ABSTRACT
Traditionally, children who experience school failure requiring the support of a resource teacher have been identified as having a learning disability. The term was introduced by Kirk, who defined it as ‘retardation, disorder or delayed development in one or more of the processes of speech, language, reading, writing, arithmetic, or other school subjects resulting from a psychological handicap caused by possibly cerebral dysfunction. It is not the result of mental retardation, sensory deprivation, or cultural or instructional factors’ (Kirk, 1968, p. 398). The definition established that learning disability exists as a within-child disorder arising from neurological or psychological-process impairments.
