research topics for students with disabilities

160 Disabilities Topics for Research Papers & Essays

Looking for interesting disability topics for a research paper or project? This field is hot, controversial, and definitely worth studying!

🏆 Best Disability Topics for Research Papers

👍 disability essay topics, 📑 research questions about disabilities, 🎓 good research topics about disabilities.

The disability study field includes the issues of physical, mental, and learning disabilities, as well as the problem of discrimination. In this article, we’ve gathered great disability essay topics & research questions, as well as disability topics to talk about. We hope that our collection will inspire you.

• Case Study of a Child with Intellectual Disability It is crucial to integrate the input of a learning coach into the school curriculum to encourage the participation of Meagan’s parents in his educational endeavors.
• Students With Disabilities in Higher Education Institutions Accommodations for students depend on the disability type that the student has, and whether the disability allows the student to get an accommodation in the institution.
• Poems with Disabilities by Jim Ferris This is good evidence for the argument of the need to eliminate the issue of ableism. Language evolves gradually, and countering the issue of ableism is a long-term goal.
• Managing Students With Disabilities Instructional issues that are encountered in education are those arising due to the inability of the students to acquire, maintain, and relate the skills that are learned in class to other settings within and outside […]
• The Problems of Children With Disabilities and Possible Ways of Solution It is very important for disabled people to be on the same level with others in the conditions that compensate the deviations in the development and constraints of the abilities in learning.
• Children With Learning Disabilities The following research questions will be used in achieving the objectives: What is the role of learning disabilities in affecting the ability of the students to learn?
• Sociocultural Barriers for People With Disabilities On the other hand, stigmatization, stereotyping and prejudice have been highlighted as the barriers to social inclusion of people with disabilities in society.
• Computer-Based Technologies That Assist People With Disabilities The visually impaired To assist the visually impaired to use computers, there are Braille computer keyboards and Braille display to enable them to enter information and read it. Most of these devices are very expensive […]
• Women, Development and Disabilities The mission of the organization is to enhance the voice of women in society and influence other organizations that advocate for women rights.
• Government Grants for People With Disabilities The paper will be based on the conditions of disabled people and the federal or state grants that they could receive in order to facilitate changes in their health and work.
• Learning Disabilities: Differentiating ADHD and EBD As for the most appropriate setting, it is possible to seat the child near the teacher. It is possible to provide instructions with the help of visual aids.
• Children With Disabilities in Education By the end of the experiment the student will demonstrate his ability to understand the information, to discuss it, and to reflect his ideas in writing.
• Employees With Disabilities and Their Workplace Behavior In H3, the authors found that employees with disabilities remained loyal and committed to work and were satisfied with their job.
• Ableism: Bias Against People With Disabilities People concerned with rights advocacy ought to ensure a facilitated awareness of the distressing impacts of ableism through the inclusion of the subject in private and public discussions.
• Defining Disabilities in Modern World Defining disability has not been easy due to the various opinions related to the understanding of the concept. Disability has significant impact on the society due to the relationships that exists between the individual and […]
• Mental Disabilities: Characteristics and Causes TBIs are caused by an impact of the head against a blunt object or from its penetration by a sharp object; it often results from vehicle accidents. Autism is a developmental disorder that influences the […]
• Adaptive Behavior Skills and Intellectual Disabilities Four assessment tools are important for identifying adaptive behavior and skills: the Adaptive Behavior Scale, the Scale of Independent Behavior, and the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale.
• Autism and Educational Process Owing to these adverse effects that can stem from autism and the shear prevalence of the condition in the country’s population, a lot of research effort has been dedicated to the early diagnosis and treatment […]
• Lawsuits Regarding College Students With Disabilities Abuse is one of the factors considered to have discouraged physically challenged students from pursuing their academic careers.
• Living with Disabilities from an Insider’s Perspective Additionally, Armendariz was able to use a prosthetic arm to assist with her disability which she recalled as being helpful before it led to severe negativity from her peers at the time.
• Grandparents Raising Grandchildren With Disabilities In the case of their absence, these grandparents worry about the well-being of their disabled grandchildren and the influence they have on other children.
• People With Disabilities in the Frida Movie After the accident, her father bought her a canvas that she would use for painting because she loved art and was an artist, helping her cope with her disability.
• Safety Evacuation for People with Disabilities First, before a disaster occurs, the government should be aware of the number of individuals in the scenario and keep track of them to verify the figures are correct.
• Individuals with Disabilities: Social Misconceptions One of the misconceptions I noticed is the community’s attitudes to people with disability. Community views about individuals with disabilities can also be impacted by features of the person with a disability unrelated to the […]
• Individuals With Disabilities: Prejudice and Discrimination I researched that people with persistent medical or physical disorders, such as cerebral palsy or multiple sclerosis, who have speech, articulation, or communication impairments, for example, are sometimes seen as having an intellectual deficiency. Corey […]
• Special Olympics and Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities Together with partners, the Special Olympics aspires to improve the health outcomes for people with physical and mental disabilities to close the gap with the healthy population who are more advantaged in terms of access […]
• The Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities Policy The paper outlines the proper policy and procedure of incident reporting and investigation and thus, provides how to become an agent for the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities and satisfy individuals receiving services.
• Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities’ Staff Training Specifically, the introduction of the assessment modules for the evaluation of the staff members’ compliance with the set requirements will be enacted.
• The Quality of the Working Environment for Persons With Disabilities The progressive introduction of new practices more tolerant of the disabled will be carried out at every stage of the work cycle and in every segment of the corporation as a connected infrastructure.
• Developmental Disabilities: Best Practice and Support Family therapy and the creation of support groups seem to be an effective method for children with disabilities and their environment.
• Bronx Developmental Disabilities Council: Organization Assessment During events, council, and committee meetings, the organization provides printed materials with information on disability and the prevention of social distancing of people with disabilities.
• Assistive Technologies for Individuals with Disabilities A rehabilitation consultant will be able to recommend this equipment to people who are acutely worried about the inability to use a computer and the Internet to ensure a comfortable life.
• Smart Farms Hiring People with Disabilities Although Smart Farms is a non-profit organization and benefits from donations, the workers play their role in income generation by working on the farms and sales.
• Americans with Disabilities Act and Nursing Practice Acts such as the Americans with Disabilities Act affect not only the political and legal environment in a country but also the rights and responsibilities of nurses.
• Life of Individuals Dealing with Disabilities The child’s image hitting the t-ball also showcased a powerful issue, that disabled individuals should be treated similarly to other people and given equal opportunities to give them the chance to perform optimally.
• Partnership for People with Disabilities’ Mission The mission of this organization is to partner with stakeholders both in the intellectual and developmental disability community and other interested groups at Virginia Commonwealth University. The organization was founded in 1985 to better people’s […]
• The Experience of Parents of Children With Disabilities Enhancing support for the mental well-being of parents of children with a disability: developing a resource based on the perspectives of parents and professionals.
• Healthcare Disparities in People With Disabilities In addition to health care disparities, such as poor access to care, including preventive one, and dependency, people with disabilities also face higher morbidity and lack of insurance.
• Employment for People With Disabilities Accommodation is also considered to be a restructuring of work and the attraction of other personnel to help in adaptation – as it should have happened with Adele.
• Laws Protecting the Rights of People With Disabilities The aim of this essay is to research the law that protects the rights of people with disabilities in the context of sporting events.
• People With Disabilities in Society I think that these people are powerful and inspiring, as they prove to the world that it is possible to live life to the fullest with a disability.
• People With Disabilities and Social Work Moreover, there is a tendency towards the rise in the number of such people because of the deterioration of the situation and the growing number of environmental concerns.
• Alternate Assessments for Students With Learning Disabilities The problem is that many school districts experience difficulties with proposing adequate formative and summative assessments for those students who require special attention.
• People with Disabilities’ Problem of Employment Although truck driving can be a stressful job, it is not evident if it is true, and thus, it is important for John to experience the job-related himself and determine whether he can handle it. […]
• Living with Disabilities in the Nondisabled World A variety of laws, initiatives, and regulations are currently implemented to ensure simpler and less costly access to information resources and the functionality of a device.
• United Arab Emirates Schools: Students With Learning Disabilities The current UAE public school environment does not allow for the provision of the necessary skills due to the lack of a proper teaching strategy.
• Workplace and People With Disabilities The purpose of the research is to make coherent and accurate observations in regards to the usefulness of the given method in improving the overall attitudes of people and organizations toward people with disabilities.
• Career Counseling for People With Disabilities To sufficiently research, the issue of career counseling for individuals with disabilities in the academic press, a list of journals that offer such information was developed.
• Genetic Modification and Implicit Bias Against People With Disabilities There is also a factor of disabilities that are life-threatening to a child, or illnesses that may be able to be fatal within the first few years of life.
• Impact of Social Darwinism on the Perception of Human Disabilities In addition, connecting behavior such as the likeliness of criminality to genetics is incorrect and damaging not only to the individual but to a community and society as a whole.
• Music Therapy for Children With Learning Disabilities This review includes the evidence supporting music therapy as an effective strategy for promoting auditory, communication, and socio-emotional progression in children with ASD.
• Healthcare Professionals: Individuals With Developmental Disabilities The presentation provide an overview of relevant health related issues in individuals with developmental disabilities and how it relates to the group of professionals assigned.
• Protection for Persons With Disabilities and Their Service Animals Additionally, it must be trained to give assistance to a person with disability. Service animals that can be selected to assist persons with disability must be either a dog or a miniature horse.
• Death Penalty: Juveniles and Mental Disabilities Consequently, the Eight Amendment should dismiss the death penalty for this category and state laws must implement recommendations of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the American Psychological Association, and the American Bar Association that […]
• The Prevalence, Effects and Challenges of Developmental Disabilities While the increase in the number of people with developmental disabilities is attributed to the rising numbers of the aging population, disabilities may arise in childhood and affect the entire lives of people.
• Community Disability Awareness Program: Elderly Women With Disabilities A measurable outcome in the program’s success will be a decline in the rate of crime related to elderly women with disabilities.
• The Understanding of Needs of People With Learning Disabilities Despite several problems in the overall design of the strategy that can be used to improve the nursing services for PLD, Drozd and Clinch make a very valid point by stressing the significance of a […]
• Addressing the Needs of People With Learning Disabilities As a student aiming at becoming a Nurse Practitioner, I am currently focusing on the exploration of the options for managing the work of the nursing staff, as well as seeking the opportunities for improving […]
• Discrimination Against Customers With Disabilities The role of the law is to regulate such cases and to provide necessary tools for both sides to prove their point of view.
• Elderly Women with Disabilities: Problems and Needs Despite the economic crisis, the cost of medical care has also increased due to the rise in the number of lawsuits filed against the physicians of the state.
• Relationship Satisfaction and Psychological Well-Being Among Greek People With Physical Disabilities In the light of this lack of knowledge, the present study attempts to explore the degree of relationship satisfaction in connection with the way handicapped people deal with the challenges of romantic involvement, as well […]
• Communication and People With Disabilities The bathrooms were close to the food court; moreover, there were special handle bars which helped to transfer to the commode and, at this, the height of the commode was almost the same as the […]
• Music Therapy as a Related Service for Students With Disabilities From a neuroscientific perspective, how would music intervention improve classroom behaviors and academic outcomes of students with ADHD as a way to inform policy-makers of the importance of music therapy as a related service?
• Problem Behaviors in Intellectual Disabilities Community The proposed quality designed study will evaluate the behavior of people with intellectual disabilities over a certain period of time and consequently conclude the primary triggers that influence ID people to demonstrate behavioral issues, including […]
• Law for People With Disabilities in California The family, the immediate environment of a person with disabilities, is the main link in the system of his or her care, socialization, the satisfaction of needs, support, and career guidance.
• The Resilience Experiences of People With Disabilities The focus of the study was on the participants’ lived experiences, as well as their attitudes towards certain aspects, so the use of interviews as a data collection method is justified.
• Literature Circles for Students With Learning Disabilities On the other hand, the affected individuals contend that the categorization should be removed to pave the way for the integration of assistances where all needs are attended without classification regardless of the student’s physical […]
• Students With Disabilities: Research Analysis In the process of undertaking this research and practical alignment, there is a misalignment in the inclusion of students with disabilities in the GE class.
• School Counselors for Students With Disabilities When the goals are set out, and the professional sphere is chosen, the counselor becomes responsible for the student’s preparation and reception of essential job skills as well as for the communication with the post-school […]
• The Specific Needs of Students With Physical Disabilities The research problem that will be the focus of the planned paper relates to the specific needs of students with physical disabilities or behavioral issues in general classrooms.
• Assistive Technology for Students with Disabilities The United Nations Convention on the Rights of people with disabilities proposes a raft of measures to be undertaken by states to promote the wellbeing of individuals with disabilities.
• Job for Individuals With Physical Disabilities For instance, when a new technology is about to be installed, it will be rational for a number of workers based on departments to be selected and taken through how to use the innovation, such […]
• Therapeutic Vests for Children With Disabilities The purpose of this review is to examine the available literature on the effectiveness of using therapeutic vests, weighted vests, and pressure vests on children with Autism spectrum disorders, Attention deficit disorder, Pervasive Development Disorder, […]
• An Audit of the Accessibility of the College of the North Atlantic-Qatar to Individuals With Physical Disabilities It should be noted that structural presentation of the paper is considered to be one of the most important elements of the paper because it allows following the logical thought of the research paper.
• Learning Disabilities and Communication Disorders The students are also being taken through research-based and special education programs and the determination of these disorders is done cooperatively between teachers and specialists like psychologists.
• Children With Disabilities: Supporting Student Behavior The comfortable atmosphere will help the children to attend the class and also provide a good way to mingle with the children with disabilities.
• Americans With Disabilities and Act Amendments Act to the ADA: The Main Issues and Comparison Moreover, the essence of the major amendments to the ADA is disclosed in the article using comparison and implications of those changes for the public use in the spheres of employment and human resources management […]
• Teaching Character Education to Students With Behavioral and Learning Disabilities The purpose of the study was to determine the effectiveness of character education programs implemented in schools on students with behavioral and learning disabilities.
• Plan of the Kickball Game That Involves the Students With the Disabilities While simulating the situation where one is in charge of the PE class, one needs to remember that disability is never inability, thus the students with the disabilities can participate in any games as well […]
• American With Disabilities Amendment Act The main intention of the Act is that civilians receiving benefits or services through the measures of local and state governments may not be differentiated on the fundamentals of the individual’s physical disabilities.
• Genetic Testing Under Americans With Disabilities Act There is nothing surprising in the fact that the genetically tested employees counted the testing as a violation of their human rights, and The Americans with Disabilities Act was adopted in 1990.
