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Results for “Learning Disabilities”

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PubMed1996

Initiation of cigarette smoking among children with and without learning disabilities.

The goals of this study were to determine if: (1) children with learning disabilities should be included in school-based smoking prevention programs and (2) existing prevention curricula are appropriate for children with learning disabilities. Initiation of cigarette smoking and several correlates of smoking, including personal attribute, peer influence, and parent influence variables, were measured in a sample of 1470 3rd and 5th grade children. The rates of smoking initiation were 17% and 15% for children with and without learning disabilities, respectively. In addition, several of the known correlates of smoking among youth, including low self-control, negative orientation toward school, and peer smoking, were also significantly associated with smoking by children with learning disabilities. Children with learning disabilities are as much in need of smoking prevention programs as children without learning disabilities. Although current smoking prevention curricula address issues relevant to children with learning disabilities, additional research is needed to identify the special needs of these children and to determine the type of smoking prevention program most likely to be effective with them.

Age Factors↗

PubMed1979

Nystagmus and ocular fixation difficulties in learning-disabled children.

The visual fixation ability of learning-disabled children was evaluated after sensory integrative therapy had been administered for short or long periods of time. Children with hyporesponsive postrotary nystagmus displayed reduced oculomotor control skills, but the deficit was apparent only in those who had been in therapy for a shorter interval. These results present further support for the hypothesis that the learning disabled can be differentiated according to their nystagmus characteristics. In addition, very tentative evidence suggested that sensory integrative therapy may have been successful in ameliorating the fixation deficiency; however, further research into this possibility is needed. The data also indicate that oculomotor control dysfunction may be a mediating mechanism for at least part of the learning disabilities experienced by some learning-disabled children.

Child↗

PubMedDate not supplied

The effects of extended time on algebra test scores for college students with and without learning disabilities.

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of extended time on the algebra test performance of community college students with and without learning disabilities. Forty-four students with learning disabilities and 44 students without learning disabilities attending five California community colleges participated in the study. The students each took an algebra test under timed conditions and a comparable test under extended-time conditions. The main results were that the students with learning disabilities scored significantly lower than the students without learning disabilities under timed conditions, the scores of the students with learning disabilities increased significantly with extended time, and the scores of the students with learning disabilities under extended-time conditions did not differ significantly from the timed or extended-time scores of the students without learning disabilities.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Value of employment to people with learning disabilities.

A key objective of the Government White Paper 'Valuing People: A New Strategy for Learning Disability for the 21st Century' is to encourage and assist people with learning disabilities to gain employment. This is because very few people with learning disabilities are in paid work and employment is promoted as a means of improving self-esteem, skills and social integration and acceptability. The aim of this article is to highlight some benefits of, and the risks and concerns around, people with learning disabilities undertaking paid work. Learning disability nurses need to be aware of these issues if they are to advise and support clients effectively. If people with learning disabilities are not able or unwilling to enter the world of work then alternative approaches are needed. Leisure has the potential to offer similar benefits as work to people with learning disabilities.

Adult↗

PubMed1997

Identification, accommodation, and success of students with learning disabilities in nursing education programs.

Few studies have addressed the issue of nursing students with learning disabilities, although students with both identified and undiagnosed learning disabilities are pursuing nursing education. Legal mandates concerning these students impact nursing programs and faculty. To reduce the risk of discrimination litigation, nursing education programs need to establish educational strategies to promote these students' success. The purpose of this research was to discover the extent to which Bachelor of Science in Nursing and Associate Degree of Nursing programs in one southeastern state admit, identify, and graduate nursing students with learning disabilities, and to identify accommodations provided by these programs to promote success among this student population. Of the 54 programs surveyed, 45 responded. Almost 50% indicated that their program had admitted nursing students with learning disabilities and one-third reported graduating students with learning disabilities. Enrolled students with undiagnosed learning disabilities were identified during their course of studies by both faculty members and by students themselves. The most frequently reported accommodations for students were counselors, tutors, tape-recorded lectures, and computer access. As the number of students with learning disabilities seeking post-secondary education increases, nursing programs and nurse educators will be involved with greater numbers of students needing educational accommodations.

Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate↗

PubMed1994

Cognitive performance in learning disabled children with and without epilepsy.

Cognitive functioning and educational achievement were examined in learning disabled children with epilepsy (n = 65) and without epilepsy (n = 122) in order to explore whether children with epilepsy show unique types of learning problems, different from those in other learning disabled children. The learning disabled children with epilepsy tended to perform better on tests of verbal intelligence, certain achievement-related abilities and were better in one area of academic achievement, i.e. spelling. Despite their superior performance in these areas, the learning disabled children with epilepsy were slower than those without epilepsy and regular education controls (n = 100) on simple auditory and visual reaction tasks as well as on a multiple decision reaction task and a visual searching task. The results obtained with the school achievement tasks provide no clear evidence for specific types of learning impairment in children with epilepsy. Learning disabled children with epilepsy do not appear to have educational needs different from those of other learning disabled children.

Attention↗

PubMed2000

Reliability and validity of the CANDID--a needs assessment instrument for adults with learning disabilities and mental health problems.

BACKGROUND: People with learning disabilities and mental health problems have complex needs. Care should be provided according to need. AIM: To develop a standardised needs-assessment instrument for adults with learning disabilities and mental health problems. METHOD: The Camberwell Assessment of Need for Adults with Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities (CANDID) was developed by modifying the Camberwell Assessment of Need (CAN). Concurrent validity was tested using the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) and the Disability Assessment Schedule (DAS). Test-retest and interrater reliability were investigated using 40 adults with learning disabilities and mental health problems. RESULTS: CANDID scores were significantly correlated with both DAS (P < 0.05) and GAF scores (P < 0.01). Correlation coefficients for interrater reliability were 0.93 (user), 0.90 (career), and 0.97 (staff ratings); for test-retest reliability they were 0.71, 0.69 and 0.86 respectively. Mean interview duration was less than 30 minutes. CONCLUSIONS: The CANDID is a brief, valid and reliable needs assessment instrument for adults with learning disabilities and mental health problems.

Adult↗

PubMed1994

Short-term memory and working memory: do both contribute to our understanding of academic achievement in children and adults with learning disabilities?

Seventy-five children and adults with learning disabilities (age range = 5.0 to 42.10 yrs.) and 86 normally achieving children and adults (age range = 5.11 to 58.0 yrs.) were compared on short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM) tasks to assess the relationship between STM and WM, and to test whether these measures independently relate to achievement. For both ability groups, the factor analyses indicated that STM and WM loaded on different factors, and the regressions and partial correlations showed that these different factors accounted for separate variance in reading comprehension and mathematics. Both STM and WM are important in understanding reading comprehension and mathematics performance in children and adults with learning disabilities; however, WM is more important for children and adults without learning disabilities. In contrast to WM, STM contributed minimal variance to word recognition in both ability groups. Overall, it was concluded that STM and WM do reflect different processes, both of which seem to separate the two ability groups. However, models of memory that view STM and WM as interchangeable, or STM in isolation, do not provide an adequate framework for capturing academic performance in children and adults with learning disabilities.

Achievement↗

PubMed1999

[Neurochemical and neurotransmitter studies in patients with learning disabilities].

To clarify the pathophysiology of learning disability (LD), we measured the urinary levels of 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenyl glycol (MHPG), and phenylethylamine (PEA) in urine samples collected in a 24 hour period. Findings were compared with those obtained in age-matched controls and diseased controls including patients with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), infantile autism, and mental retardation. The mean urinary level of MHPG in LD (n = 6) were not significantly different from those in ADHD (n = 16), mental retardation (n = 4), infantile autism (n = 5), and the controls (n = 6), while the mean urinary levels of PEA were significantly lower in LD (n = 6, 91 +/- 17.3 micrograms/mg) and in ADHD (n = 5, 65 +/- 53.6 micrograms/mg) as compared to age-matched controls (n = 3, 340 +/- 264.5 micrograms/mg) ANOVA, (p < 0.05). PEA is considered to play an important role for the pathogenesis of LD and ADHD.

Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Integrative strategy instruction: a potential model for teaching content area subjects to adolescents with learning disabilities.

In part because learning strategies are often taught in isolated resource settings outside of the contexts in which students with learning disabilities are expected to apply this knowledge, generalization has been a significant challenge to educators. To address this problem, an instructional model is proposed for integrating cognitive strategy instruction and content area instruction when teaching students in content area classes. Teacher-directed instructional procedures, cooperative learning, and direct explanation and dialectical strategy instruction are integrated into four key instructional processes: orienting, framing, applying, and extending. In this model, teacher-mediated instructional devices and routines used to teach content area subjects serve as a basis for teaching students to self-mediate parallel cognitive strategies and processes. The model is discussed in terms of its theoretical and philosophical orientations as manifested in its knowledge and instructional bases. A scenario is provided that depicts a social studies teacher implementing many of the principles and methods associated with the model.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Learning disabilities in dental education: trends, management, and concerns in U.S. dental schools.

The prevalence of learning disabilities (LD) in higher education has drawn significant attention at the undergraduate level. College freshmen reporting learning disabilities have increased significantly in the past twenty years. Although anecdotal evidence suggests an increase in the number of dental students with learning disabilities, nothing has been published regarding how dental education is affected by this general trend. The purpose of this study was to obtain information from U.S. dental school administrators regarding the incidence and prevalence of learning disabilities in dental education. We hypothesized that there has been an increase in diagnosed cases of learning disabilities in dental education. Following a pilot study to identify individuals responsible for working with students with learning disabilities in U.S. dental schools (response rate 91 percent, n = 49), a eighteen-item survey instrument was distributed to specific contact individuals (response rate 81 percent, n = 44). Mean cumulative incidence of diagnosed cases of learning disabilities was 0.3 percent; mean prevalence of identified diagnosed cases of LD 0.7 percent. Pearson analysis revealed a statistically significant weak positive correlation between mean prevalence and year, suggesting an increase in identified diagnosed cases of LD in U.S. dental schools over the past seven years (r = 0.24, p = 0.002). We conclude that the presence of learning disabilities in dental education is silent, pervasive, and deserves increased attention.

Education, Dental↗

PubMed1983

A developmental study of vigilance in learning-disabled and nondisabled children.

To test the proposition that learning-disabled children manifest a sustained attentional deficit, the Continuous Performance Test was administered to learning-disabled and nondisabled children at three age levels. Children were tested on three task lengths (5, 10, and 15 minutes) and two modalities (auditory and visual) in which dependent measures were correct detections and false responses, d' and B values. As expected, learning-disabled children male fewer correct detections and more false responses and were less sensitive (d') to critical stimuli than were nondisabled children at all ages. There was also evidence to indicate that learning-disabled children apply different response criteria across age when compared to nondisabled children. B values varied significantly across age, group, modality, and time on task; d' remained relatively unchanged across time periods. The popular notion that learning-disabled and younger subjects start a vigilance task with the same capacity as nondisabled older children but show a decline in attention as time on task increases was not supported.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1996

Speech-recognizing computers: a written-communication tool for students with learning disabilities?

Students with specific learning disabilities (LD) in written composition may experience difficulties that restrict their ability to demonstrate in writing what they know and can communicate orally. Voice-input technology now allows users to speak into a microphone and have their words appear on a computer screen in a word processing format, ready for revision and editing. This exploratory study reports the efforts of one sixth-grade student to learn to use this technology to assist written communication. The findings suggest that the technology holds promise for students with LD when it is refined to allow less difficulty in using it.

