Learning Disabilities

Question 0

Learning Disorders in DSM-5

Answer 0

Significant interference in academic or occupational performance, or activities of daily living
1.5 SD below average for age
Academic skills below age expectations

Question 1

Learning Disorders in IDEA

Answer 1

• Disorders in basic psychology process involved in language manifested in imperfect academic skill

Not primarily the result of motor, sensory, emotional issues, ID, disadvantage

Question 2

Assessment of LD Norm referenced

Answer 2

Compares the child to the other students in the grade.
Many lengthy subtests
National norms
Lengthy training process
Note keyed to local curriculum
Usually not based on speed
Wechsker individual achievement test and Woodcock Johnson test of achievement

Question 3

Assessment of LD curriculum-based (CBM/ CBA)

Answer 3

Generates scores to a standard and tells you if your score is high or low

Very brief probes
Local norms or research criteria
Very easy for teachers to use
Keyed to local curriculum
Based on speed of performance

Question 4

Norm- referenced test areas

Answer 4

Reading – decoding and comprehension fluency and phonological processing
Mathematics – computation reasoning and fluency
Writing – spelling comprehension and fluency
Oral language - expression and comprehension

Question 5

Curriculum-based measurement (CBM)

Answer 5

Reading – correct words read or generated per minute
Math – correct digits written per minute
Spelling – correct letter sequences written per minute
Writing – several measures
Count the number of words they write in three minutes

Question 6

Three major methods of diagnosis

Answer 6

The IQ/achievement discrepancy
The intraindividual patterns
Response to intervention procedures

Question 7

The IQ/achievement discrepancy

Answer 7

Give to standardized test
Intelligence – W I SC – IV
Achievement – WIAT
Mean=100, SD=15

If the gap between IQ and an academic skill area is large it is diagnosed
Can be used for inclusion but not exclusion under IDEA

Question 8

Intra-individual patterns

Answer 8

Dawn Flanagan 
Pattern of strength and weaknesses
An academic weakness
And underlying cognitive weakness
Average skills and strengths in other cognitive and academic areas
Better at differentiating LD from non-LD
More useful for informing treatment
Too vague and qualitative

Question 9

RTI procedures

Answer 9

Frank Gresham
Tear I all students
   Use scientific, research-based instruction
    Monitor progress with CBM probes
Tier II
   More intensive instruction if needed
Tier III
   Even more intensive instruction if needed 
Non-responders to tier III diagnosed LD

Question 10

Response to intervention procedures

Answer 10

Emphasis on prevention is laudable
Fewer students needlessly placed in special-education
Frequent testing makes score judgments more reliable
Ignores neurological basis of LD
Advocates are fuzzy on details
RTI research mainly on reading fluency and K-6 students
Which curricula are scientific and research-based
Which is adequate progress

Question 11

Epidemiology

Answer 11

40% of students with disabilities
4% of all students
Varies is greatly by state
Huge increase from about 1977 to 2005 then some declined
M:F = 3:1
RTI one of the main reasons it has gone down
Teachers are more likely to referrer boys than girls
Possibly due to behavior
Comorbidity higher risk for:
Social skills deficits ADHD and behavior problems and delinquency

Question 12

Etiology

Answer 12

LD – reading

• Phonemic/phonological awareness deficit
• oral language
  * phoneme deletion and blending tasks
• rhyming tasks
• Phonics deficits:
  Oral written language
  The alphabetic principle sound letter correspondence
  Pseudoword tasks
  Give people fake words and see if they can sound them out

Question 13

Etiology of LD reading

Answer 13

Rapid naming retrieval
Auditory working memory
Visual problems
Sounds and rapid naming
FMRI studies:
Disruption of posterior reading systems
More prefrontal activation
Genetic findings concordance rates:
MZ twins equals .85 and DZ twins equals .35
It’s genetic because it’s higher in the MZ than the DZ
Less than 100 so some environmental factors

Question 14

Etiology of LD writing

Answer 14

Cognitive deficits:
Less planning before writing
Deficits and low level skills spelling punctuation handwriting
Crystallized intelligence deficits:
Learned knowledge
Vocabulary
Very poor crystallize knowledge
no known research for biological deficits

Question 15

Education of students with LD

Answer 15

65 % spend full day and gen Ed
Sometimes with consultant teachers
25% have resource 
Full inclusion
Ideals vs. reality
Teachers lack of training in needs and modification

Question 16

Instructional approaches

Answer 16

Direct instructions explicit teaching:
Teacher as expert
Systematic and efficient behavioral approaches:
Review
Presentation
Guided practice
Independent practice
Evaluation
Not discovery exploration trial and Era etc.
Conclusive supportive research and special-education
Just teach the material they need to now
Notetaking strategies middle/high school
Instructions and notetaking
Guided notes middle/high school
Graphic organizer
Mnemonics
Problem-solving strategy instructions
Generally supportive restarts released

Question 17

Crystallized intelligence

Answer 17

Is the ability to use skills, knowledge, and experience. It does not equate to memory, but it does rely on accessing information from long-term memory

Question 18

Auditory working memory

Answer 18

The ability to process information presented orally, analyze it mentally, and store it to be recalled later