• Americans With Disabilities Act for Employers However, in practice, an employer could still legally discriminate against those with disabilities An employer is obligated to make reasonable accommodations for an employee or applicant if they are ‘otherwise qualified’ to perform the responsibilities […]
• Teaching Language to Students With Severe Disabilities The objective of this study is to find the different approaches that can be used in teaching phonics and the whole language to students with varied severe disabilities.
• Program Improvement: Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities The government has been keen to present specific resources and support systems that can support the educational and career goals of these individuals.
• Daily Living Skills Training for Individuals With Learning Disabilities Teaching individuals with physical and mental disabilities the life skills needed to compensate for their disadvantages are considered to be the key factor to ensuring a relatively safe, functional, and happy life for those individuals.
• Teaching Adaptive Behavior Skills to Children Suffering From Intellectual Disabilities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia This theoretical framework will contribute to the validation of the perspectives used by the teachers to construct their system of beliefs regarding the process of teaching ABS to students with ID.
• Life Stages of People with Learning Disabilities In order to proceed with the observation, it is necessary to identify the normal issues likely to be encountered by the representatives of both groups.
• Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities in the Workplace Intellectual disability puts a strain on an individual’s ability to have a social life and communicate with other human beings due to the fact that their capability of adapting is limited to a certain extent.
• Lifespan Development and Learning Disabilities in Childhood Parents in this situation would most likely select the authoritative parenting style to manage children because they are left to make their own choices under a guided framework.
• Natural Supports for Individuals With Disabilities Natural supports can be defined as personal connections and associations that improve the quality of a person’s life; these primarily include family relationships and friendships and constitute “the first line of supports, followed by informal […]
• Ican Bike for Individuals With Disabilities I think iCan Bike is a very good initiative that targets a vulnerable population with a plethora of special needs and relies on the community in order to deliver the results.
• Children With Disabilities and Parental Mistreatment The information in the article is helpful for parents of children with disabilities and other parents since it assists them in appreciating the significance of each parent’s education in lessening the incidence of child disability.
• School Counselor Job for People With Disabilities A school counselor that faces the risk of having a cardiovascular incident is challenged by the possible implications of the disease that could have an adverse impact on the overall practice and well being. Therefore, […]
• Americans With Disabilities in Criminal Justice Agencies Since the legislation is relatively new, the process of the change requires such guidelines given the lack of an appropriate number of the best practices for the time being.
• Rights of Parents of Students With Disabilities Trying to fix the problem, parents should understand that the only way they are to behave is the move in the direction of a correct education of their child.
• Strategies for Teaching Students With Mild Disabilities The good thing about having a child with a disability in the family is that it teaches everyone in the household to be patient. The greatest problem I have encountered in having a child with […]
• Learning Disabilities and Memory Disorders Large amounts of phenylalanine in the blood will result in complications of the neurons in the central nervous system referred to as myelinization of the cerebral hemispheres.
• Students With Mild and Moderate Disabilities Sometimes students with disabilities are not able to understand what they are to do if the instruction is not explicit and systematic. It is difficult for students with mild and moderate disabilities to generalize the […]
• Teaching Children With Multiple Disabilities The teacher should also assist such a child in maintaining a perceptual continuum than learners who are not handicapped. On the same note, the teacher should not give the amount of work similar to children […]
• Constructivism Theory for Adolescents with Disabilities The key component of the theory is people’s interaction with the environment. Therefore, Vygotsky’s theory is effective in developing the social and academic skills of an adolescent with learning and behavior disabilities.
• Veterans With Disabilities: Integration and Employment In this paper, the researcher looks at the main barriers to employment and integration back to the society that the veterans face, and the manner in which the existing policies can be amended to help […]
• Intellectual Disabilities and Higher Education The access to higher education for individuals with ID and the attitude of their parents towards their performance can be analyzed with the help of equity theory.
• Students With Intellectual Disabilities and Their Independence Some of these programs in the US include the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act, which provides grants for research, technology, and training for disabled individuals, as well as the Secondary Education Act of 2002, […]
• Independence of Students With Intellectual Disabilities In a humane and highly functional society, students with physical and intellectual disabilities should be allowed to function independently and enjoy their personal and academic life to the fullest.
• School Event Supporting Students With Disabilities Because of the vast opportunities for vulnerable groups to share their experiences and create a bond with the rest of the learners in a non-threatening environment, significant progress in encouraging disability awareness and the promotion […]
• Intellectual Disabilities and Limitations for Human Life The recognition of the lack of such skills can contribute to future opportunities for an independent life with effective interdependence and inclusion in the life of a society.
• Psychological Testing of Intellectual Disabilities Speaking of its psychometric properties, the PCL-5 is a valid and reliable self-report measure for the assessment and quantifying symptoms of PTSD.
• Young Adult Children With Intellectual Disabilities Like in the study, I would also use pilot testing of the questionnaire to ascertain its validity and reliability in measuring the intended variables. The descriptions of the concepts and terms in this study are […]
• Effective Teaching of Students with Disabilities To support the information that was posted in three blog entries, the author of this submission reviewed other literature on the subject to be able to support their point of view.
• Parenting Children With Learning Disabilities A number of parents also feel worthless since they get an impression that the respective learning disabilities portrayed in their children are due to their own genetic malformations.
• Caregivers’ Perceptions of People With Intellectual Disabilities The proposed study will present new approaches and practices that can be used to support the health needs of many patients with mental disabilities.
• People With Disabilities and Their Employment Issues The major similarity between the perceptions of older people and individuals with disabilities is based on the belief that they are slow and could slow down the other workers and the idea that the managers […]
• Students With Learning Disabilities and Assessment The education of students with learning disabilities poses great difficulty for the majority of parents and educators. It may not be self-evident that the learning problems of students are attributable to learning disabilities.
• Patients With Learning Disabilities: Quality Care Although the current study is not aimed at detecting the differences in the efficacy of the intervention based on the gender of the participants, the outcomes of the research may create prerequisites for a follow-up […]
• Talent-Oriented Therapy: Patients With Learning Disabilities Although the tool to be designed in the course of the research will have to experience a range of tests, it will serve as the impetus for the further development of the framework.
• Emotional and Behavioural Disabilities in Schools Furthermore, there is equal doubt about whether the professionals in the sphere of education give no significance to the term of emotional and behavioural disability itself.
• Employment Equity Act: Aboriginals and Disabilities Persons If the Employment Equity Act is applied appropriately, the Act will guarantee that people in the labour force are given the opportunity of the equivalent admission to job openings along with identical management in the […]
• People With Disabilities: Local and a Federal Law’ Regulation To be more exact, the current standards need to be shaped so that the policy in question should not affect the social perception of people with physical or mental disabilities.
• Students With Learning Disabilities: Needs and Problems According to Chloe, there are three aspects associated with this complex issue, and they are the problem of appropriate parents and professionals’ intervention, the problem of identifying resources, and the problem of government’s funding.
• Students With Disabilities: Characteristics and Strategies Disability Categories Example Strategy English Learner Students 1 Autism is the developmental disability which influences the aspects of social interaction and different types of communication. The child with this disability can demonstrate various restricted and stereotypic patterns of behavior. The student with autism cannot focus attention on the teacher’s words, demonstrates the unusual gestures and […]
• Instructional Plan in Writing for Learners With Disabilities The purpose of this essay is to provide an instructional plan for learners with disabilities in writing. Writing skills require learners to account for the task, the aim of writing and audience.
• People with Disabilities: The Systemic Ableism Whereas the absence of disability in the fashion world is based on the dominant view of what is considered beautiful, the absence of disabled in politics can be explained with the lack of access to […]
• Writing Disabilities Management in Children Learning disorder is among the defects, which interferes with the writing abilities of a person or a child. The first way to identify children with writing disabilities is through observation of their behaviour.
• Developmental Disabilities and Lifelong Learning Some of the common transitional programs for children with developmental disabilities would include things such as books, learning manuals, and software programs intended to assist the children in adjusting to the new programs or settings.
• Action Plan for Patrons With Disabilities For instance, the writer of the essay suggests that in terms of facility planning, it is vital for the library to invest in wiring its facilities with audio induction loop.
• Remediation in Students with Disabilities Since this strategy is essentially crucial to the curriculum, this proposal will portray the importance of conducting a profound research that seeks to determine the effectiveness of remediation in reading.
• Improving Reading Performance of Students With Learning Disabilities The purpose of the present research is to assess the efficiency of utilizing Reading Racetracks to improve the reading of words found on the K-2 list key phrases adopted in the school district.
• Americans With Disabilities Act With all due respect to the efforts of the U.S.government to come up with a framework, which would allow for a faster and a more efficient integration of the disabled into the society, the fact […]
• GM’s Committal to People With Disabilities The company aims to create awareness about PWDs by providing support and information to employees with disabilities and other PWDs outside the GM community.
• Supporting Students with Speech Impairment This assistive technology uses appropriate symbols and techniques to support the needs of different learners. These technologies will support the needs of many learners.
• Physical Disabilities and Assistive Technology For example, learners with visual impairments can use text-to-speech programs. Learners with physical disabilities can be gathered for with the help of assistive technology devices such as adaptive keyboard and screen reading software for learners […]
• Sensory Disabilities and Age of Onset This can happen, for instance, when learning the subject that call for lots of diagrams, figures and illustrations to be applied, which may also give a challenge to the visually impaired students.
• High Incidence Disabilities and Pedagogical Strategies for Learning Disabilities In the context of disability, it is important to mention that this model is beneficial to students with learning disabilities as it involves teaching them how to approach tasks and use knowledge to complete learning […]
• Families With Members Who Experience Disabilities Early childhood services which offer professionalized care services to parents help them meet the needs of the special children so that parents are able to balance their strengths, resources and challenges in the family.
• Recreational Activities for People with Disabilities Even the number of customized recreational equipments should be increased so as to enable the people with disabilities to choose from.
• Support Inclusion and Effective Practices for Students With Disabilities The purpose of this article is positioning that the ambition towards support inclusion and effective practices for students with disabilities have to be the groundwork for inclusive postsecondary education.
• Peer Buddy Program: Students with Disabilities in High School This research paper seeks to establish the purpose, importance, and rationale of the study of peer buddy program on students with disabilities in high school, in both social and academic grounds.
• An Action Plan for Serving Individuals With Disabilities – Library and Information Science First is the total cost of the whole project, the architectural design of the library building and whether it can accommodate the new developments and the current issues affecting accessibility with regards to the disabled.
• Internal Campaign Planning for Inclusion of Persons With Disabilities The key mandate of the act was to protect the employment rights of persons with disabilities. Secondly, newsletters can be developed so as to raise awareness on the importance of diversity and inclusion.
• Human Rights of People With Intellectual Disabilities Since disability is not inability, human rights’ advocates argue that perception of people with disabilities as disabled is discriminative and therefore call for their recognition as a minority people with unique abilities that do not […]
• Adolescents with Learning and Behaviour Disabilities: Graduation and Employment Difficulties One of the causes of high school dropout of this group of students is the feeling of being out of place.
• The Problem of Reading of Children With Learning Disabilities The difference in phonological awareness and reading between groups of children with SSDs and a language matched comparison group Reading fluency is a key tool of assessment the reading disability among children.
• People With Disabilities The code consists of sixteen articles that define the terms associated with disability in Saudi Arabia, the role of the government in the welfare of disabled children, administration of the bodies concerned with disabled person, […]
• Classroom Design for Children With Disabilities Furthermore, children with disabilities require individual attention from the teacher just like the other children, and if the classroom is congested it would be difficult for the teacher to reach such learners.
• Culturally Responsive Teaching of Students With Disabilities Cultural Responsive teaching is a teaching technique used to identify and address cognitive, social, emotional, and cultural and language needs of students with developmental needs as a way of providing them with assistance in all […]
• People With Disabilities and Abuse of People With Disabilities and Criminal Justice In addition, there is need to train police, lawyers and other persons in the criminal justice system on how to interact with persons with disabilities.
• Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) There is a commission in the US that fights for the rights of people with disabilities when it comes to employment.
• Terminology and Etiquette Discussion Regarding Persons With Disabilities The media refer to people with disability as to persons with special needs, which reveals the inappropriate use of terminologies to refer to them.
• People With Disabilities and the Hotel Industry According to this act, the needs of people with disabilities should be satisfied in relation to the fixed rules in order to provide the necessary conditions for these persons and follow the principle of the […]
• Post Education for Adults With Disabilities Recommendations for further research and practice that refer to the disability problems are presented at the end of the paper with the purpose of enabling the interaction of services.
• The Right Attitude Towards Disabled People First, it can be questioned whether any form of physical or mental disability can be referred to as something that deserves to be ‘celebrated’, as the promoters of political correctness want us to believe.
• Assistive Technology for Kids with Learning Disabilities An increasing number of educators are incorporating frame routines to the web platform, in which a constant touch with both students and parents is maintained.
• Inclusion for Students With Severe Disabilities Modification and accommodation are the methods used to manipulate education system to make it favourable for these students. Modification and Accommodation are the methods used to manipulate the system to make it favourable for students […]
• The Impact of a Fitness Intervention on People with Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities This is one of the issues that should be singled out. This is one of the issues that should be considered.
• Current Trends and Issues in Educating Students With Disabilities Following the existence of cases of racial and ethnic bias across the United States educational system, the government has seen the importance to intervene in improving education in the U.S.
• General Curriculum for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Learners The purpose of the study was to examine the extent to which learners with intellectual and developmental disabilities have access to the general education curriculum and the extent to which such access is related to […]
• US Should Ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities The UN has recognized the importance of the disabled person’s rights and freedoms and has come up with the UN convention on the Rights of People with disabilities, CRPD and has urged member states to […]
• The Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act However, the gradual increase in the number of individuals with learning disabilities led to the disapproval of this method. As a result of this separation and early identification school performances tend to improve and the […]
• Peer Buddy Programs for Students With Disabilities In the essay, the author will provide recommendations with regard to how the peer buddy program can be successfully implemented in schools in the future. The aim is to enhance the success of the peer […]
• Preschool Teachers’ Actions for Integrating Children With Disabilities Of special interest was whether the gravity of a child’s educational requirements and the teacher’s knowledge about the disability condition were linked to teacher’s responses towards incorporating such children in their classrooms.
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Understanding, Educating, and Supporting Children with Specific Learning Disabilities: 50 Years of Science and Practice