Child↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Learning-disabled people's experience of general hospitals.

As more people with learning disability move from long-stay hospitals into the community, contact with general hospital services will increase. Yet, how people with learning disability experience general hospital settings has remained a largely unresearched area. Despite the Department of Health's (DoH's) 1992 guidelines regarding learning-disabled people's access to hospitals, research reveals several areas where the needs of people with learning disability have not been considered. This small-scale study sought to hear from learning-disabled people themselves about their hospital experiences. Thirteen interviews were conducted over 3 months. The interviews were then transcribed and, using grounded theory, a series of key concepts developed. Findings highlighted that, particularly in the areas of 'fears about treatment', 'communication', 'general nursing', 'consent to treatment' and 'doctors', learning-disabled people had a lot to say, much of which was critical of service provision.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1984

Current status of the neuromaturational examination as an index of learning disability.

To further define the role of the neuromaturational examination in determining the presence of learning problems, we examined 104 boys, ages 9.5 to 14.1 years, representing three populations of school children: normal (32 boys), gifted (37), and learning disabled (35). Information concerning each child's behavior and development was obtained through a parent questionnaire; cognitive ability and academic achievement were measured by the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children (revised) and Woodcock -Johnson Psychoeducational Battery, respectively. Significant relationships emerged between the number of neuromaturational signs and data group membership (LD greater than N greater than G,P less than 0.05). The number of neuromaturational signs decreased with age for normal (P less than 0.05) and gifted (P less than 0.05) children, but not for the learning-disabled group. Tasks that differentiated the normal and learning disabled were entered into a stepwise discriminant analysis, with a resulting classification accuracy of 93.1% and 100% for the normal and learning-disabled boys, respectively. Analysis of covariance indicated that differences in performance of the three groups may reflect IQ differences among the populations. Learning disabled boys were more likely to exhibit synkinesis than normal boys, but gifted boys did not differ from the learning disabled in the frequency of synkinesis. Our data indicate that, although a composite set of neuromaturational tasks can discriminate normal and learning-disabled boys with a high level of accuracy, caution is urged because the findings may be more related to overall intelligence than to a specific learning disability.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1985

Improving the test-taking skills of learning-disabled students.

16 learning-disabled second- and third-grade students were matched on previous years' achievement scores and grade and assigned at random to experimental and control conditions. Students in the experimental condition were given 8 20-min. sessions of training in test-taking skills particular to the Stanford Achievement Test. Analysis of test scores indicated trained students scored significantly higher on one subtest of a shortened version of the test than students who had not been trained.

Achievement↗

PubMed1995

An analysis of two discrepancy-based models and a processing-deficit approach in identifying learning disabilities.

The incidence of learning disabilities (LD) in a research center sample of 107 boys and 103 girls between 6 and 12 years of age was calculated using Wechsler IQ and Woodcock-Johnson cluster scores in a regression model (REG) and a reliability model (REL). The REL method identified LD three times more often than the REG method, and all those identified by REG were also identified by REL. When stratified by IQ, REG and REL identified similar percentages in the lowest IQ group; however, REG identified at a lower rate as IQ increased. All 87 children identified with reading disabilities (both REL-RD and REG-RD) were weak to a similar extent on phonemic awareness. Comorbid elevated attention ratings were found in 62% of children with RD; 26% had elevated attention ratings but no linguistic processing deficits, and 21% had at least one linguistic processing deficit but no attentionally suspect rating.

Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity↗

PubMed2000

Helicobacter pylori and the learning disabled.

Those with a learning disability previously cared for in institutions have now been discharged into smaller community homes. This has meant that an increased burden has been placed on general practitioners (GPs) to evaluate and treat those who have symptoms that may be difficult to interpret. This report presents the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori in those still awaiting discharge and discusses the possible symptoms that GPs may encounter.

Adolescent↗