Changing Definitions of

Learning Disabilities
Chapter 1

Historical Phases

Clinical (1920-1940)
LD differentiated from
other disabilities
Classroom Transition
(1940-1960) classroom
instruction
Consolidation (19621975) political
pressure to
consolidate various
groups into one field

Expansion (1975-1988)
increase number of
children identified as
services are ensured
Retrenchment (19882001) lack of adequate
definition, increased #s
ID and questions about
services provided with
recommendations for
inclusion
Revitalization (2002)
Presidents Commission
recommend changes

Clinical Phase
Recognized group of children
different from children with MR
Research took place in non-school
setting where students with LD
received their education
Medical model

Visual-Perceptual/Motor
Impaired visual perception and delayed
motor development, emphasis on
brain-based perceptual & motor
disabilities
Kirk Goldstein: studied veterans after
WWI figure-ground problems
(Gestalt), letter-reversal errors and
design-copying. Used the term brain
injured

Visual-Perceptual Cont.

Strauss and Werner (Wayne County

Training School) clinical setting w/
children whose retardation resulted from
nongenetic factors-exogenous.
Recommended educational program with
reduced exposure to distracting stimuli
Cruickshank & Frostig:problems with
intrasensory integration (optic nerve to
motor nervous system)

Language Theorists

Viewed academic achievement in terms of

language usage
Samuel Kirk:worked with children with speech
delays, neurological basis
Samuel Orton:normal dominance of one brain
hemisphere in language (usually left side by
age 7)was lacking. Developed educational
approach that included phonic and kinesthetic
aids
Grace Fernald: developed teaching approach
focusing on multisensory basis, using visual,
auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile means

Classroom Transition
Phase

Education for students with learning

disabilities was not legally mandated,
students received services in clinics.
Used the term minimal brain dysfunction
Visual-Motor: Cruickshank focused on
distractibility & hyperactivy, wrote
influential methods text concerning the
education of individual with LD
Language: Samuel Kirk publication of the
Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities to
identify visual & auditory-based language
deficits

Consolidation Phase
Advocacy groups joined with
parents with children with learning
disabilities
Kennedy created a national office
the Division for Handicapped
Children to oversee research
opened the door for public funding

First Definition of LD

Kirk recognized common element among

perceptual and language problems with
inability to learn not caused by low
intelligence or environmental factors:

A retardation, disorder, or delayed development

in one or more of the processes of speech,
language, reading, spelling writing, or
arithmetic resulting from a possible cerebral
dysfunction and/or emotional or behavioral
disturbance and not from mental retardation,
sensory deprivation, or cultural or instructional
factors. (Kirk, 1962)

Task Force I Definition

Imperative to establish a national identity for

individuals with LD and to exclude them from MR
group used term minimal brain dysfunction
Children of near average, average, or above
average general intelligence with certain
learning or behavioral disabilities ranging
from mild to severe, which are associated with
deviations of function of the central nervous
system. These deviations may manifest
themselves by various combinations of
impairment in perception, conceptualization,
language, memory, and control of attention,
impulse, or motor function. (Clements, 1966)

Early Federal Definition

Definition to include all children who needed

services but excluded other low-achieving children
whose performance is not related to disability.

Children with special learning disabilities exhibited a

disorder in one or more of the basic psychological
processes involved in understanding or in using spoken or
written languages. These may be manifested in disorder of
listening, thinking, talking, reading, writing, spelling, or
arithmetic. They include conditions which have been
referred to as perceptual handicaps, brain injury, minimal
brain dysfunction, dyslexia, developmental aphasia, etc.
They do not include learning problems which are due
primarily to visual, hearing, or motor handicaps, to mental
retardation, emotional disturbance, or environmental
disadvantage. (Kirk, 1988)

Emergence of Behavioral
Perspective

Concentration on specific measurable

behaviors rather than cognitive processes
Argued that instruction in special
education classes should concentrate on
specific skills that students would utilize in
their everyday world
Specific academic skills that form the
school curriculum should be the basis for
assessment and remediation
Instituted criterion reference testing