Elena l. grigorenko.

1 University of Houston, Houston, USA

2 Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, USA

Donald Compton

3 Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA

4 Vanderbilt University, Nashville, USA

Richard Wagner

Erik willcutt.

5 University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, USA

Jack M. Fletcher

Specific learning disabilities (SLD) are highly relevant to the science and practice of psychology, both historically and currently, exemplifying the integration of interdisciplinary approaches to human conditions. They can be manifested as primary conditions—as difficulties in acquiring specific academic skills—or as secondary conditions, comorbid to other developmental disorders such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. In this synthesis of historical and contemporary trends in research and practice, we mark the 50th anniversary of the recognition of SLD as a disability in the US. Specifically, we address the manifestations, occurrence, identification, comorbidity, etiology, and treatment of SLD, emphasizing the integration of information from the interdisciplinary fields of psychology, education, psychiatry, genetics, and cognitive neuroscience. SLD, exemplified here by Specific Word Reading, Reading Comprehension, Mathematics, and Written Expression Disabilities, represent spectrum disorders each occurring in approximately 5–15% of the school-aged population. In addition to risk for academic deficiencies and related functional social, emotional, and behavioral difficulties, those with SLD often have poorer long-term social and vocational outcomes. Given the high rate of occurrence of SLD and their lifelong negative impact on functioning if not treated, it is important to establish and maintain effective prevention, surveillance, and treatment systems involving professionals from various disciplines trained to minimize the risk and maximize the protective factors for SLD.

Fifty years ago, the US federal government, following an advisory committee recommendation ( United States Office of Education, 1968 ), first recognized specific learning disabilities (SLD) as a potentially disabling condition that interferes with adaptation at school and in society. Over these 50 years, a significant research base has emerged on the identification and treatment of SLD, with greater understanding of the cognitive, neurobiological, and environmental causes of these disorders. The original 1968 definition of SLD remains statutory through different reauthorizations of the 1975 special education legislation that provided free and appropriate public education for all children with disabilities, now referred to as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004). SLD are recognized worldwide as a heterogeneous set of academic skill disorders represented in all major diagnostic nomenclatures, including the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-5 (DSM-5, American Psychiatric Association, 2013) and the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-11, World Health Organization, 2018).

In the US, the SLD category is the largest for individuals who receive federally legislated support through special education. Children are identified as SLD through IDEA when a child does not meet state-approved age- or grade-level standards in one or more of the following areas: oral expression, listening comprehension, written expression, basic reading skills, reading fluency, reading comprehension, mathematics calculation, and mathematics problem solving. Although children with SLD historically represented about 50% of the children aged 3–21 served under IDEA, percentages have fluctuated across reauthorizations of the special education law, with some decline over the past 10 years ( Figure 1 ).

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), enacted in 1975 as Public Law 94–142, mandates that children and youth ages 3–21 with disabilities be provided a free and appropriate public school education in the least restricted environment. The percentage of children served by federally mandated special education programs, out of total public school enrollment, increased from 8.3 percent to 13.8 percent between 1976–77 and 2004–05. Much of this overall increase can be attributed to a rise in the percentage of students identified as having SLD from 1976–77 (1.8 percent) to 2004–05 (5.7 percent). The overall percentage of students being served in programs for those with disabilities decreased between 2004–05 (13.8 percent) and 2013–14 (12.9 percent). However, there were different patterns of change in the percentages served with some specific conditions between 2004–05 and 2013–14. The percentage of children identified with SLD declined from 5.7 percent to 4.5 percent of the total public school enrollment during this period. This number is highly variable by state: for example, in 2011 it ranged from 2.3% in Kentucky to 13.8% in Puerto Rico, as there is much variability in the procedures used to identify SLD, and disproportional demographic representation. Figure by Janet Croog.

This review is a consensus statement developed by researchers currently leading the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) supported Consortia of Learning Disabilities Research Centers and Innovation Hubs. This consensus is based on the primary studies we cite, as well as the meta-analytic reviews (*), systematic reviews (**), and first-authored books (***) that provide an overview of the science underlying research and practice in SLD (see references). The hope is that this succinct overview of the current state of knowledge on SLD will help guide an agenda of future research by identifying knowledge gaps, especially as the NICHD embarks on a new strategic plan. The research programs on SLD from which this review is derived represent the integration of diverse, interdisciplinary approaches to behavioral science and human conditions. We start with a brief description of the historical roots of the current view of SLD, then provide definitions as well as prevalence and incidence rates, discuss comorbidity between SLD themselves and SLD and other developmental disorders, comment on methods for SLD identification, present current knowledge on the etiology of SLD, and conclude with evidence-based principles for SLD intervention.

Three Historical Strands of Inquiry that Shaped the Current Field of SLD

Three strands of phenomenological inquiry culminated in the 1968 definition and have continued to shape current terminology and conventions in the field of SLD ( Figure 2 ). The first, a medical strand, originated in 1676, when Johannes Schmidt described an adult who had lost his ability to read (but with preserved ability to write and spell) because of a stroke. Interest in this strand reemerged in the 1870s with the publication of a string of adult cases who had lived through a stroke or traumatic brain injury. Subsequent cases involved children who were unable to learn to read despite success in mathematics and an absence of brain injury, which was termed “word blindness” ( W. P. Morgan, 1896 ). These case studies laid the foundation for targeted investigations into the presentation of specific unexpected difficulties related to reading printed words despite typical intelligence, motivation, and opportunity to learn.

A schematic timeline of the three stands of science and practice in the field of SLD. The colors represent the strands (blue—first, yellow—second, and green—third). Blue: provided phenomenological descriptions and generated hypotheses about the gene-brain bases of SLD (specifically, dyslexia or SRD); it also provided the first evidence that the most effective treatment approaches are skill-based and reflect cognitive models of the conditions. Yellow: differentiated SLD from other comorbid conditions. Green: stressed the importance of focusing on SLD in academic settings and developing both preventive and remediational evidence-based approaches to managing these conditions. Due to space constraints, the names of many highly influential scientists (e.g., Marilyn Adams, Joseph Torgesen, Isabelle Liberman, Keith Stanovich, among others) who shaped the field of SLD have been omitted. Figure by Janet Croog.

The second strand is directly related to the formalization of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). Rooted in the work of biologically oriented physicians, the 1952 first edition (DSM-I) referenced a category of chronic brain syndromes of unknown cause that focused largely on behavioral presentations we now recognize as hyperkinesis and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The 1968 DSM-II defined “mild brain damage” in children as a chronic brain syndrome manifested by hyperactive and impulsive behavior with reference to a new category, “hyperkinetic reaction of childhood” if the origin is not considered “organic.” As these categories evolved, they expanded to encompass the academic difficulties experienced by many of these children.

After almost 30 years of research into this general category of “minimal brain dysfunction,” representing “... children of near average, average, or above average general intelligence with certain learning or behavioral disabilities ... associated with deviations of function of the central nervous system.” ( Clements, 1966 , pp. 9–10), the field acknowledged the heterogeneity of these children and the failure of general “one size fits all” interventions. As a result, the 1980 DSM-III formally separated academic skill disorders from ADHD. The 1994 DSM-IV differentiated reading, mathematics, and written expression SLD. The DSM-5 reversed that, merging these categories into one overarching category of SLD (nosologically distinct from although comorbid with ADHD), keeping the notion of specificity by stating that SLD can manifest in three major academic domains (reading, mathematics, and writing).

The third strand originated from the development of effective interventions based on cognitive and linguistic models of observed academic difficulties. This strand, endorsed in the 1960s by Samuel Kirk and associates, viewed SLD as an overarching category of spoken and written language difficulties that manifested as disabilities in reading (dyslexia), mathematics (dyscalculia), and writing (dysgraphia). Advances have been made in understanding the psychological and cognitive texture of SLD, developing interventions aimed at overcoming or managing them, and differentiating these disorders from each other, from other developmental disorders, and from other forms of disadvantage. This work became the foundation of the 1968 advisory committee definition of SLD, which linked this definition with that of minimal brain dysfunction via the same “unexpected” exclusionary criteria (i.e., not attributable primarily to intellectual difficulties, sensory disorders, emotional disturbance, or economic/cultural diversity).

Although its exclusionary criteria were well specified, the definition of SLD did not provide clear inclusionary criteria. Thus, the US Department of Education’s 1977 regulatory definition of SLD included a cognitive discrepancy between higher IQ and lower achievement as an inclusionary criterion. This discrepancy was viewed as a marker for unexpected underachievement and penetrated the policy and practice of SLD in the US and abroad. In many settings, the measurement of such a discrepancy is still considered key to identification. Yet, IDEA 2004 and the DSM-5 moved away from this requirement due to a lack of evidence that SLD varies with IQ and numerous philosophical and technical challenges to the notion of discrepancy (Fletcher, Lyon, Fuchs, & Barnes, 2019). IDEA 2004 also permitted an alternative inclusion criterion based on Response-to-Intervention (RTI), in which SLD reflects inadequate response to effective instruction, while the DSM-5 focuses on evidence of persistence of learning difficulties despite treatment efforts.

These three stands of inquiry into SLD use a variety of concepts (e.g., word blindness, strephosymbolia, dyslexia and alexia, dyscalculia and acalculia, dysgraphia and agraphia), which are sometimes differentiated and sometimes used synonymously, generating confusion in the literature. Given the heterogeneity of their manifestation and these diverse historical influences, it has been difficult to agree on the best way to identify SLD, although there is consensus that their core is unexpected underachievement. A source of active research and controversy is whether “unexpectedness” is best identified by applying solely exclusionary criteria (i.e., simple low achievement), inclusionary criteria based on uneven cognitive development (e.g., academic skills lower than IQ or another aptitude measure, such as listening comprehension), or evidence of persisting difficulties (DSM-5) despite effective instruction (IDEA 2004).

Manifestation, Definition, and Etiology

That the academic deficits in SLD relate to other cognitive skills has always been recognized, but the diagnostic and treatment relevance of this connection has remained unclear. A rich literature on cognitive models of SLD ( Elliott & Grigorenko, 2014 ; Fletcher et al., 2019) provides the basis for five central ideas. First, SLD are componential ( Melby-Lervåg, Lyster, & Hulme, 2012 ; Peng & Fuchs, 2016 ): Their academic manifestations arise on a landscape of peaks, valleys, and canyons in various cognitive processes, such that individuals with SLD have weaknesses in specific processes, rather than global intellectual disability ( Morris et al., 1998 ). Second, the cognitive components associated with SLD, just like academic skills and instructional response, are dimensional and normally distributed in the general population ( Ellis, 1984 ), such that understanding typical acquisition should provide insight into SLD and vice versa ( Rayner, Foorman, Perfetti, Pesetsky, & Seidenberg, 2001 ). Third, each academic and cognitive component may have a distinct signature in the brain ( Figure 3 ) and genome ( Figure 4 ). These signatures and etiologies likely overlap because they are correlated, but are not interchangeable, as their unique features substantiate the distinctness of various SLD ( Vandermosten, Hoeft, & Norton, 2016 ). Fourth, the overlap at least partially explains their rates of comorbidity ( Berninger & Abbott, 2010 ; Szucs, 2016 ; Willcutt et al., 2013 ). Fifth, deficiencies in these cognitive and academic processes appear to last throughout the lifespan, especially in the absence of intervention ( Klassen, Tze, & Hannok, 2013 ).

