LD Students Research Articles

LD Students: Clarifications and Recommendations

this age group is relatively recent, many problems and questions still need to be resolved. In many ways, LD early adolescents constitute a special category because, in addition to coping with the typical LD difficulties, these students must also confront the significant changes and pressures which are a landmark for all adolescents as well as the major transition from the safe, familiar elementary school to the larger, more complex middle school. The interaction of these three variables— LD characteristics, adolescent adjust ments, and new, more involved school demands—may confuse and even over whelm these students. A further dilemma exists for middle school teachers because they are generally not trained to deal with these specialized learning problems even though most learning disabled students are placed in regular classes. The legal mandate to make special education placement decisions based on the least restrictive environment concept requires that handicapped students, including the learning disabled, be educated in the most normal

Jeremy: An LD Student Teaches the Teacher

Jeremy: An LD Student Teaches the Teacher

Learning Disabled Students' Composing Under Three Methods of Text Production

The purpose of this study was to investigate how different methods of text production affect the writing processes and products of LD students. Eleven fifth and sixth grade LD students, selected for their experience with word processing, composed and revised stories using handwriting, dictation, and word processing. Dictated stories were significantly longer, were of higher quality, and had fewer grammatical errors than handwritten or word processed stories. The handwritten and word processed stories did not differ on any of the product measures, including length, quality, story structure, mechanical or grammatical errors, vocabulary, or mean T-unit length. However, differences between handwriting and word processing were found on the process measures of composing rate and revisions. Implications for writing in struction with LD students are discussed.

Behavioral contagion and manageability: learning disability and regular education teachers' perspectives.

Forty-four regular and 39 LD teachers completed the Behavior Manageability and Behavioral Contagion Scales to determine (1) whether teacher group differences in manageability and contagion were present, and (2) which specific behaviors were viewed as most contagious and least manageable. Statistical analyses indicated no significant group differences on either dependent measure. However, socially withdrawn behavior was rated concurrently as most difficult to manage and as least contagious. The more acting-out behaviors (negative aggressive, poor peer cooperation) were, as expected, viewed as most disruptive to other students (contagious). Implications for working with LD students who exhibit problem behaviors in both regular and special class settings are discussed.

Psychometric classifications of learning disabled students

The psychometric test results of a sample of 100 LD students with severe achievement problems were cluster analyzed. The variables included in this analysis were the subtests of the WISC-R, the Bender Gestalt, the Benton Visual Retention, the Purdue Perceptual-Motor, and the Lindamood Auditory Conceptualization tests. Using K-means iterative clustering procedures, three clusters were obtained. The first cluster was defined by low scores on attention and concentration subtests; the second was defined by low scores on subtests of verbal-associative intelligence; the third was defined by low scores on visual-spatial and motoric subtests. Limitations of the study, in the scope of the psychometric testing and the lack of pediatric and neurologic diagnoses, are discussed.

A Decision-Making Process for the College-Bound Student: Matching Learner, Institution, and Support Program

Often students, parents and high-school personnel become frustrated in their efforts to track down valid information about support services for LD students on college campuses. This article describes a process designed to help college-bound LD students select a college or university. Three major components should be explored when searching for appropriate postsecondary programs for LD students: (a) characteristics of the LD student, (b) characteristics of the institution, and (c) characteristics of the LD support program. By investigating these variables systematically, college-bound LD students will be better prepared to make an informed decision about their future educational and career goals.

LD Students' Writing

LD Students' Writing

Teaching LD Students Critical Reading Skills: A Systematic Replication

Two approaches to teaching elementary-level LD students three critical reading skills were contrasted. Students were randomly assigned to one of two treatment conditions: (a) direct instruction and (b) discussion/workbook. The former featured training in using specific rules and strategies to detect instances of faulty arguments whereas subjects in the latter group were taught via a discussion/workbook approach, encouraging student involvement through discussions on how to use critical reading skills. Both treatment groups received 40-minute lessons for 12 consecutive school days. Three dependent measures designed to assess students' knowledge of the three critical reading skills were administered. Subjects in the direct instruction group were found to significantly outperform their counterparts in the discussion/workbook group on each measure. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for development of effective practices for teaching comprehension.

Effects of the learning disability label, quality of writing performance, and examiner's level of expertise on the evaluation of written products.

Examiners were directed to score three essays differing in quality and were told that the essays were written by LD or normal students. Half of the examiners received a brief introduction to the scoring procedures; the other half received more intensive training. Labeling effects were successfully attenuated by providing additional training.

Comprehension Monitoring: Detection and Identification of Text Inconsistencies by LD and Normal Students

Thirty-two learning disabled and 32 regular class children matched on reading age were randomly assigned to either a general or a specific instruction condition. In both treatments subjects were shown how to monitor text for internal inconsistency. In addition, the specific instruction condition provided explicit instruction in how to use a cross-referencing technique to evaluate the internal consistency of a given text. Results indicated significant Subject Group x Instruction Condition interactions on all three dependent measures: detection, identification, and comprehension competence. Learning disabled subjects exhibited an initial production deficit in comprehension-monitoring skills. Subjects who received explicit instruction in the use of the cross-referencing evaluative technique demonstrated higher performance levels in both comprehension monitoring and reading comprehension.