Expansion Phase

Passage of Pl 94-142 in 1975: special

ed. classes were established nationwide.
With the vague definition of LD, the
school-aged population skyrocketed
from 2% to 3.8% in 1983 to 5% in
1990s
Today, 50% of students with disabilities
are identified as LD

Federal Definition
(IDEA 97)
The term specific learning disability means a disorder
in one or more of the basic psychological processes
involved in understanding or in using language,
spoken or written, which disorder may manifest itself
in imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write,
spell, or do mathematical calculations. Such term
includes such conditions as perceptual disabilities,
brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and
developmental aphasia. Such term does not include a
learning problem that is primarily the result of visual,
hearing, or motor disabilities, of mental retardation,
of emotional disturbance, or of environmental,
cultural, or economic disadvantage.

National Joint Committee

on Learning Disabilities

Learning disabilities is a general term that refers to

a heterogeneous group of disorders manifested by
significant difficulties in the acquisition and use of
listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning, or
mathematical disabilities.These disorders are
intrinsic to the individual, presumed to be due to
central nervous system dysfunction, and may occur
across the life span. Problems in self-regulatory
behaviors, social perception, and social interaction
may exist with learning disabilities but do not by
themselves constitute a learning disabilities.

National Joint Committee

on Learning Disabilities
Although learning disabilities may occur
concomitantly with other handicapping
conditions (for example, sensory
impairment, mental retardation,
serious emotional disturbance) or with
extrinsic influences (such as cultural
differences, insufficient or
inappropriate instruction), they are not
the result of those conditions or
influences.

Metacognition Theory

Torgesen: suggests children with LD do not or cannot

develop the type of task-planning and task-execution
strategies to complete school work. Children need to
think about and plan out their thinking
Students were unengaged or inactive in learning
Included emotional and personality factors-low
concepts
High external control (grades and success was based
on chance or the whim of the teacher
Deshler: learning strategies for secondary school
students using acronyms and specific plans for
particular learning situations

Retrenchment Phase

Definition problems and overidentification problems, plus movement

toward inclusion questioned the field of
special ed.
Controversy on whether inclusion can
address the specific needs of students
with LD
Inclusion may reduce the stigma
associated with special education

Emerging Theoretical
Views

Constructivism: learners construct knowledge based

on background information and connections between
ideas, facts and concepts. Holistic thought
conceptualizing of the whole rather than task-analysis.

Multiple Intelligences: IQ is multifaceted, various

abilities in various areas (linguistic, logico-mathematical,

musical-rhythmic, visual-spacial, bodily-kinesthetic,
interpersonal, and intrapersonal)

Brain-Compatible Learning: MRI and PET scans have

increased our understanding on how learning takes place.

Additional phases of memory (short-term is refined to
working memory). Suggestions to teachers: provide
verbal practice, wait time (10-20 sec.) for a response

Revitalization Phase

Bush appointed a Commission on Excellence in

Special Education in 2001 concerned with
retrenchment phase
Recommended simplifying the assessment
procedures for special education
Collapsing the current 13 disabilities into 3
broad categories

Sensory dis. visual, hearing imp. deaf/blind

Physical/neurological dis. multiple disabilities,
autism, traumatic brain injury, and other health imp.
Developmental dis.- learning dis., speech/language,
emotional disturbance, and mild MR

Basic Psychological
Processes
Memory (short and long term)
Auditory, visual, haptic discrimination
Sequencing
Attention
Organization
Psychomotor skills/visual motor
integration
Conceptualization/reasoning skills
Social perception

Academic Discrepancy
Areas
Oral expression
Listening comprehension
Written expression
Basic reading skills
Reading comprehension
Mathematical calculation
Mathematical reasoning

Criticisms of the
Discrepancy Method
Problems with IQ tests
Intelligence of students with LD may
be underestimated; high correlation
with achievement measures
Failure to discriminate between
groups of poor readers
Difficulty in identifying students in
the early grades