Results of meta-analyses of functional neuroimaging studies that exemplify the distribution of activation patterns in different reading- ( A ) and mathematics- ( B ) related networks, corresponding to componential models of the skills. A (Left panel, light blue): A lexical network in the basal occipito-temporal regions and in the left inferior parietal cortex. A (Middle panel, dark blue): A sublexical network, primarily involving regions of the left temporo-parietal lobe extending from the left anterior fusiform region. A (Right panel): Activation likelihood estimation map of foci from the word>pseudowords (light blue) and pseudowords>words (dark blue) contrasts. The semantic processing cluster is shown in green. B (Left panel): A number-processing network, primarily involving a region of the parietal lobe. B (Middle panel): An arithmetic-processing network, primarily involving regions of the frontal and parietal lobes. B (Right panel): Children (red) and adult (pink) meta-analyses of brain areas associated with numbers and calculations. Figure by Janet Croog.

A schematic representation of the genetic regions and gene-candidates linked to or associated with SRD and reading-related processes (shown in blue), and SMD and mathematics-related processes (shown in red). Dark blue signifies more studied loci and genes. Blue highlighted in red indicate the genes implicated in both SRD and SMD. Figure by Janet Croog.

The DSM-5 and IDEA 2004 reflect agreement that SLD can occur in word reading and spelling (Specific Word Reading Disability; SWRD) and in specific reading comprehension disability (SRCD). SWRD represents difficulties with beginning reading skills due at least in part to phonological processing deficits, while other language indicators (e.g., vocabulary) may be preserved ( Pennington, 2009 ). In contrast, SRCD ( Cutting et al., 2013 ), which is more apparent later in development, is associated with non-phonological language weaknesses ( Scarborough, 2005 ). The magnitude of SRCD is greater than that of vocabulary or language comprehension difficulties, suggesting that other problems, such as weaknesses in executive function or background knowledge, also contribute to SRCD ( Spencer, Wagner, & Petscher, 2018 ).

Math SLDs are differentiated as calculations (SMD) versus problem solving (word problems) SLD, which are associated with distinct cognitive deficits ( L. S. Fuchs et al., 2010 ) and require different forms of intervention ( L. S. Fuchs et al., 2014 ). Calculation is more linked to attention and phonological processing, while problem solving is more linked to language comprehension and reasoning; working memory has been associated with both. Specific written expression disability, SWED ( Berninger, 2004 ; Graham, Collins, & Rigby-Wills, 2017 ) occurs in the mechanical act of writing (i.e., handwriting, keyboarding, spelling), associated with fine motor-perceptual skills, or in composing text (i.e., planning and revising, understanding genre), associated with oral language skills, executive functions, and the automaticity of transcription skills. Although each domain varies in its cognitive correlates, treatment, and neurobiology, there is overlap. By carefully specifying the domain of academic impairment, considerable progress has been made in the treatment and understanding of the factors that lead to SLD.

Identification methods have searched for other markers of unexpected underachievement beyond low achievement, but always include exclusionary factors. Diagnosis solely by exclusion has been criticized due to the heterogeneity of the resultant groups ( Rutter, 1982 ); thus, the introduction of a discrepancy paradigm. One approach relies on the aptitude-achievement discrepancy, commonly operationalized as a discrepancy between measures of IQ and achievement in a specific academic domain. IQ-discrepancy was the central feature of federal regulations for identification from 1977 until 2004, although the approaches used to qualify and quantify the discrepancy varied in the 50 states. Lack of validity evidence ( Stuebing et al., 2015 ; Stuebing et al., 2002 ) resulted in its de-emphasis in IDEA 2004 and elimination from DSM-5.

A second approach focuses on identifying uneven patterns of strengths and weaknesses (PSW) profiles of cognitive functioning to explain observed unevenness in achievement across academic domains ( Flanagan, Alfonso, & Mascolo, 2011 ; Hale et al., 2008 ; Naglieri & Das, 1997 ). According to these methods, a student with SLD demonstrates a weakness in achievement (e.g., word reading), which correlates with an uneven profile of cognitive weaknesses and strengths (e.g., phonological processing deficits with advanced visual-spatial skills). Proponents suggest that understanding these patterns is informative for individualizing interventions that capitalize on student strengths (i.e., maintain and enhance academic motivation) and compensate for weaknesses (i.e., enhance the phonological processing needed for the acquisition and automatization of reading), but little supporting empirical evidence is available ( Miciak, Fletcher, Stuebing, Vaughn, & Tolar, 2014 ; Taylor, Miciak, Fletcher, & Francis, 2017 ). Meta-analytic research suggests an absence of cognitive aptitude by treatment interactions ( Burns et al., 2016 ), and limited improvement in academic skills based on training cognitive deficits such as working memory ( Melby-Lervåg, Redick, & Hulme, 2016 ).

Newer methods of SLD identification are linked to the development of the third historical strand, based on RTI. With RTI, schools screen for early indicators of academic and behavior problems and then progress monitor potentially at-risk children using brief, frequent probes of academic performance. When data indicate inadequate progress in response to adequate classroom instruction (Tier 1), the school delivers supplemental intervention (Tier 2), usually in the form of small-group instruction.

A child who continues to struggle requires more intensive, individualized intervention (Tier 3), which may include special education. An advantage of RTI is that intervention is provided prior to the determination of eligibility for special education placement. RTI juxtaposes the core concept of underachievement with the concept of inadequate response to instruction, that is, intractability to intervention. It prioritizes the presence of functional difficulty and only then considers SLD as a possible source of this difficulty ( Grigorenko, 2009 ). Still, concerns about the RTI approach to identification remain. One concern is that RTI approaches may not identify “high-potential” children who struggle to develop appropriate academic skills ( Reynolds & Shaywitz, 2009 ). Other concerns involve low agreement across different methods for defining inadequate RTI ( D. Fuchs, Compton, Fuchs, Bryant, & Davis, 2008 ; L. S. Fuchs, 2003 ) and challenges schools face in adequately implementing RTI frameworks ( Balu et al., 2015 ; D. Fuchs & Fuchs, 2017 ; Schatschneider, Wagner, Hart, & Tighe, 2016 ).

Prevalence and Incidence

Because the attributes of SLD are dimensional and depend on the thresholds used to subdivide normal distributions ( Hulme & Snowling, 2013 ), estimates of prevalence and incidence vary. SWRD’s prevalence estimates range from 5 to 17% ( Katusic, Colligan, Barbaresi, Schaid, & Jacobsen, 2001 ; Moll, Kunze, Neuhoff, Bruder, & Schulte-Körne, 2014 ). SRCD is less frequent ( Etmanskie, Partanen, & Siegel, 2016 ), but still represents about 42% of all children ever identified with SLD in reading at any grade ( Catts, Compton, Tomblin, & Bridges, 2012 ). Estimates of incidence and prevalence of SMD vary as well: from 4 to 8% ( Moll et al., 2014 ). Cumulative incidence rates by the age of 19 years range from 5.9% to 13.8%. Similar to SWRD, SMD can be differentiated in terms of lower- and higher-order skills and by time of onset. Computation-based SMD manifests earlier; problem-solving SMD later, sometimes in the absence of computation-based SMD ( L. S. Fuchs, D. Fuchs, C. L. Hamlett, et al., 2008 ). SWED is the least studied SLD. Its prevalence estimates range from 6% to 22% ( P. L. Morgan, Farkas, Hillemeier, & Maczuga, 2016 ) and cumulative incidence ranges from 6.9% to 14.7% ( Katusic, Colligan, Weaver, & Barbaresi, 2009 ).

Comorbidity and Co-Occurrence

One reason SLD can be difficult to define and identify is that different SLDs often co-occur in the same child. Comorbidity involving SWRD ranges from 30% ( National Center for Learning Disabilities, 2014 ) to 60% ( Willcutt et al., 2007 ). The most frequently observed co-occurrences are between (1) SWRD and SMD ( Moll et al., 2014 ; Willcutt et al., 2013 ), with 30–50% of children who experience a deficit in one academic domain demonstrating a deficit in the other ( Moll et al., 2014 ); (2) SWRD and early language impairments ( Dickinson, Golinkoff, & Hirsh-Pasek, 2010 ; Hulme & Snowling, 2013 ; Pennington, 2009 ) with 55% of individuals with SWRD exhibiting significant speech and language impairment ( McArthur, Hogben, Edwards, Heath, & Mengler, 2000 ); and (3) SWRD and internalizing and externalizing behavior problems, with 25–50% of children with SWRD meeting criteria for ADHD ( Pennington, 2009 ) and for generalized anxiety disorder and specific test anxiety, depression, and conduct problems ( Cederlof, Maughan, Larsson, D’Onofrio, & Plomin, 2017 ), although comorbid conduct problems are largely restricted to the subset of individuals with both SWRD and ADHD ( Willcutt et al., 2007 ).

The co-occurrence of SMD is less studied, but there are some consistently replicated observations: (1) individuals with SMD exhibit higher rates of ADHD, and math difficulties are observed in individuals with ADHD more frequently than in the general population ( Willcutt et al., 2013 ); (2) math difficulties are associated with elevated anxiety and depression even after reading difficulties are controlled ( Willcutt et al., 2013 ); and (3) SMD are associated with other developmental conditions such as epilepsy ( Fastenau, Shen, Dunn, & Austin, 2008 ) and schizophrenia ( Crow, Done, & Sacker, 1995 ).

SLD is clearly associated with difficulties in adaptation, in school and in larger spheres of life associated with work and overall adjustment. Longitudinal research reports poorer vocational outcomes, lower graduation rates, higher rates of psychiatric difficulties, and more involvement with the justice system for individuals with SWRD ( Willcutt et al., 2007 ). Importantly, there is evidence of increased comorbidity across forms of SLD with age, with accumulated cognitive burden ( Costa, Edwards, & Hooper, 2016 ). Individuals with comorbid SLDs have poorer emotional adjustment and school functioning than those identified with a single impairment ( Martinez & Semrud-Clikeman, 2004 ).

Identification (Diagnosis)

Comorbidity indicates that approaches to assessment should be broad and comprehensive. For SLD, the choice of a classification model directly influences the selection of assessments for diagnostic purposes. Although all three models are used, the literature (Fletcher et al., 2019) demonstrates that a single indicator model, based either on cut-off scores, other formulae, or assessment of instructional response, does not lead to reliable identification regardless of the method employed. SLD can be identified reliably only in the context of multiple indicators. A step in this direction is a hybrid method that includes three sets of criteria, two inclusionary and one exclusionary, recommended by a consensus group of researchers (Bradley, Danielson, & Hallahan, 2002). The two inclusionary criteria are evidence of low achievement (captured by standardized tests of academic achievement) and evidence of inadequate RTI (captured by curriculum-based progress-monitoring measures or other education records). The exclusionary criterion should demonstrate that the documented low achievement is not primarily attributable to “other” (than SLD) putative causes such as (a) other disorders (e.g., intellectual disability, sensory or motor disorders) or (b) contextual factors (e.g., disadvantaged social, religious, economic, linguistic, or family environment). In the future, it is likely that multi-indicator methods will be extended, with improved identification accuracy, by the addition of other indicators, neurobiological, genetic, or behavioral. It is also possible that assessment of specific cognitive processes beyond academic achievement will improve identification, but presently there is little evidence that such testing adds value to identification ( Elliott & Grigorenko, 2014 ; Fletcher et al., 2019). All identification methods for SLD assume that children referred for assessment are in good health or are being treated and that their physical health, including hearing and vision, is monitored. Currently, there are no laboratory tests (i.e., DNA or brain structure/activity) for SLD. There are also no tests that can be administered by an optometrist, audiologist, or physical therapist to diagnose or treat SLD.

Etiological Factors

Neural structure and function.

Since the earliest reports of reading difficulties, it has been assumed that the loss of function (i.e., acquired reading disability) or challenges in the acquisition of function (i.e., congenital reading disability) are associated with the brain. Functional patterns of activation in response to cognitive stimuli show reliable differences in degrees of activation between typically developing children and those identified with SWRD, and reveal different spatial distributions in relation to children identified with SMD and ADHD ( Dehaene, 2009 ; Seidenberg, 2017 ). In SWRD, there are reduced gray matter volumes, reduced integrity of white matter pathways, and atypical sulcal patterns/curvatures in the left-hemispheric frontal, occipito-temporal, and temporo-parietal regions that overlap with areas of reduced brain activation during reading.

