ABCs of Learning Disabilities (eBook)

Jeanette Berman, Lorraine Graham, Maureen Hoskyn, Bernice Wong (Herausgeber)

eBook Download: EPUB

2011 | 2. Auflage
296 Seiten
Elsevier Science (Verlag)
978-0-08-056902-4 (ISBN)

Infos

The ABCs of Learning Disabilities, Second Edition, discusses major research findings on learning disabilities in children, adolescents and adults in language, memory, social skills, self-regulation, reading, mathematics, and writing, with an additional chapter on assessment. This concise primer is intended for use as an undergraduate introductory text to the field. Written with an evenness of tone, breadth, and depth, the conveys an engaging style meant to encourage the beginning student to identify the big picture and to be interested in conceptual issues as well as research findings.

* Undergraduate level text
* 90% new material
* Concise introduction to field
* Covers current concepts like removing the IQ-performance discrepancy formula in diagnosing learning disabilities
* New chapter on self-regulation and learning disabilities
* Whole school approach to social skills intervention

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The ABCs of Learning Disabilities, Second Edition, discusses major research findings on learning disabilities in children, adolescents and adults in language, memory, social skills, self-regulation, reading, mathematics, and writing, with an additional chapter on assessment. This concise primer is intended for use as an undergraduate introductory text to the field. Written with an evenness of tone, breadth, and depth, the conveys an engaging style meant to encourage the beginning student to identify the "e;big picture and to be interested in conceptual issues as well as research findings. - Undergraduate level text- 90% new material- Concise introduction to field- Covers current concepts like removing the IQ-performance discrepancy formula in diagnosing learning disabilities- New chapter on self-regulation and learning disabilities- Whole school approach to social skills intervention

Inhalt

Front Cover 1
The ABCS of Learning Disabilities 3
Copyright Page 4
Dedication Page 6
Contents 8
Preface 12
Chapter 1: Learning Disabilities: From Past to Present 14
The Influence of Europe (1800-1920) 14
The Influence of America (1920-1960) 16
The Rise and Consolidation of the Learning Disabilities Field (1963-1985) 20
Definitions of Learning Disabilities 21
Some Additional Points 23
Etiology 26
Genetic Contributions to Reading and Writing Disabilities 27
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) 28
Characteristics of Children, Adolescents, and Adults with Learning Disabilities 30
Achievements in the Learning Disabilities Field 32
Winds of Change 34
Critique of RTI 40
Problems in Moving RTI from Research to Practice 40
Summary 45
References 45
Chapter 2: Language and Learning Disabilities 50
What Is Language? 51
How Does Children's Language Develop? 53
Early Language Development and Learning Disabilities 56
Communication of Children with Learning Disabilities 59
Phonology 60
The Timing Hypothesis 62
Morphology 64
Lexical Knowledge and Access 66
Syntax 67
Discourse 68
Summary 68
References 70
Chapter 3: Working Memory and Learning Disabilities 76
Working Memory and Learning Disabilities 76
The Construct of Working Memory 77
Theories of Working Memory and Working Memory Development 78
Constructivist Theories of Working Memory Development 79
Information Processing Models and Learning Disabilities 83
Baddeley's Model 83
Processing Efficiency 84
The Role of the Central Executive 85
Working Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood 85
Working Memory in School-Aged Children 86
Working Memory and Language-Learning Disabilities 87
Working Memory and Learning Disabilities within Diverse Academic Domains 89
Connectionist Models of Working Memory 90
Approaches to Compensate for Working Memory Limitations 93
Summary 94
References 95
Chapter 4: Social Dimensions of Learning Disabilities 102
Introduction 102
The Beginning 102
Peer Status 104
Stability of Peer Status 105
Friendship 106
Number of Friends 106
Nature of Their Friends 107
Stability of Friendship 107
Quality of Friendship 108
Social Cognitive Problems 114
Self-Understanding 121
Loneliness 127
The Risk and Resilience Theoretical Framework 130
Social Competence Interventions 134
Future Directions for Research 140
Summary 142
References 142
Chapter 5: Self-Regulation and Learning Disabilities 146
Characteristics of the Whole Learner 146
Components of Self-Regulated Learning 147
Metacognition 150
Motivation 152
Self-Efficacy 153
Attribution 154
Self-Regulation and Learning Disabilities: A Summary 156
Assessment of Aspects of Self-Regulation 157
Instructional Approaches 159
Cognitive Education 159
General Classroom Instruction for Self-Regulation 160
Concluding Comments and Continuing Questions 160
Summary 162
References 162
Chapter 6: Assessment for Learning 166
A Classroom Framework for Assessment 167
Why Assess Learning? 168
What Are We Assessing? 168
How Do We Assess Learning? 169
Conventional Assessment 169
Alternative Assessment 171
Adapted Conventional Assessment Procedures 172
Alternative Assessment Procedures 173
Interpretation of Assessment Information 179
Conclusions 180
Summary 183
References 183
Chapter 7: Reading 188
Reading: Word Recognition 188
Word Recognition 189
Phonological Processing 190
Syntactic Processing 190
Working Memory 190
Summary of Word Recognition Section 191
Reading: Reading Comprehension 191
Appropriate Use of Background Knowledge 192
Decoding and Word Recognition 193
Vocabulary Knowledge 193
Reading Fluency Related to Reading Comprehension 194
Strategy Use, Metacognition, and Self-Regulation 195
Differentiating Between Common Text Structures 195
Summary of Difficulties in Reading Comprehension Experienced by Students with Learning Disabilities 196
Effective Reading Comprehension Instruction 197
Implementing Effective Instructional Interventions for Students with Learning Disabilities 198
Improving Students' Comprehension of Narrative Text 199
Improving Students' Comprehension of Expository Text 202
Conclusion 205
Summary 206
References 207
Chapter 8: Mathematics 210
Mathematics 210
What Is Mathematics? 211
Mathematics Development and Communication 213
Observation #1: Children's Knowledge of Mathematics Builds from their Prior Experiences 213
Observation #2: Children's Constructions of Coherent Mental Representations of Mathematical Problems Optimizes Problem Solving 215
Observation #3: Adults Play an Important Role by Mediating Children's Construction of Knowledge about Mathematics 215
Mathematics and Learning Disabilities 217
Identification of Mathematics-Learning Disabilities 217
Origins of Mathematics-Learning Disabilities 219
Cognitive Strategies and Self-Regulation (a Constructivist View) 219
Underlying Cognitive Processes (an Information Processing View) 221
Processing Efficiency 222
Working Memory Capacity 222
Emotions and Attitudes about Mathematics 223
Summary 224
References 226
Chapter 9: Writing Instruction 230
Conditions that Promote Effective Implementation of the Writing Process 234
Prior Training 244
Instructional Foci 245
Training 246
Some Pointers for Implementing the Writing Strategies for Opinion Essays 249
Some Pointers for Implementing the Writing Strategies for Compare-and-Contrast Essays 250
Instructional Steps in Planning for Reportive Essays 252
Writing Tasks for The Breadwinner 254
Writing Task for Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4 256
Questions for Chapters 1-4 256
Questions for Chapters 6-11 256
Postreading Questions 257
Writing Tasks for Cariboo Runaway, a Story by Sandy Frances Duncan 258
Linking Runaway Cariboo and a Project on Gold Mining 259
Linking Gentle Ben and a Project on Salmon 263
Schedule of Class Activities 263
Writing Activities for Miracle at Willowcreek 266
Summary 268
References 271
Appendix I 273
Appendix II. Teaching the Chair Strategy in Opinion Essay Writing 276
Author Index 280
Subject Index 290

