Specific Learning Disability

According to the reauthorized Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 2004 the definition of Specific Learning Disability (SLD) requires that the child who has received appropriate instruction does not meet State-approved grade-level standards in one or more areas. These areas include oral expression, listening comprehension, written expression, basic reading skills, reading fluency or comprehension, and mathematical calculation or problem solving. In addition, the child's lack of sufficient progress can not be primarily the result of a visual, hearing, or motor disability, mental retardation, emotional disturbance, cultural factors, environmental or economic disadvantage, or limited English proficiency. In other words, the child

The determination of SLD must be made by a group that includes the child's parents and a "qualified professionals including regular teacher and at least one person qualified to conduct individual diagnostic examinations of children". It can be based on low student performance without standardized assessment of psychological processes. States set their own definitions of grade-level standards and the tools that are used to determine if student meet these standards can vary. To determine if students have a SLD the team, that includes the student's teacher, must decide that the student has had "appropriate instruction". Not only is this a qualitative determination, but this also creates a possible conflict of interests. To further complicate the difficulty in accurate diagnosis other causes for the performance issue must be ruled out. Many of these are hard to assess and the effects of all co-existing causes are hard to differentiate. In my experience in eligibility meetings this seems to be done without any data in the majority of these categories. My Special Education Coordinator stated that "We don't believe this is due to cultural or environmental factors". Yet, I wonder how this assessment was

• Increase stamina by increasing the length of assignments or providing instruction in handwriting

• Differentiate writing instruction for individual students

• Monitor and intervene early on writing assignments

• Use technical tools

• Use dictation (Gillespie & Graham, 2014)

• Goal Setting which go beyond length of text (Gillespie & Graham, 2014)

• Teach students to follow a writing process (Gillespie & Graham, 2014)

• Direct instruction on writing skills, teacher support, and scaffolding (Gillespie & Graham, 2014)

• Use Assistive Technology (Computers, Auditory word processing software, word prediction programs, graphical word processors, on-screen keyboards, voice recognition, organization/outlining/drafting software, or online writing support)

Mathematics

• Teach students using explicit instructions (Jayanthi, Gersten, & Baker, 2008)

• Teach students using multiple instructional examples (Jayanthi, Gersten, & Baker, 2008)

• Have students verbalize decisions and solutions (Jayanthi, Gersten, & Baker, 2008)

• Provide ongoing formative assessment data and feedback to teachers (Jayanthi, Gersten, & Baker, 2008)

• Teach students to create visual representations for information (Jayanthi, Gersten, & Baker,