These findings together indicate the presence of atypicalities in the structures (i.e., grey matter) that form the neural system for reading and their connecting pathways (i.e., white matter). These structural atypicalities challenge the emergence of the cognitive—phonological, orthographic, and semantic—representations required for the assembly and automatization of the reading system. Although some have interpreted the atypicalities as a product of reading instruction ( Krafnick, Flowers, Luetje, Napoliello, & Eden, 2014 ), there is also evidence that atypicalities can be observed in pre-reading children at risk for SWRD due to family history or speech and language difficulties ( Raschle et al., 2015 ), sometimes as early as a few days after birth with electrophysiological measures ( Molfese, 2000 ). What emerges in a beginning reader, if not properly instructed at developmentally important periods, is a suboptimal brain system that is inefficient in acquiring and practicing reading. This system is complex, representing multiple networks aligned with different reading-related processes ( Figure 3 ). The system engages cooperative and competitive brain mechanisms at the sublexical (phonological) and lexical levels, in which the phonological, orthographic, and semantic representations are utilized to rapidly form representations of a written stimulus. Proficient readers process words on sight with immediate access to meaning ( Dehaene, 2009 ). In addition to malleability in development, there is strong evidence of malleability through instruction in SWRD, such that the neural processes largely normalize if the intervention is successful ( Barquero, Davis, & Cutting, 2014 ).

The functional neural networks for SMD also vary depending on the mathematical operation being performed, just as the neural correlates of SWRD and SRCD do ( Cutting et al., 2013 ). Neuroimaging studies on the a(typical) acquisition of numeracy posit SMD ( Arsalidou, Pawliw-Levac, Sadeghi, & Pascual-Leone, 2017 ) as a brain disorder engaging multiple functional systems that together substantiate numeracy and its componential processes ( Figure 3 ). First, the intraparietal sulcus, the posterior parietal cortex, and regions in the prefrontal cortex are important for representing and processing quantitative information. Second, mnemonic regions anchored in the medial temporal lobe and hippocampus are involved in the retrieval of math facts. Third, additional relevant regions include visual areas implicated in visual form judgement and symbolic processing. Fourth, prefrontal areas are involved in higher-level processes such as error monitoring, and maintaining and manipulating information. As mathematical processes become more automatic, reliance on the parietal network decreases and reliance on the frontal network increases. All these networks, assembled in a complex functional brain system, appear necessary for the acquisition and maintenance of numeracy, and various aberrations in the functional interactions between networks have been described. Thus, SMD can arise as a result of disturbances in one or multiple relevant networks, or interactions among them ( Arsalidou et al., 2017 ; Ashkenazi, Black, Abrams, Hoeft, & Menon, 2013 ). There is also evidence of malleability and the normalization of neural networks with successful intervention in SMD ( Iuculano et al., 2015 ).

Genetic and environmental factors

Early case studies of reading difficulties identified their familial nature, which has been confirmed in numerous studies utilizing genetically-sensitive designs with various combinations of relatives—identical and fraternal twins, non-twin siblings, parent-offspring pairs and trios, and nuclear and extended families. The relative risk of having SWRD if at least one family member has SWRD is higher for relatives of individuals with the condition, compared to the risk to unrelated individuals; higher for children in families where at least one relative has SWRD; even higher for families where a first-degree relative (i.e., a parent or a sibling) has SWRD; and higher still for children in families where both parents have SWRD ( Snowling & Melby-Lervåg, 2016 ). Quantitative-genetic studies estimate that 30–80% of the variance in reading, math or spelling outcomes is explained by heritable factors ( Willcutt et al., 2010 ).

Since the 1980s, there have been systematic efforts to identify the sources of structural variation in the genome, i.e., genetic susceptibility loci that can account for the strong heritability and familiality of SWRD ( Figure 4 ). These efforts have yielded the identification of nine regions of the genome thought to harbor genes, or other genetic material, whose variation is associated with the presence of SWRD and individual differences in reading-related processes. Within these regions, a number of candidate genes have been tapped, but no single candidate has been unequivocally replicated as a causal gene for SWRD, and observed effects are small. In addition, multiple other genes located outside of the nine linked regions have been observed to be relevant to the manifestation of SWRD and related difficulties. Currently there are ongoing efforts to interrogate candidate genes for SWRD and connect their structural variation to individual differences in the brain system underlying the acquisition and practice of reading.

There are only a few molecular-genetic studies of SMD and its related processes ( Figure 4 ). Unlike SWRD, no “regions of interest” have been identified. Only one study investigated the associations between known single-nuclear polymorphisms (SNP) and a composite measure of mathematics performance derived from various assessments of SMD-related componential processes and teacher ratings. The study generated a set of SNPs that, when combined, accounted for 2.9% of the phenotypic variance ( Figure 4 shows the genes in which the three most statistically significant SNPs from this set are located). Importantly, when this SNP set was used to study whether the association between the 10-SNP set and mathematical ability differs as a function of characteristics of the home and school, the association was stronger for indicators of mathematical performance in chaotic homes and in the context of negative parenting.

Finally, studies have investigated the pleiotropic (i.e., impacting multiple phenotypes) effects of SWRD candidate genes on SMD, ADHD, and related processes. These effects are seemingly in line with the “generalist genes” hypothesis, asserting the pleiotropic influences of some genes to multiple SLD ( Plomin & Kovas, 2005 ).

Environmental factors are strong predictors of SLD. These factors penetrate all levels of a child’s ecosystem: culture, demonstrated in different literacy and numeracy rates around the world; social strata, captured by social-economic indicators across different cultures; characteristics of schooling, reflected by pedagogies and instructional practices; family literacy environments through the availability of printed materials and the importance ascribed to reading at home; and neighborhood and peer influences. Interactive effects suggest that reading difficulties are magnified when certain genetic and environmental factors co-occur, but there is evidence of neural malleability even in SWDE ( Overvelde & Hulstijn, 2011 ). Neural and genetic factors are best understood as risk factors that variably manifest depending on the home and school environment and child attributes like motivation.

Intervention

Although the content of instruction varies depending on whether reading, math, and/or writing are impaired, general principles of effective intervention apply across SLD i . First, intervention for SLD is explicit ( Seidenberg, 2017 ): Teachers formally present new knowledge and concepts with clear explanations, model skills and strategies, and teach to mastery with cumulative practice with ongoing guidance and feedback. Second, intervention is individualized: Instruction is formatively adjusted in response to systematic progress-monitoring data ( Stecker, Fuchs, & Fuchs, 2005 ). Third, intervention is comprehensive and differentiated, addressing the multiple components underlying proficient skill as well as comorbidity. Comprehensive approaches address the multifaceted nature of SLD and provide more complex interventions that are generally more effective than isolated skills training in reading ( Mathes et al., 2005 ) and math ( L. S. Fuchs et al., 2014 ). For example, children with SLD and ADHD may need educational and pharmacological interventions ( Tamm et al., 2017 ). Anxiety can develop early in children who struggle in school, and internalizing problems must be treated ( Grills, Fletcher, Vaughn, Denton, & Taylor, 2013 ). Differentiation through individualization in the context of a comprehensive intervention also permits adjustments of the focus of an intervention on specific weaknesses.

Fourth, intervention adjusts intensity as needed to ensure success, by increasing instructional time, decreasing group size, and increasing individualization ( L. S. Fuchs, Fuchs, & Malone, 2017 ). Such specialized intervention is typically necessary for students with SLD ( L. S. Fuchs et al., 2015 ). Yet, effective instruction for SLD begins with differentiated general education classroom instruction ( Connor & Morrison, 2016 ), in which intervention is coordinated with rather than supplanting core instruction ( L. S. Fuchs, D. Fuchs, C. Craddock, et al., 2008 ).

In addition, intervention is more effective when provided early in development. For example, intervention for SWRD was twice as effective if delivered in grades 1 or 2 than if started in grade 3 ( Lovett et al., 2017 ). This is underscored by neuroimaging research ( Barquero et al., 2014 ) showing that experience with words and numbers is needed to develop the neural systems that mediate reading and math proficiency. A child with or at risk for SWRD who cannot access print because of a phonological processing problem will not get the reading experience needed to develop the lexical system for whole word processing and immediate access to word meanings. This may be why remedial programs are less effective after second grade; with early intervention, the child at risk for SLD develops automaticity because they have gained the experience with print or numbers essential for fluency. Even with high quality intensive intervention, some children with SLD do not respond adequately, and students with persistent SLD may profit from assistive technology (e.g., computer programs that convert text-to-speech; Wood, Moxley, Tighe, & Wagner, 2018 ).

Finally, interventions for SLD must occur in the context of the academic skill itself. Cognitive interventions that do not involve print or numbers, such as isolated phonological awareness training or working memory training without application to mathematical operations do not improve reading or math skill ( Melby-Lervåg et al., 2016 ). Physical exercises (e.g., cerebellar training), optometric training, special lenses or overlays, and other proposed interventions that do not involve teaching reading or math are ineffective ( Pennington, 2009 ). Pharmacological interventions are effective largely due to their impact on comorbid symptoms, with little evidence of a direct effect on the academic skill ( Tamm et al., 2017 ).

No evaluations of recovery rate from SLD have been performed. Intervention success has been evaluated as closing the age-grade discrepancy, placing children with SLD at an age-appropriate grade level, and maintaining their progress at a rate commensurate with typical development. Meta-analytic studies estimate effect sizes of academic interventions at 0.49 for reading ( Scammacca, Roberts, Vaughn, & Stuebing, 2015 ), 0.53 for math ( Dennis et al., 2016 ), and 0.74 for writing ( Gillespie & Graham, 2014 ).

Implications for Practice and Research

Practitioners should recognize that the psychological and educational scientific evidence base supports specific approaches to the identification and treatment of SLD. In designing SLD evaluations, assessments must be timely to avoid delays in intervention; they must consider comorbidities as well as contextual factors, and data collected in the context of previous efforts to instruct the child. Practitioners should use the resulting assessment data to ensure that intervention programs are evidence-based and reflect explicitness, comprehensiveness, individualization, and intensity. There is little evidence that children with SLD benefit from discovery, exposure, or constructivist instructional approaches.

With respect to research, the most pressing issue is understanding individual differences in development and intervention from neurological, genetic, cognitive, and environmental perspectives. This research will ultimately lead to earlier and more precise identification of children with SLD, and to better interventions and long-term accommodations for the 2–6% of the general population who receive but do not respond to early prevention efforts. More generally, other human conditions may benefit from the examples of progress exemplified by the integrated, interdisciplinary approaches that underlie the progress of the past 50 years in the scientific understanding of SLD.

Acknowledgments

The authors are the Principal Investigators of the currently funded Learning Disabilities Research Centers ( https://www.nichd.nih.gov/research/supported/ldrc ) and Innovation Hubs ( https://www.nichd.nih.gov/research/supported/ldhubs ), the two key NICHD programs supporting research on Specific Learning Disabilities. The preparation of this articles was supported by P20 HD090103 (PI: Compton), P50 HD052117 (PI: Fletcher), P20 HD075443 (PI: Fuchs), P20 HD091005 (PI: Grigorenko), P50 HD052120 (PI: Wagner), and P50 HD27802 (PI: Willcutt). Grantees undertaking such projects are encouraged to express their professional judgment. Therefore, this article does not necessarily reflect the position or policies of the abovementioned agencies, and no official endorsement should be inferred.

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What federal education data shows about students with disabilities in the U.S.

Public K-12 schools in the United States educate about 7.3 million students with disabilities – a number that has grown over the last few decades. Disabled students ages 3 to 21 are served under the federal  Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) , which guarantees them the right to free public education and appropriate special education services.

For Disability Pride Month , here are some key facts about public school students with disabilities, based on the latest data from the  National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) .

July is both Disability Pride Month and the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. To mark these occasions, Pew Research Center used federal education data from  the National Center for Education Statistics  to learn more about students who receive special education services in U.S. public schools.

In this analysis, students with disabilities include those ages 3 to 21 who are served under the federal  Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) . Through IDEA, children with disabilities are guaranteed a “free appropriate public education,” including special education and related services.

The 7.3 million disabled students in the U.S. made up 15% of national public school enrollment during the 2021-22 school year. The population of students in prekindergarten through 12th grade who are served under IDEA has grown in both number and share over the last few decades. During the 2010-11 school year, for instance, there were 6.4 million students with disabilities in U.S. public schools, accounting for 13% of enrollment.

The number of students receiving special education services temporarily dropped during the coronavirus pandemic – the first decline in a decade. Between the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years, the number of students receiving special education services decreased by 1%, from 7.3 million to 7.2 million. This was the first year-over-year drop in special education enrollment since 2011-12.

The decline in students receiving special education services was part of a 3% decline in the overall number of students enrolled in public schools between 2019-20 and 2020-21. While special education enrollment bounced back to pre-pandemic levels in the 2021-22 school year, overall public school enrollment remained flat.

These enrollment trends may reflect some of the learning difficulties and health concerns students with disabilities and their families faced during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic , which limited or paused special education services in many school districts.

Many school districts struggle to hire special education professionals. During the 2020-21 school year, 40% of public schools that had a special education teaching vacancy reported that they either found it very difficult to fill the position or were not able to do so.

Foreign languages (43%) and physical sciences (37%) were the only subjects with similarly large shares of hard-to-fill teaching vacancies at public schools that were looking to hire in those fields.

While the COVID-19 pandemic called attention to a nationwide teacher shortage , special education positions have long been among the most difficult for school districts to fill .

The most common type of disability for students in prekindergarten through 12th grade involves “specific learning disabilities,” such as dyslexia.  In 2021-22, about a third of students (32%) receiving services under IDEA had a specific learning disability. Some 19% had a speech or language impairment, while 15% had a chronic or acute health problem that adversely affected their educational performance. Chronic or acute health problems include ailments such as heart conditions, asthma, sickle cell anemia, epilepsy, leukemia and diabetes.

