ABSTRACT
The most common category of children identified and served by the public schools in the USA is "specific learning disabilities". Like the controversy surrounding definition of learning disabilities, similar debate has surrounded issues of identification. Historically, learning disabilities have been diagnosed through assessments that demonstrate discrepancy between intellectual ability and academic achievement. More or less an offshoot of the cognitive processing deficits approach to identification, a procedure known as processing strengths and weaknesses has been proposed for identifying students with learning disabilities. Part of the difficulty with determining etiology is that there exists no single cause of learning disabilities, and in many cases, the cause is unknown. The chapter focuses on two medically related etiologies of learning disabilities: acquired trauma and genetic or hereditary issues. Decisions about the design and implementation of educational programs for students with learning disabilities are based on a number of factors. The student's teacher must also consider which instructional methods will be most effective.
