualized interventions designed to meet the unique academic, linguistic, social, emotional, and behavioral needs of the student.