Students with autism made up 12% of the nation’s schoolchildren with disabilities in 2021-22, compared with 1.5% in 2000-01.  During those two decades, the share of disabled students with a specific learning disability, such as dyslexia, declined from 45% to 32%.

The percentage of students receiving special education services varies widely across states. New York serves the largest share of disabled students in the country at 20.5% of its overall public school enrollment. Pennsylvania (20.2%), Maine (20.1%) and Massachusetts (19.3%) serve the next-largest shares. The states serving the lowest shares of disabled students include Texas and Idaho (both 11.7%) and Hawaii (11.3%).

Between the 2000-01 and 2021-22 school years, all but 12 states experienced growth in their disabled student populations. The biggest increase occurred in Utah, where the disabled student population rose by 65%. Rhode Island saw the largest decline of 22%.

These differences by state are likely the result of inconsistencies in how states determine which students are eligible for special education services and challenges in identifying disabled children.

The racial and ethnic makeup of the nation’s special education students is similar to public school students overall, but there are differences by sex.  About two-thirds of disabled students (65%) are male, while 34% are female, according to data from the 2021-22 school year. Overall student enrollment is about evenly split between boys and girls.

Research has shown that decisions about whether to recommend a student for special education may be influenced by their school’s socioeconomic makeup, as well as by the school’s test scores and other academic markers.

Note: This is an update of a post originally published April 23, 2020.

Katherine Schaeffer is a research analyst at Pew Research Center .

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Successful School Interventions for Students with Disability During Covid-19: Empirical Evidence from Australia

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• Catherine Smith   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-0081-7024 1 ,
• Massimiliano Tani 2 ,
• Sophie Yates   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1912-8509 2 &
• Helen Dickinson   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3852-8815 2  

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Children and young people with disability are a “vulnerable” population within a pandemic context as they face structural inequities and discrimination as a result of their impairments. In this paper, we report research that sought to examine the learning experiences of children and young people with disability during the COVID-19 pandemic. We wanted to understand how this group fared and whether different interventions impacted on these experiences. Data were collected from an online survey organized by Children and Young People with Disability Australia (CYDA) that garnered responses from more than 700 families. The study contributes empirical evidence to the growing literature about COVID-19-related impacts on learners already recognized as experiencing multiple disadvantages in schooling. We find some significant gaps in supports offered to students with disability and their families. Notwithstanding that some students did not receive any support from their schools, where supports were offered, social supports had the greatest positive impact on feelings of learner engagement. Our findings support key propositions in the social and emotional learning literature, namely that particular resourcing should be dedicated to social interaction and feelings of belonging as these are crucial to learners engaging in learning processes. There are clear implications of these findings in terms of what educational institutions might do to help engage students with disability in remote learning.

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Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the learning activities of many children and young adults with and without disability in various countries around the world. While all children and young people faced challenges during remote learning, there is good reason to suspect those with disability fare worse during this period. When schools a shut, a range of concerns continue to be raised regarding the negative repercussions for children from ‘vulnerable’ backgrounds such as children in low-income families and children with disability (Brown et al., 2020 ; Drane et al., 2021 ; Yates et al., 2021 ). Changes in routine, lack of experience with technology and digital learning, parental overwhelm and increased social isolation are examples of the issues young people with disability and their families face (Page et al., 2021 ). Even pre-pandemic, children and young people with disability faced significant inequities in accessing education and on average had poorer educational outcomes than their non-disabled counterparts (Anderson & Boyle, 2019 ).

This paper explores the experiences of children and young people with disability and their families over the first remote learning period Australia experienced in the COVID-19 pandemic. Our research aimed to explore:

How children and young people with disability and their families had their education disrupted;

What the impact of this was in terms of engagement with learning, learning supports, mental health and feelings of isolation; and,

What supports had been offered.

This paper reports findings from over 700 respondents to an online survey conducted by Children and Young People with Disability Australia (CYDA), the national peak body that represents children and young people (aged 0–25) with disability. The survey revealed that most children and young people with disability felt forgotten in the transition to remote learning. Many of their usual supports dropped away and educational institutions failed to make appropriate accommodations to engage in learning. Some did, however, receive extra or special educational materials, supervision, specific aides, online care services, and social support. This paper discusses the effectiveness of these interventions for the learning experiences of children and young adults with disability, and whether all types of support were equally helpful or some were more highly associated with better outcomes. These findings provide valuable information for reviewing the provision of effective inclusive education.

The paper finds that of all types of support offered, social supports had the greatest association with better outcomes in learner engagement. While educational interventions seemed to make some difference, social supports were more highly associated with good engagement outcomes. This finding supports a key theme in the social and emotional learning literature that socialization is a fundamental conduit to foster learning among students with disability, and that activities catering for it ought to feature prominently among the set of supports being provided by school and government.

The argument in this paper is structured as follows. After briefly reviewing the relevant literature, we present the data and the methodology applied. We then present the results and draw some concluding remarks.

In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, Australian health authorities and state and federal governments responded to the propagation of the infection by recommending people reduce their face-to-face interactions. This quickly turned into mandatory lockdowns of economic activities and school closures after the first few deaths. School shutdowns were implemented in all states by late March 2020 and remained closed in most states until May (Moloney & Moloney, 2020 ). School holidays were brought forward and extended while remote learning platforms were adopted. Although some schools remained opened for some children, including some special schools and classes for the children of workers considered ‘essential’ during the pandemic (e.g., nurses, doctors and some transport and shop workers), the disruption to schooling (and parents), was widespread. Furthermore, the transformation of schooling into a set of learning activities that predominantly took place online had dramatic consequences for households’ wellbeing: parents, often ‘temporarily suspended’ from work or even laid off due the sharp downward trend in economic activity, suddenly found themselves juggling the demands of finding or maintaining an income and those of parenting children engaged in remote learning. The OECD (2020) issued a report about remote learning experiences identifying a critical gap in communication between teachers and parents/carers across the globe and advised that effective communication between school and home is the ‘critical element’ (p. 8) in remote learning. Unsurprisingly, parents reported rapidly worsening mental health conditions as a product of these significant pressures (Cheng et al., 2021 ). Lockdowns and restricted access to on-campus learning continues to be the lived experience of many Australian young people. This paper reports on data from the first stages of the pandemic in Australia and the perceived impacts of this initial wave of policy responses.

It is well established in the literature that children and young people with disability face significant challenges with education. Besides academic challenges, these at times include teachers’ preparedness to deal with students with disability (Mason & Hedin, 2011 ; Richards et al., 2007 ), a high likelihood of being bullied (Bourke & Burgman, 2010 ; Carter & Spencer, 2006 ; Rose & Espelage, 2012 ), and experiences of exclusion and rejection (Davis & Watson, 2001 ; Krull et al., 2014 ; Russell, 2003 ). As an example, although inclusion in regular classrooms may allow students who are neuro-diverse to be involved in the social structure of their classroom, they still report loneliness, poorer friendship quality and social network status compared with their classmates (Locke et al., 2010 ).

Teachers and school personnel can help to overcome the difficulties experienced by children and young people with disability when they are enabled to provide a learning environment that is both supportive and inclusive. There is good evidence to show intensive and explicit social and social-emotional skill development can disrupt patterns of bullying (Espelage et al., 2015 ; Rose & Espelage, 2012 ); build empathy, understanding, connection for and with students with and without disability through restorative justice practices (Hulvershorn & Mulholland, 2018 ); and help students with learning disabilities as well as other students develop coping skills to counter anxiety (Khodadadi et al., 2017 ). Children with disability can and do thrive when they develop good relationships with teachers and strong bonds with the school (Murray & Greenberg, 2001 ). These interventions do not have a negative impact on children without disability, who are unaffected in their academic achievements when they learn in inclusive classrooms. This experience can also reduce prejudice towards people with disability and shape children and young people to be more accepting and supportive of people who are different from themselves (Molina Roldán et al., 2021 ). For example, the social effects of supported inclusion include reduction of fear, hostility, prejudice, and discrimination as well as increase of care, acceptance, and understanding (Kart & Kart, 2021 ).

Social activity and support are fundamentally important for learning among children and young adults with disabilities (Campbell & Gilmore, 2014 ; Gilmore et al., 2016 ), as highlighted by the educational psychology literature in studies carried out around the world (Adair et al., 2015 ; Cavioni et al., 2017 ), including in Australia (Foley et al., 2012 ; Raghavendra et al., 2015 ). Social supports are broadly categorized as meeting needs in an emotional, tangible, or informational way (Schaefer et al., 1981 ; Tandon et al., 2013 ). Young people with disability report their wellbeing relies on feeling supported, respected, and capable to make self-determining choices as individuals (Colon-Cabrera et al., 2021 ). The perception that supports are available is a strong protective factor for wellbeing (Haber et al., 2007 ; Harandi et al., 2017 ). Social support has long been evidenced as protecting against stress, and gives people the feeling of being loved, cared for and respected, as well as a sense of belonging to a network (Cobb, 1976 ). While parent relationships are seen as the strongest protective factor for wellbeing and mental health, social supports through peers provide behavioral and emotional support and supportive teacher relationships are most likely to help students remain engaged with schooling (Campbell & Gilmore, 2014 ). These relationships are not created instantly but are built and reinforced over time. These relationships are particularly important in helping teachers to understand the needs of students who are neuro-diverse or have disability (Hood, 2020 ).

The arrival of COVID-19 in Australia forced social distancing rules that included the closure of schools and the transfer of teaching and learning to an online setting. The ensuing disruption was enormous for students and their families, as not only did they have to rapidly adjust to new teaching and learning systems, but also to endure the resulting lack of direct contact with peers, teachers, and support staff. While the appropriateness of school closures as a response to the pandemic has been debated (e.g., Leask & Hooker, 2020 ), there is little doubt the closures had negative short-term effects for vulnerable students, and likely long-term effects that will manifest in future (Drane et al., 2021 ; Fitzgerald et al., 2020 ). Twitter data analysis by Gleason et al. ( 2020 ) indicates that among the barriers faced by people with disability during the COVID-19 crisis, the rapid transition to remote online learning exacerbated accessibility issues. In this paper we explore the experiences of children and young people with disability and their families and what appropriate adjustments were made for this group to guard against negative impacts.

Methodology

At the outset of the pandemic, CYDA surveyed nearly 700 families across Australia to capture the impact of the COVID-19 on children and young people with disability and their families, in order to understand the implications of the pandemic and the issues it was raising for this group (Dickinson et al., 2020 ). Uncertainty about access to education services was raised as a particular issue so a second online survey was devised to explore issues related to education specifically. We report on these data in this paper.

The online survey (hosted on Survey Monkey) was active for just under seven weeks, opening on the 28th of April 2020 and closing on the 14th of June. The survey contained a combination of questions on perceptions of educational outcomes to which respondents had to agree or disagree using a Likert score (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree), as well as free text questions focusing on the impact of COVID-19 on access to education and engagement in learning and the community.

We downloaded the results into Excel and applied regression analysis to study the possible relationships between multifaceted perceptions of learning outcomes experienced by students during the pandemic We did this to identify possible influencing factors, controlling for demographic, locational, and educational characteristics of each student with disability represented in the study (for details see the Technical Appendix). In particular, we were interested in:

whether or not the various types of support provided during the pandemic contributed to sustain student learning (at least as perceived by the family member or the student responding to the survey) as well as reducing feelings of loneliness and isolation, and

identifying which support types (if any) were most associated with better learning outcomes such as engagement in learning or reduced perceptions of students’ loneliness and isolation.

In doing so we drew on answers provided to four Likert-scaled questions posed in the survey about perceptions of learning experiences, which we refer to as ‘outcomes’—namely:

The student receives adequate support in their education

The student is made to feel part of the learning community

The student is engaged in his/her learning

The student feels more socially isolated from his/her peers

In another question we asked whether there had been any other impacts of COVID-19 felt outside of education. One option was to indicate a decline in mental health and wellbeing (e.g. anxiety, fear or stress). We used the response to this question as a factor that might influence the four possible outcomes reported above, adding it to the list of explanatory variables.

The explanatory variables also included the age, gender, cultural background, and location of the respondents as well as their educational arrangements (type of school, attendance, NDIS eligibility, existence of an Individual Education/Learning Plan [IEP]), and an index of the impact of COVID-19 on the family, based on self-reported information (e.g. loss of income or job, access to food supply).

The regression analysis performed is based an Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) applied to the statistical model:

\({y}_{i}\) is the educational outcome of interest experienced by student i . For example, in the case of whether the student receives adequate support in their education, the variable \({y}_{i}\) includes the values reported in the survey: namely, 5 if the survey respondent strongly agrees with the statement, 4 if s/he agrees, 3 for a neutral answer, 2 for disagreeing and 1 if the respondent strongly disagrees with the statement. A similar approach is used for each of the remaining outcomes summarized in 2–4 above, and run separate regressions for each of the four possible educational outcomes, generating four sets of results.

\({X}_{i}\) is a set of independent variables that control for gender, age group, support received before the pandemic, whether studying full-time, mental health status, non-English-speaking background, whether aboriginal or Torres Strait islander, if funded by NDIS, whether has individual education program in place, type of school, and location (urban and in which state);

\({Z}_{i}\) is the key explanatory variable, namely a set of answers about the support received during the pandemic. This set contains five components: namely, whether the support took the form of curriculum support and a support worker, specific aides and equipment, supervision, social support, and care services (assistance with personal care + behavioral support + access to specialist allied health).

