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TeachingLD News-Brief
Welcome to TeachingLD News-Brief, TeachingLD.org's announcement mechanism! TeachingLD.org is a public service of the Division for Learning Disabilities (DLD) of the Council for Exceptional Children. Learn about DLD at TeachingLD.org: http://TeachingLD.org. Contents
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Will We Ever Resolve Issues in LD? Learning Disabilities has been fraught with controversies throughout its 40+ years. There have been hullabaloos about causes, assessment, treatment, and-of course-the very existence of Learning Disabilities. The present times are no exception and they illustrate the intertwined nature of these disagreements. Here is a catalogue of some of those controversies, with comments on each. Process deficits: In the early going, some researchers and educators raised concerns about perceptual processes such as visual-motor coordination, auditory sequential memory, or figure-ground perception. Others strongly objected to employing these hypothetical constructs and questioned whether they could be assessed, let alone treated. Although emphasis on process deficits has faded substantially, one can still find people championing modern variations of them, such as "central auditory processing disorder." Moreover, some process-like constructs such as phonemic awareness have proven to be important. Discrepancy: The concept of ability-achievement discrepancy as a defining feature of Learning Disabilities was introduced in the 1960s and came under heavy fire in the 90s. Much of the attack has been well-deserved. If discrepant and non-discrepant readers do not differ on important characteristics and respond equally well to effective teaching, there are problems with the discrepancy model. However, one of the features of discrepancy-distinguishing students with mental retardation from other who have low achievement-is likely to continue to be an issue for many years to come. Inclusion: Over the four decades since Learning Disabilities began as a sub-discipline, there has been a continuing trend toward more students with disabilities spending more of their time in general education settings. Many Learning Disabilities specialists who are now nearing retirement began their careers working with students in self-contained classrooms, later helped promote mainstreaming, and then found their duties being swept along by the floodtide of inclusion. Still, some wonder why students with Learning Disabilities should be integrated into an instructional environment that has failed to meet their unique educational needs. Furthermore, some parents are almost surely going to seek even-more-restrictive placements (e.g., special schools) for their children. In each of these cases, it seems, the controversy is unlikely to be resolved in any way approximating finality. Instead, we can look forward to further discussions of processes underlying learning, ways of discriminating among students with disabilities, and alternative placements. We may never escape them. The most difficulty about these controversies will arise when an ardent defender of one pole on a controversy meets an advocate who is 100% committed to the opposite view. Given that the controversies are inescapable, probably the best path is to avoid adopting extreme positions. It's more sensible to understand the issues and seek to identify the relevant data that will allow Learning Disabilities advocates to identify a nuanced view. JohnL & Peggy John Wills Lloyd, Ph.D., & Margaret P. Weiss, Ph.D.
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TeachingLD News and TeachingLD.org are copyright 2004 by the Division for Learning Disabilities of the Council for Exceptional Children. Permission to reproduce the contents of TeachingLD News is automatically granted for educational and personal purposes, provided that each and any reproduction includes a hypertext reference to TeachingLD.org. Recipients may forward TeachingLD News to others without requesting permission from TeachingLD News or DLD. TeachingLD.org does not sell or trade subscriber information, including their e-mail addresses. Please see the privacy policy at http://TeachingLD.org/privacy/. |
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