Textauszug

1

LEARNING DISABILITIES:

FROM PAST TO PRESENT

This chapter traces the history of the learning disabilities field and presents the standard gamut of topics subsumed in the history of the field. These include, but are not limited to, the origins of the learning disabilities field, the influential definitions of learning disabilities, the characteristics of individualswith learning disabilities, the condition of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and the etiology of learning disabilities. The chapter concludes with an assessment of the current hot topic of the response to instruction model as an alternative to the IQ-achievement discrepancy model of diagnosing learning disabilities and boldly raises the question of the contributions of the research of response to instruction (RTI standard-protocol approach) to the learning disabilities field.

Since the beginning of the learning disabilities field, two primary issues—that did not shape but must be dealt with—have maintained their prominence: (1) the need to validate the hypothetical notion that learning disabilities are neurologically based and thus represent a genuine handicap and (2) the need to devise methods of effective identification, diagnosis, and intervention for individuals with learning disabilities (Torgesen, 1993). In tracing the history of the learning disabilities field, we follow the lead of Hallahan and Mock (2003) and divide it into several distinguishable periods that reflect diverse sources of influence on the development of the field.

THE INFLUENCE OF EUROPE (1800–1920)

During this period, European doctors and researchers began to investigate the relationship between brain injury and speech disorders. We focus only on the legacies of those who had an impact on the learning disabilities field.

In the first decade of the nineteenth century, Franz Joseph Gall, a physician, made the assertion that separate areas of the brain controlled specific functions—in other words, that brain functions are localized. He based his assertion on the observations of his patients who had brain injury. Gall’s notion of localization of brain functions was confirmed by the work of Bouillaud in the 1820s. Broca furthered Bouillaud’s work through the use of autopsies and drew the conclusion that speech functions lie in the inferior frontal lobe. This area was subsequently called Broca’s area. Moreover, Broca’s name is linked to a specific type of speech dysfunction called Broca’s aphasia: “a slow, laborious, dysfluent speech” (Hallahan & Mock, 2003).

Another disorder called “sensory aphasia” was named by Wernicke based on his case studies of ten brain-injured patients with language disorders. In this type of aphasia, patients would talk fluently, but what they said was meaningless. Wernicke believed that the area responsible for this particular speech disorder was the left temporal lobe, the area that now bears his name. Wernicke published his case studies in 1874.