We apply vector \({Z}_{i}\) in two alternative specifications: first, as a 3-category variable, which we label “version A”, with values of 0 if no support was received, 1 if only one type of support was received; and 2 if two or more types of support were received. In the second specification, we use the five components of vector \({Z}_{i}\) independently, as five separate indicators (“version B”).

The survey was distributed online to members of CYDA (more than 5000 people), and 719 respondents completed it: of these, 95% were family members of a child or young adult with disability, while 5% were young adults with disability. We control for the self- or proxy-reported nature of their answers with an ad hoc dummy variable in the empirical analysis finding mixed evidence about its significance in the various specifications (see Tables A1 and A2 in the Appendix).

In almost two thirds of cases, mostly in the largest urban centers, respondents indicated that students faced a shift in the learning environment from face-to-face to online, while in another 15% of cases school closures were experienced. While many students with disability received substantive support from their education facility before the onset of COVID-19, many of the supports were not carried over into the pandemic. This was particularly notable in relation to the provision of social support and education, as school learning support workers (who would usually support the student to engage in the classroom) were not permitted to enter students’ homes.

Only half of the respondents reported that schools provided extra curriculum and learning materials to their children during the pandemic and just under half (46%) indicated that contact with the education provider was regular, ensuring accessibility and continuity of learning.

Table 1 reports the mean and standard deviation of the key variables used in the analysis. As shown in the bottom row, the number of respondents reduces to 618 (from the initial total of 719) due to missing answers to questions about educational outcomes—the main dependent variables in the analysis.

Students with disability represented in the survey typically attended school or education on a full-time basis (90%) and were enrolled in Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme (74%— N  = 455), indicating a relatively high level of support needs. In 71% of cases ( N  = 441) students had an Individual Learning Plan or Individual Education Plan in place as a pathway to learning. Most respondents had an English-speaking background (95%), and few had an Indigenous background (4%), although this is proportional with the Indigenous population nationally.

Students attended predominantly government schools (68%) and, less commonly, non-government and other (e.g. religious) schools. Most of the schools were in metropolitan/urban centers but well spread around the three states supplying the bulk of responses (Victoria, NSW, and Queensland).

The responses also highlighted that not every student covered by the CYDA survey had been negatively affected by COVID-19 (2.79/5), and most had received school support before the outset of the pandemic (3.89/5). The most common form of support received during the pandemic was educational (45%), followed by care services (22%) and specific equipment, supervision, and social support (about 10% in each case).

The key results of the regression analyses using version A and B are reported in Tables 2 and 3 , respectively, while the corresponding full set of estimates obtained in each case are reported in Tables A1 and A2 in the Technical Appendix. In each Table, the outcomes are reported along the columns, while the explanatory variable(s) are reported in the rows.

Notwithstanding that a significant proportion of students with disability did not receive any form of support, the estimates reported in Table 2 suggest those who did benefited significantly from it. In particular, the support received was correlated with maintaining their learning engagement and reducing feelings of social isolation. Specifically, those who received only one type of support reported on average a 24% improvement in feeling part of their learning community relative to not receiving support, and a 35.8% improvement on the question of whether the student receives adequate support in their education. These increases are large in magnitude, and are statistically significantly different from zero at the 1% level: in other words, there is a less than 1% chance that the effect is zero. In contrast, no detectable effects were found for engagement (student is engaged in their learning: + 10% but the difference is statistically not significant), and the feeling of social isolation (− 10.5% but again not statistically significant).

In addition, those who received two or more types of support (about 30% of respondents) experienced very large and statistically significant improvements relative to no support: on average they felt an 88% improvement on the score measuring whether the student is made feel part of their learning community, and a 109% increase on the score measuring whether the student receives adequate support in their education. At the same time, relative to those receiving no support, these respondents reported a 47.5% increase on perceiving the student to be engaged in their learning, and a decline of 18.2% on whether the student feels lonely. These results suggest that support was effective relative to no support, and that it was most effective when it was more intense—i.e. when more than one type of support was provided.

When the effectiveness of each type of support was measured individually, we found that social support had the strongest association with improved educational outcomes, as it was strongly related to each of the possible outcomes across the columns of Table 3 . Other types of support were associated with some positive outcomes, but not across the full range of perceived learning outcomes. Educational support and extra aides and equipment were associated with improved perceptions that the student was adequately supported by the school, and was made to feel part of the learning community. However, this type of support had no detectable effect on whether the student was engaged in learning activities, or whether they felt more socially isolated. Additional supervision was positively associated with feeling supported and part of the learning community, as well as feeling engaged in learning, but had no association with loneliness and feeling socially isolated. Care services may be helpful but their effect was practically nil.

Overall, the estimates in Table 3 point to a single element that stands out across the various types of support that schools have provided: social support. This is a large category, but would typically help to connect children and young people to their peers in meaningful ways. Social support was significantly associated with better learning processes and reducing isolation of students with disability. The impact of social supports was much more significant than even education supports. However, social supports were among the support types (along with support workers) hit hardest, with far fewer of these being provided during the pandemic than before. Support from teachers was identified as sporadic by some of our participants in free text comments, with some reporting having no contact at all. The importance of strong relationships between students and teachers in school engagement was evident across many of the participants’ responses.

In identifying the things that worked, participants named quite different requirements, depending on the different functional needs of the young person. Many carers and young people identified that the lack of communication and connection left them feeling forgotten and isolated. When identifying what ameliorated this, the main social supports identified were consistent but not too frequent contact, the opportunity to connect with peers, having school work that was the same content as peers but modified appropriately and knowing there was somewhere to go to for help and someone who cared to check in or respond to questions and concerns.

Social support is a protective factor for mental health and wellbeing of young people with intellectual disability (Campbell & Gilmore, 2014 ) and we assert from our findings that it is a key consideration when supporting the learning of young people in remote teaching and learning. Our results suggest that social distancing, school closures and learning online have disrupted the educational lives of these students and their families. To mitigate these disruptions, social supports are the form of support that are most valued by the students with disability and families participating in this study: the coefficient for this component is both large and always significantly different from zero across the three positive and one negative learning outcomes used as dependent variables. We argue that learning and engagement that take place via social activities and with social support are most likely to have the most relevant effect on learning and engagement during this prolonged period of disruption.

Children and young people with disability, already coping with discrimination and social exclusion before the pandemic, felt and are feeling the impact of COVID-19 quite severely, especially when schools had to close and online learning activities were often the only option left to continue schooling (Page et al., 2021 ). As the crisis has continued, and chronic uncertainty, multiple disruptions, remote learning and social isolation has been the experience of many young people, the adverse effects on mental health are likely to become more prevalent (Xiong et al., 2020 ). Being cut off from peers and teachers removed a fundamental channel through which children and young adults with disability grow as students and individuals. The concerns expressed by our participants about being invisible and undervalued as members of their communities are identified more broadly in research identifying structural inequalities within many of the services and resources for people with disability (Colon-Cabrera et al., 2021 ). Attention to providing social support and opportunities for social activity with social-emotional support and instruction during synchronous online instruction can provide inclusion opportunities (following Kart & Kart, 2021 ). These supports can include developing supported social-emotional skills to seek help in coping with anxiety (following Khodadadi et al., 2017 ), addressing some of the social isolation by securing ongoing and further relationships with teachers and peers. Disruptions to the routines of social activity and support that help young people, especially young people with disability thrive (Gilmore et al., 2016 ) can be further addressed with social supports. They promote self-efficacy and self-determining choices (Colon-Cabrera et al., 2021 ) reinforcing the communication of support needs for academic support and improving feedback loops between educators and students (Campbell & Gilmore, 2014 ; Hood, 2020 ).

The result that social support was the single most important form of support positively associated with all aspects of perceived learning outcomes covered in the CYDA survey, while reducing feelings of isolation, is a clear indication of what schools could do to engage children and young adults with disability in remote learning, and where to direct financial resources. Drawing on the strategies identified in our textual data and the literature on social supports for disability, scaffolds and supports for peer relationships between all students will benefit all students. Interactive activities, such as collaborative learning activities online, opportunities to participate in social-emotional learning in group communication and collaboration were among those strategies identified as effective. Explicit attention to skills in building and maintaining relationships are likely to support and maintain social networks (Page et al., 2021 ; Drane et al., 2021 ) can help to develop coping skills and opportunities for peer to peer and teacher to student understanding (Cavioni et al., 2017 ). Connecting the experiences of learning to home and taking time to assess the challenges and strategies that students used to cope and engage with their learning in different environments will assist in skill and empathy building (following Espelage et al., 2015 ; Hulvershorn & Mulholland, 2018 ; Khodadadi et al., 2017 ; Masi et al., 2021 ). Connecting with young people and their families to inform schools and teachers about what works, what might work better, and what has been learned from the experiences of remote learning, particularly around social support, will further allow this work to be done with dignity, informed by the knowledge and understanding of the young person’s experience (Children and Young People with Disability [CYDA], 2020 ; Colon-Cabrera et al., 2021 ).

The importance of social support may be also at the core of why non-government schools seem to have been more effective in their support relative to government schools, in that they may cater for a more homogeneous group of students, whose needs were easier to organize. It is also possible that non-government schools have more resources to support students with disability, or, alternatively, that families of students with disability attending non-government schools are richer or better resourced to support their children’s education (Vaz et al., 2015 ).

Turning to the insights from families and young people in the data, building skills in the use of technology and computers including how to log in, manage apps and practice communication in different digital mediums for young people needs more attention, as does the communication around support strategies between school and home (Long et al., 2021 ). Importantly, attention to professional development for teachers preparing them to support and inform the learning of young people with disability in digital and in-person teaching, drawing on the experiences of isolation reported during remote learning, would further support progress in providing inclusive learning experiences.

Finally, this survey was not without its limitations. As we have noted, the vast majority of responses came from family members so one of the gaps in this dataset is the voices of the children and young people with disability. The survey was distributed and promoted by CYDA and social media and may not therefore be a representative sample. The survey was only open for a limited amount of time and was restricted to an online platform so those lacking access to the internet would not have been able to participate.

Concluding Remarks

The results suggest that receiving support during COVID-19 made a substantive and positive contribution to maintaining learning engagement with classmates and school, and reducing feelings of isolation. When the type of intervention is disaggregated, the component that overwhelmingly emerges as being most significant in generating these results is social supports. Maintaining contact with the student has been the most valuable type of intervention for those affected by school lockdowns, ahead of receiving equipment, supervision, and other care services. This is perhaps not surprising, as COVID-19 most directly hit children and young adults with disability via the social separation imposed by social distancing.

Notwithstanding that a substantial proportion of students with disability did not receive any support, the results suggests a wide range of potential changes that might be made to better protect children and young people and their families from experiencing similar sorts of issues in the face of another wave of infection or other disaster scenarios. It is evident that receiving some support has an impact on engagement in learning communities, learning itself, and reduction in social isolation. Further, two or more supports had a significant and substantial positive association with good outcomes, over and above one intervention. This suggests that where children received careful and planned responses, this mitigated against negative impacts and improved learning engagement. It is an important observation as it suggests that actions by schools do have valuable impacts for children and their families. Within support types, social support provisions seem to have the greatest positive association. This intuitively makes sense, as for those who are already socially isolated and have fewer opportunities to engage with their peers, school is an essential link to the community.

To conclude, these undertakings do not require enormous resource allocation to begin with.

Now and on the return to in-person learning, social supports are likely to make an important contribution to the learning of all students, but particularly those with disability.

Data Availability

Data are propriety of Children and Young People with Disability Australia.

Code Availability

Data analyzed using Stata software. Code available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Smith, C., Tani, M., Yates, S. et al. Successful School Interventions for Students with Disability During Covid-19: Empirical Evidence from Australia. Asia-Pacific Edu Res 32 , 367–377 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-022-00659-0

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📝 learning disability research papers examples, 🎓 simple research topics about learning disability, 👍 good learning disability essay topics to write about, ⭐ interesting topics to write about learning disability, 🏆 best learning disability essay titles, ❓ learning disability research questions.

