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This chapter synthesized some of the published literature comparing the cognitive functioning of children with math disabilities (MD) with (1) average achieving children, (2) children with reading disabilities (RD), and (3) children with comorbid disabilities (RD+MD). Twenty-one studies, which yielded 194 effect sizes (ESs), indicated that average achievers outperformed children with MD on measures of verbal problem solving (M=−0.58), naming speed (M=−0.70), verbal (M=−0.70) and visual-spatial working memory (WM, M=−0.63), and long-term memory (LTM, M=−0.72). The results further indicated that children with MD outperformed children with combined disabilities on measures of literacy (M=0.75), visual-spatial problem solving (M=0.51), LTM (M=0.44), short-term memory (STM) for words (M=0.71), and verbal WM (M=0.30). Children with MD could only be clearly differentiated from children with RD on measures of naming speed (−0.23) and visual-spatial WM (−0.30). The magnitude of ESs was persistent across age and severity of math disability. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) indicated that the magnitude of ES in overall cognitive functioning between MD and average achievers was due to verbal WM deficits when the effect of all other variables (e.g., age, IQ, reading level, other domain categories) were partialed out. The results are discussed within the context of defining MD by level of severity of WM abilities.

In the United States, students with disabilities have moved from learning in a segregated environment to being included in the general education classroom. Legislative mandates have encouraged this shift to occur in public schools in order to equal the playing field for students with disabilities. Both general and special education students with learning disabilities (LD) have been affected from inclusion. This chapter describes the legal, historical, psychological, and instructional concepts shaping the way students with LD are educated today.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the feasibility, and effectiveness, of using Headsprout Early Reading (HER), an online computer program, to teach basic reading skills to adult offenders with mild intellectual disabilities (IDs) in a secure hospital.

A single subject pre-post-test design replicated across two participants was used. Two standardized literacy tests were completed at baseline, half way through the intervention, and at the end of the intervention period. A measure of reading self-concept was also completed. An additional component to this research design was the inclusion of two “treatment as usual” (TAU) control participants who did not complete the program.

Results are positive in terms of the feasibility of running the program, improved reading skills, and self-concept scores for both “intervention” participants compared to the “TAU” participants.

HER was originally developed for typically developing children, and has been found to be effective for children with IDs and developmental disabilities. This is the first study to evaluate this program with an adult population.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of instruction in information problem solving within the world wide web (the web) environment. The participants were 20 seventh and eighth grade students with a learning disability (LD) in reading. An experimental pretest‐posttest control group method was used to investigate the effects of intervention in which the treatment group was instructed in information problem solving with the Big6 Skills model. Both groups utilized an essay map organizer. The students researched science and social studies topics on the internet and the web and wrote reports over a three‐month period.

Experimental pretest‐posttest control group study, with a repeated measures design, and a repeated measures ANOVA analysis.

Both groups significantly improved in the quality of writing, text length, and navigation. The treatment group significantly outperformed the control group on the measure of text length and text organization. There were no significant differences between the two groups in prior knowledge, motivation, or gender.

The study was conducted predominantly with the researcher as the instructor in a number of individualized sessions, which limits the generalizability of the study.

This study reveals that students with a reading disability in reading could be taught information problem‐solving skills within the web environment. As technology reshapes our notion of what constitutes “basic skills”, learning with the web calls for instruction in which reading, writing, and information skills should be viewed as interconnected. This interconnection might be especially important for students with LD who are often engaged in practicing various skills in isolation.

This study experimentally examined information problem solving on the web with students with an LD in reading. Much research has been focused on basic reading skills for this group of students, but few studies have examined their learning within electronic environments.

Students with learning disabilities are ever-present in schools today and so is the technology to support these students. Assistive technology supports students with learning disabilities (LD) in terms of access and success in general education and special education settings. This chapter will discuss the challenges students with learning disabilities may face in school and the assistive technology educators can use to help address these challenges. Specifically, this chapter pays particular attention to assistive technology to support core content areas (e.g., literacy and mathematics) as well as organization and self-management.

In this chapter we discuss the essential components of special education for ELLs with learning disabilities. We focus on the importance of culturally responsive teachers implementing culturally and linguistically relevant instruction in all settings. Within this framework we emphasize the need for ELLs with LD to have a supportive classroom environment and essential English language instruction. The general education classroom can be a supportive environment for ELLs with LD by utilizing sheltered instruction techniques, specific accommodations and modifications, and reading comprehension instruction. We also consider how to support ELLs within the framework for common core curriculum standards, and finally we highlight some intensive interventions for ELLs with LD.

The use of differentiated instruction has increasingly become a part of the daily practices in classrooms across the country. This approach is important for many students with academic difficulties but can be particularly important for students with learning disabilities. Although differentiated instructional practices can have a positive impact on student learning, these strategies need to be implemented with fidelity to prove the most effective. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of the various components and strategies that teachers can use to differentiate their instruction for students with learning disabilities. These components include the classroom environment, student groupings, tiered instruction, collaboration and co-teaching, and student assessment procedures. Applied examples are provided through the use of a hypothetical classroom scenario.

Progress monitoring and data-based intervention are unique special education developments stemming from efforts to find an effective alternative to diagnostic/prescriptive instruction. Springing from research on Curriculum-based Measurement (CBM) in the late 1970s and early 1980s at the Minnesota Institute for Research on Learning Disabilities, the approach has generated a large body of empirical research and development. While the original work demonstrated that teachers could be more effective using progress monitoring in data-based intervention, most research and development activity has focused on development and extensions of the CBM model with less attention to data-based intervention. While research on progress monitoring has occurred at a high rate, widespread implementation of progress monitoring has been spurred by both federal funding and commercial development. As might be expected, all of this activity has resulted in a large set of successes and disappointments that are described here. For better or worse, as progress monitoring and data-based intervention have been incorporated into Response to Intervention (RTI) models it seems likely that the future of progress monitoring and data-based intervention is tied to the future of RTI. The question is whether this linking will result in adding to the set of successes or to that of disappointments for this unique special education innovation.

Special education in the USA is, in most respects, a 20th century phenomenon and is now governed primarily by federal legislation first enacted in 1975. The federal law in its most recent reauthorization (2004) continues to require a free appropriate public education (FAPE) for all students with disabilities, a full continuum of alternative placements (CAP) ranging from residential or hospital care to inclusion in general education, an individual education plan or program (IEP) for each student identified as needing special education, and placement in the least restrictive environment (LRE) that is thought best for implementing the IEP. Parents must be involved in the special education process. Approximately 14 percent of public school students were identified for special education in 2004–2005, but the number and percentage of students identified in most high-incidence categories as needing special education have declined in recent years (the total for all categories was about 8.5 percent of public school students in 2010). A variety of evidence-based interventions can be used to address the wide range of instructional and behavioral needs of students with disabilities and their families, including transition to further education or work, family services, and teacher education. Special education in the USA may find new sources of support and thrive or may become less common or be abandoned entirely due to criticism and withdrawal of support for social welfare programs of government.