Learning Disability refers to a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in poor academic achievement in one or more of 6 academic areas:
Reading
Written language
Mathematics
Memory
Metacognition
Behavioral, social and emotional characteristics.
What is at Stake?
Some children with Learning Disability are not identified and do not receive an appropriate educational assistance.
Some children with no Learning Disability are identified as having Learning Disability and are unfairly stigmatized (e.g..confusion between Learning Disability and behavioral disorders).
Some children with Learning Disability are identified as having another problem and receive inadequate educational assistance (e.g.. wrong diagnosis of mental retardation or emotional disorders).
Some children with Learning Disability are correctly identified as having Learning Disability, but the diagnosis does not provide appropriate information for efficient treatment and educational assistance.
Clinical Teaching Cycle
The Assessment-Teaching Process
Referral Stages
Instruction Stages
Assessment Stages
Pre-referral
Referral and initial planning
Implementing the Teaching plan
Monitoring Progress
Multidisciplinary evaluation
IEP meeting
A classification of Teaching methods
Cognitive Training
Involves 3 components
Changing thought processes
Providing strategies for learning
Teaching self initiative
Involves common techniques such as self-instruction, self-monitoring, and scaffolded instruction.
Direct Instruction (DI)
Critical components is task analysis.
Break down academic tasks into their components parts.
Teachers teach the components parts separately, then teach students to put the parts together to demonstrate the larger skill.
Steps of Task Analysis
Clearly state the learning task (the behavioral objectives).
Break the learning task into steps needed for the target skill and place these steps into a logical teaching sequence.
Test informally to determine the steps that the student can already perform.
Begin teaching, in sequential order, each step of the task analysis sequence.