Evaluating the College of Choice

A guide for evaluating college support services and adaptive programs for college-bound LD students

Knowledge and perception of the resource room: the students' perspective.

The purpose of this study was to determine regular and special education students' knowledge and perception of the elementary school, special education resource room. A sample of 126 nonhandicapped students and 20 students with learning disabilities, grades 1 through 6, were individually interviewed. Results indicate few differences between LD and non-LD students regarding their knowledge and perception of the resource room and special education. There are, however, significant differences between primary and intermediate students, with intermediate students having more knowledge of who goes to the resource room and more understanding of special education concepts. Most non-LD students ranked the resource room as a desirable place to spend time, though primary students with learning disabilities perceived it less positively than intermediate special education students.

Keeping LD Students in College

Keeping LD Students in College

A Comparison of LD and Non-LD Students' Learning LOGO and On-Task Behavior

A Comparison of LD and Non-LD Students' Learning LOGO and On-Task Behavior

Activating the Inactive Learner: Advance Organizers in the Secondary Content Classroom

The success of current mainstreaming efforts for LD adolescents is dependent, in part, on the environmental supports available in regular secondary classrooms. The present study investigated the effects of the regular teacher's delivery of an advance organizer prior to each lesson on LD students' retention and expression of information from a given lesson. The results indicated that teaching techniques used by regular secondary teachers can benefit handicapped students in their classrooms, but, in the case of advance organizers, only when students are taught to make use of such techniques.

Effects of a Constant Time Delay Procedure on the Written Spelling Performance of a Learning Disabled Student

A constant time delay procedure was used to teach written spelling to an 11-year-old, school-labeled LD youngster who had severe spelling deficits. The time delay procedure is a near errorless instructional method that transfers stimulus control from a controlling stimulus (a prompt that signals the correct response) to a new stimulus (a target response). As a result of a 5-second constant delay procedure the student acquired, maintained, and generalized 15 spelling words. The procedure is easy to implement, requires little teacher preparation time, and results in a low student error rate. In the absence of published time delay research with LD individuals, the results are encouraging. Based on our findings, the time delay procedure is a viable alternative for LD students who have not benefited from traditional instructional procedures. Since the results of this study and those in the unpublished literature indicate that the time delay procedure is effective, further examination with other LD students is warranted.

SOCIAL SKILL DEFICITS OF LEARNING‐DISABLED STUDENTS: ISSUES OF DEFINITION, CLASSIFICATION, AND ASSESSMENT

A number of recent investigators have demonstrated that LD students are often poorly accepted by peers and that they exhibit deficits in social skills. This article briefly reviews this research on LD students' social behavior and focuses on the definition, assessment, and classification of social skill deficits. It concludes with a listing of practice and public policy needs concerning services for LD students.

Information processing approaches to studying spelling deficiencies.

Although numerous research articles and position papers on spelling and spelling problems have appeared in the literature, no theoretical model of spelling knowledge acquisition has been developed to guide research on learning problems related to spelling. This paper explores components of various information processing “protomodels” of spelling performance that might prove useful for understanding two common characteristics of LD students' spelling behavior: error making and retarded rates of acquisition. Specifically, in light of recent research on the development of children's acquisition of spelling ability, weaknesses in traditional “two channel” models borrowed from reading research are examined. It is argued that an adequate theory of spelling processes must, at a minimum, model: (a) qualitative changes in performance as a function of maturation that underlie development of automaticity; and (b) transactional development of spelling-related knowledge structures and efficient algorithms for searching or supplementing these structures.

The social integration of learning disabled students from self-contained to mainstream elementary school settings.

This study had two purposes: (1) to investigate the social status of learning disabled students and (2) to compare the outcome differences of a rating scale sociometric with those of a peer nomination measure. The LD population consisted of students who were based in self-contained special education classes (LDSC) and joined regular classes up to 18 periods per week. Previous literature has concentrated on LD students based in regular classes who received special services in resource rooms. Since the enactment of P.L. 94–142, more and more students from self-contained classes have experienced partial integration into regular classes. The social status of this group, however, has been virtually ignored. Findings suggested both lower acceptance and lower rejection scores for the LD students than for regular class students on a nomination measure. The rating scale data revealed lower acceptance scores but no differences in rejection or toleration scores. The acquaintance category of the rating scale suggested that LDSC students are simply not known to their regular class peers.

Generalization of spelling strategies by LD students as a result of contingent imitation/modeling and mastery criteria.

Eleven learning disabled elementary students were asked to attempt spellings of unknown words using a standard written dictation test and an imitation-modeling procedure (Jobes, 1975; Kauffman, Hallahan, Haas, Brame, & Boren, 1978) to provide corrective feedback but minimal instruction. Dictations were repeated until 100% accuracy was achieved. A second list of words sharing the same orthographic features was then administered without specific instructions designed to promote generalization, followed by administration of a third list that included specific instructions to use information about previous spellings in attempting words on the new list. Results showed that all but one student reached mastery in fewer than 10 trials, subjects obtained more correct spellings on the first trial of each new list, subjects required fewer trials on each successive list to reach criterion, and subjects demonstrated systematic improvements in quality of spelling attempts across both trials and lists. The data were interpreted to mean that when these LD students were permitted sufficient, though individually variable, exposure to minimal correction procedures, they were able to spontaneously generalize what had been learned about spelling features of one list to another.