The relevance of the preceding work to the learning disabilities field is that they show unequivocally that brain damage to specific areas of the brain can result in specific kinds of mental/cognitive impairment. The progress made in research in language disorders spilled over to interest in disorders related to reading (Hallahan & Mock, 2003).

In 1896, the first case study of a child with congenital word-blindness (reading disability) was published by an English physician W. Pringle Morgan. Morgan’s work inspired a Scottish ophthalmologist, Sir Cyril Hin-shelwood, to study specific reading disabilities. He reported the first systematic clinical studies of this disorder in 1917. Some of his patients were adults who had suddenly lost their reading ability, while their other mental or cognitive abilities remaining intact. Hinshelwood studied a number of such cases and attributed this loss of reading ability to damage in specific regions of the brain. His opinion paralleled those about patients who lost their speech through brain damage of, say, Broca’s area or Wernicke’s area.

Hinshelwood also examined cases of children with severe difficulties in learning to read. His descriptions of these cases were careful, detailed, and compelling (see Torgesen, 2004). He called such conditions “congenital word blindness” and believed it resulted from damage to a particular area in the brain in which visual memories for words and individual letters were stored. His speculation that damage to that region was the cause of congenital word blindness turned out to be wrong. But his contributions to the learning disabilities field are still relevant because he pointed out that these children’s inability to learn to read juxtaposed with normal abilities in other intellectual skills, such as arithmetic. Moreover, Hinshelwood thought the occurrence of cases of word blindness to be very rare, with an incidence rate of less than one in a thousand.

In summary, the twentieth century witnessed clinical research that showed connections between types of brain damage and specific loss of various speech and language functions in adults. Interest in these connections spilled over to children who had extreme difficulties in learning to read. Hinshelwood was the first to report cases of children with this congenital word blindness. Although some dispute Hinshelwood’s relationship to the development of the learning disabilities field (see Torgesen, 2004), Hinshel-wood made a very important contribution. He maintained that such children had intact cognitive functions outside of the reading domain, and it is this specificity of cognitive malfunction that is at the heart of learning disabilities!

THE INFLUENCE OF AMERICA (1920–1960)

Beginning in the late 1930s, before the field of learning disabilities was formally established, two separate but parallel strands of clinical and research interests emerged that left indelible marks on interventions or remediation of children with learning disabilities. One strand emphasized general cognitive abilities that are presumed to underlie successful performance on a wide range of tasks. This emphasis originated from the research of Goldstein and was continued by Werner and Strauss. The other strand emphasized auditory and language processes and focused more narrowly or specifically on reading. The individuals associated with it were Helmer Mykelbust and Samuel Kirk. We examine the work of these two strands of clinical research in the next few sections.

Kurt Goldstein, a physician, was the director of a hospital for soldiers who sustained head injuries from World War I. He observed these brain-injured soldiers and noticed a group of particular behaviors that included hyperactivity, indiscriminate reaction to stimuli, confusion with figure-ground perception, concrete thinking, perseveration, meticulosity, and emotional lability. At the Wayne County Training School for children with mental retardation, Werner and Strauss became interested in applying and extending Goldstein’s clinical research to children. Strauss was a neuropsy-chiatrist, and Werner was a developmental psychologist.

Strauss and Werner divided the children in their training school into two groups: those with mental retardation resulting from a brain injury (exogenous mental retardation) and those with familial mental retardation (endogenous mental retardation). They found that compared to children with endogenous mental retardation, children with exogenous mental retardation showed more indiscriminate reactions to auditory and visual stimuli. They tended to be more impulsive, erratic, and socially unacceptable. Such findings led them to conclude that the special education category of mental retardation is not a homogenous group. Their conclusion was supported by an additional finding that after four to five years of training at the Wayne County Training School, children with endogenous mental retardation gained by an average of four points in IQ, whereas children with exogenous mental retardation did not show any gains. This discovery of no gains in children with exogenous mental retardation to the given training spurred Strauss and Werner and their associates to design an educational environment that aimed to reduce their behavioral problems and promote better attention focusing. Consequently, they engineered educational environments that reduced irrelevant stimuli while enhancing relevant stimuli in learning for children with exogenous mental retardation. Their efforts culminated in the publications of two books: Psychopathology and Education of the Brain-Injured Child (Strauss & Lehtinen, 1947) and Psychopathology and Education of the Brain-Injured Child: Progress in Theory and Clinic (Vol. 2; Strauss...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 13.10.2011
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Allgemeine Psychologie
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Entwicklungspsychologie
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Pädagogische Psychologie
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Verhaltenstherapie
• Themenwelt: Medizin / Pharmazie ► Medizinische Fachgebiete ► Psychiatrie / Psychotherapie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Pädagogik ► Sonder-, Heil- und Förderpädagogik
• ISBN-10: 0-08-056902-1 / 0080569021
• ISBN-13: 978-0-08-056902-4 / 9780080569024