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• "A Comparison of Saudi and Canadian Children’s Knowledge..." by Felimban With a qualitative approach, this comparative research analyzed the beliefs of students from Canada and Saudi Arabia regarding the factors associated with learning disabilities.
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• Big Ideas in Special Education This article discusses specialized approaches implemented in the educational system to demonstrate their beneficial applications to the learning process.
• Teacher Leadership Practices in Special Education It is paramount for teachers in special education to utilize the most advanced strategies in supporting learners and encouraging them to build the required skill set.
• Educational Law: Individuals With Disabilities Education Act Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) prepares disabled children not solely for further education but for employment and living separately as well.
• Students' Study Goals in Inclusive Education One of the goals for future development is concerned with expanding knowledge of children's disabilities to have an improved understanding of students' needs.
• Inclusive Classes vs. Special Education The education of children with special needs is one of the primary responsibilities. It is a necessary condition for creating an equal society where everyone can feel needed.
• Learners With Mild Intellectual Disabilities One of the strategies in helping children with mild intellectual disabilities is a focus on greater home based methods of learning and teaching.
• Analysis of Individualized Education Program Individualized Education Program is one of the most effective ways to adjust the lessons according to the needs of the child and the expectations of parents and teachers.
• Strategies to Reach Children With Disabilities The paper talks about strategies that can use to reach children of all disability levels and describes the system in detail, where the plan came from, and how it is effective.
• Special Education Curriculum Issues and Their Solutions in the USA There are many potential improvements that can transform the special education programs across the US to become more efficient, inclusive, and appropriate for the stakeholders.
• Approaches to Teach Children With Developmental or Intellectual Disabilities The activity-based approach is a method of teaching in which children do not receive knowledge in a ready-made form.
• Autism Spectrum Disorder and Special Education Issues It is typical for a child with an Autism Spectrum Disorder to struggle with social interactions and to have difficulties communicating with teachers and other students.
• Special Education Services and Intervention Intensity Special education services are essential to children with disabilities and also to those that have slow learning skills.
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• Government Policies on Educating People With Disabilities Only with the right policy from the government, the people would understand the importance of teaching people with disabilities.
• Students With Special Needs and Educational Processes The paper states that is vital to cater to student's needs and find the right approach to establish productive communication with them in classes.
• Students With Hearing Disabilities: Educational Plan Due to the success of educational services provided to individuals with hearing disabilities, integration classes concerned with providing services at all levels have spread.
• How to Create an Inclusive Environment for Students with Language Disabilities The teacher should create an inclusive environment in class to ensure that all the students are active participants in the education process.
• Response to Intervention and Registering Progress in Learning Response to Intervention (RTI) is a multi-tier system of support (MTSS) that aims at supporting all children to register progress in their learning.
• The Retention Rates of Twice-Exceptional Students With Autism In the middle of the twentieth century, the idea of twice-exceptionality was further operationalized and became a topic of detailed inquiry.
• Inclusive Education for Children With Autism The paper determines the evolution of the development of inclusive education, the terminology, and the characteristics of what makes a system inclusive.
• Life After High School: Autism in Post-Secondary Schools The paper studies the impact of a transition process on post-secondary students with autism and discovers supporting institutional practices.
• The Needs of Students With Disabilities The paper states that the situation must be changed to address the needs of students with disabilities and represent them in the specified legislation.
• Disability in Education: A Juridical Perspective The purpose of this essay is to consider the problem of teaching children with disabilities in educational institutions of various levels.
• Inclusive Education: The Individuals with Disabilities Act The Individuals with Disabilities Act provides good opportunities for inclusive education in theory, however there are problems in practice.
• Social Interaction Interventions for Students with Autism in School Autism spectrum disorders represent a whole spectrum of developmental disorders characterized by various manifestations of the uniqueness of the various spheres.
• Personality, and Life Quality Impact of Children With Dyslexia Children with dyslexia have an unstable mentality and unpredictable behavior, they are experiencing difficulties in the perception and the inability to express thoughts.
• Dyslexia in Young Children: Developmental Language Disorder ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, depression, anorexia, Tourette's, and bipolar are among those conditions that have various symptoms.
• Plans for Students with Learning Differences Students with learning differences like emotional and behavioral disorders, autism spectrum disorder, and dyscalculia have a right to be included in the curriculum.
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• Bullying of Disabled Children in School The purpose of this study is to evaluate the level of bullying of students with disabilities and special education needs.
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• Teaching Reading in Special Education Reading is an essential skill for people in the contemporary world as it helps gain information. Many states are advocating for special needs pupils to join mainstream schools.
• Students with Learning Disabilities Students having learning disabilities have a hard time in school. With every day passing by, it only gets more challenging, especially when no interventions are incorporated.
• Inclusivity of an Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Student Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is an illness characterized by insufficient attention in a child, and the child tends to be more active than normal.
• The Exceptional Student Education The process of a student becoming eligible for special education is called Exceptional Student Education. It includes ten steps.
• Overcoming Your Learning Disability
• Cognitive Activity in Children With Learning Disabilities.
• Dementia Care Pathway-people With Learning Disability
• Features of the Psyche of a Child With Learning Disabilities in Early and Preschool Ages
• Mental Development of Children With Learning Disabilities in the First Year of Life
• Learning Disability and Its Impact on the Classroom
• The Higher Mental Development Potential of a Child With Learning Disabilities
• The Link Between Learning Disability and Delinquency
• Children With Early Signs of a Learning Disability
• Learning Disability From the Classroom Environment
• Immaturity of the Emotional-Volitional Sphere With Learning Disabilities
• Learning Disability and Attention Deficit Disorder
• Determination and Substantiation of Pedagogical Prognosis About Learning Disabilities for Children
• Dysgraphia: Assessment, Causes, and Treatment — A Learning Disability Essay Read this learning disability essay to find a dysgraphia assessment, characteristics, causes, and treatment options ✚ a difference between dysgraphia vs dyslexia.
• The Relationship of Language Disorders to Learning Disability
• Attention Deficit Disorder as a Learning Disability
• Autism: Learning Disability and Disorder
• Developmental Dyslexia: The Specific Learning Disability
• Characteristics Of Learning Individuals With Learning Disabilities
• Conquering Dyslexia: The Road to Succeeding in Life with the Learning Disability
• Late Development of Sensorimotor Connections With Learning Disabilities
• The Productivity of Children and Adolescents With Learning Disabilities
• Conquering Dyslexia: The Road To Succeeding in Life With the Learning Disability
• Learning Disability Causes and Etiology
• Legal and Ethical Practice for Learning Disability
• Neurological Learning Disability Analysis: Dyslexia
• Learning Disability, Eugenics and the Social Model Approach
• Autism Learning Disabilities and Behavioral Problems
• The Common Learning Disability of Dyslexia
• Emotional Learning Disability and Physical Education
• College Students and Learning Disability
• Differential Diagnosis of Learning Disabilities and Similar Conditions
• The Special Education Profession and the Discourse of Learning Disability in Germany
• Hearing Impairment and Learning Disability
• Learning Disability Women and Attention Deficit Disorder
• Didactic and Psychological Aspects of Studying the Problem of Learning Disabilities
• The Problem of Mental Retardation in the Context of Learning Disabilities
• The Relationship Between Autism, Learning Disability, Behavioral Problems
• The Causes Of Learning Disabilities
• Neurological Learning Disability: Dyslexia
• The Relationship Between Concussion History and Learning Disability
• How Are the Types of Diseases That Lead To Learning Disabilities?
• What Are Positive and Negative Learning Disabilities?
• How Does Public Policy Education Work in Canada for Learning Disabilities ADHD?
• Is There a Link Between Concussion and Learning Disabilities?
• How to Critically Examine and Systematically Analyze the Provision of Care to a Person With a Learning Disability?
• What Are the Learning Resources for College Students With Disabilities?
• How Does Learning Disability Affect Personal Perception?
• What Are the Known Ways To Treat People With Learning Disabilities?
• How Do You Know if Your Child Has Learning Disabilities?
• What Is the Most Famous Learning Disability?
• How Does Learning Disability Affect Personal Perception of the World?
• What Specific Learning Disabilities Are There?
• What Are the Roles and Responsibilities in Caring for Adults and Those With Learning Disabilities?
• How to Create an Ideal Environment for Learning Disabilities?
• How Is Learning Disabilities Treated?
• Why, in Some Cases, Learning Disabilities Cannot Be Treated?
• What Are the Statistics of Morbidity in the Field of Learning Disabilities in the World?
• What Is the Difference Between Mild Intellectual Disabilities and Learning Disabilities?
• How Has Neuroscience Helped Study the Learning Disabilities Phenomenon?

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EDU 5710 — Challenges in Learning and Development

This course provides an overview of the challenges that students with moderate disabilities encounter in their lives. The class will explore how disabilities are identified, what necessary steps are taken to refer students for evaluations in the Special Education process, characteristics of students with disabilities, general issues of evaluation approaches, and research-based accommodations and interventions including the use of assistive technology devices and behavioral interventions. State and federal laws as well as an overview of local and national support agencies are also reviewed.

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Chris Lemons, associate professor of education, talks to a student in the small-group work area while paraeducator Vijayalakshmi Samraj and Stanford researcher Lakshmi Balasubramanian work individually with students. (Image credit: Lisa Chung)

At a meeting before the start of the school year at Abram Agnew Elementary School in San Jose, special education aides shared the strategies they planned to use to boost their effectiveness. One of Maria Ochoa’s goals was to initiate regular communication with classroom teachers.

“I want to make sure we’re on the same page, and I’m going to be keeping notes about our work with students,” she said.

In August, Ochoa, along with 15 other aides or paraeducators, completed their final session of Para Pro Academy, a collaboration between Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education and the Santa Clara Unified School District, where they learned techniques and strategies for a role that Associate Professor of Education Chris Lemons describes as an underutilized and important link to student success.

“Schools infrequently devote sufficient professional development or coaching to this group.” —Chris Lemons Associate Professor of Education

“The reason we are targeting paraeducators in this work is because they are some of the most critical staff in schools – they are where the rubber meets the road for improving outcomes for learners with disabilities,” Lemons said. “Schools infrequently devote sufficient professional development or coaching to this group.”

Unlike teachers, paraeducators are not required to have teaching credentials or even bachelor’s degrees, and they often receive little, if any, training on the job. And teachers, including those trained to provide special education services, often don’t receive guidance for working with paraeducators. The vision for Para Pro Academy is to empower paraeducators and facilitate their work with teachers to improve student learning.

The project is the first initiative in a research-practice learning partnership between Stanford and Santa Clara Unified District that will enable both Stanford faculty and educators to try ideas in real classrooms, improve on the ones that work, and then share them more widely.

Graduate School of Education Professor Elizabeth Kozleski , the faculty co-director of the Learning Differences Initiative at the Stanford Accelerator for Learning, said the partnership was designed to create a cycle of frequent communication and mutual learning.

“A community of practice is where everyone is asking the questions,” she said. Through their interactions, everyone can be curious and ask, in different ways, “How does learning happen?”

Seed funds from the Stanford Office of Community Engagement made it possible for paraeducators to attend the training sessions and receive coaching and educational materials, which will be available in the school’s library for use by other classroom aides.

While students take an activity break, Stanford researcher Lakshmi Balasubramanian talks with Agnew School paraeducator Alyssa Morris, and Chris Lemons looks over classroom work with Sandra Velásquez, the liaison from Santa Clara Unified School District. (Image credit: Lisa Chung)

The shift toward inclusive classrooms

Federal law has mandated since 1975 that students with disabilities be educated alongside their nondisabled peers to the extent possible. But for many years, in California and across the country, special education meant separate classrooms, separate teachers, and even separate sites. As the move toward providing special ed services within inclusive classrooms gains momentum, paraeducators are key to supporting the students who in years past might have been placed in separate classes, Kozleski said.

At Agnew, where students with learning issues in 13 recognized disability categories learn side by side with other students, Principal Joe Young said the training program helped the school’s paraeducators focus on what they wanted to accomplish with their students – and with their own professional development.

“Clearly identifying goals during the Para Pro Academy has really supported their intentional efforts to improve their practice,” he said. The program has elevated the profile of paraeducators within the school as part of the team contributing to student learning, he said, and “it has really given them a greater sense of their impact.”

Reflecting on the first few months of the school year, Ochoa said that progress can be hard to measure with individual students because she changes classrooms regularly, working with students across the district. Detailed note-taking and close collaboration with teachers and other paraeducators have helped. “Luckily, my team keeps very open communication about the students we work with, so if we find techniques that work well for the student’s progress, we try to maintain that progress when we rotate working with the same students.”

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• Drowning Prevention
• Risk Factors
• Reducing Risk
• Health Disparities
• Drowning Data
• Drowning Facts
• Drowning Prevention Resources

What to know

• Drowning is a leading cause of death for children.
• Drowning can be fatal or nonfatal.
• Nonfatal drowning can result in long-term health problems and costly hospital stays.

What is drowning?

Drowning is the process of experiencing respiratory impairment from submersion or immersion in liquid. Drowning happens when a person's nose and mouth are under water for too long, making it impossible to breath. Drowning is not always fatal.

Fatal drowning happens when the drowning results in death.

Nonfatal drowning happens when a person survives a drowning incident. Nonfatal drowning has a range of outcomes or results, from no injuries to very serious injuries such as brain damage or permanent disability.

Every year in the United States there are an estimated:

• that is an average of 11 drowning deaths per da y.
• that is an average of 22 nonfatal drownings per day. 1

In the United States:

• More children ages 1–4 die from drowning than any other cause of death. 1
• For children ages 5–14 , drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional injury death after motor vehicle crashes. 1

• An average of 4,083 unintentional drowning deaths occurred each year from 2012–2021.
• An average 8,111 estimated emergency department visits due to non-fatal drowning occurred each year from 2012–2021.
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS) . Accessed 27 November 2023.
• Spack L, Gedeit R, Splaingard M, Havens PL. Failure of aggressive therapy to alter outcomes in pediatric near-drowning . Pediatric Emergency Care 1997;13(2):98–102.
• Suominen PK, Vähätalo R. Neurologic long term outcome after drowning in children . Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine 2012;20(55):1–7.
• Suominen PK, Sutinen N, Valle S, Olkkola KT, Lönnqvist T. Neurocognitive long term follow-up study on drowned children . Resuscitation 2014;85(8):1059–106

Drowning is a serious public health problem. Learn more about Drowning Prevention.

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