ABSTRACT
The nonstigmatizing term Learning Disabilities (LDs) was created to describe a cluster of “specific” central nervous system dysfunctions that would help explain the disappointing academic performance of otherwise competent children not responding to traditional teaching methods. Named by Samuel Kirk in 1963, LDs were recognized as an official handicapping condition 5 years later and became the basis of a legal educational mandate in the early 1970s. A quarter of a century later, 10.24% of all U.S. children from age 6 to 17 (and up to 25% of all children in some urban areas) are attending special education programs-and slightly over half of them (5.2 million children) are described as “learning disabled” (Reschly, 1995). At this time, the diagnosis of LDs is seven times more frequent than either the diagnosis of mental retardation or the diagnosis of emotional disturbance (U.S. Department of Education, 1994).
