ABSTRACT
One of the central questions posed by the chapters in the present volume is whether the “regular” educational classroom can become a successful learning environment for children with learning disabilities. Although the authors of these chapters vary in their optimism regarding this issue, most share, either explicitly or implicitly, a common perspective. This perspective is that although there are many current barriers to learning in the mainstream for students with learning disabilities, there is also much promise for such students associated with attempts to optimize instructional contingencies in the mainstream. The challenge, of course, is to identify those aspects of the classroom that can be changed in order to improve the opportunities for learning in the specific case of the child with learning disabilities.
