Perspectives on learning disabilities

Abstract

The goal of this book is to present alternative perspectives on learning disabil,ities, concentrating on what we believe to be the thsce most promishg and widely adopted: biologicat, cognitive, md contextual, Obviously, these perspectives are not the only ones theorists and practitioners have on learning disabitities; nor are they mutuaw exclusive. Ch the contrary, most experts view learning disailities as phmornena that can be understood at multiple levels, including the three emphasized in this volume. The book was written with several different audiences in mhd: students, scholars, practitimers, and parents of sbdents with learning disf- abilities. Authors were asked to write at a level that would be accessible to the lay reader. At the same time, sme of the concepts are technical, and there is no way around the clear expression that sometimes =quires the use of apprr>l?"iate technical terms. We believe the book will serve a useful function h r individual readers and for courses with the goal of conveying to studtrnts the etiversity of perspectives that constitute the field of lcarning &&%ties today There are many books today that deal in one way or another with g disabifities, and we bope that our book occupies a mique niche in its merger of several characteristics: (1) the presentation in a single volume of three smetirnes d.ivergistg perspectives; (2) the selection of individuals who are world-renovvned for their expertise in rep~sentingth ese perspectives; (3) a level of presentation that is accessible md useful to readers with a dkersity of backgmunds; (4) a balance in presentation oi theory =search, and suggestions for practice that will make tke book appealing to people with di f fc~nnt eeds; and @) an attempt to provi,de in the book only seriously thought-out scholarly positions rather than the sometimes mindless "hypef9that one sometimes finds in the field and that represents personal opinions that seem to be backed by neither theory nor data nor even any remotdy rational argument, Although the book is diwided into parts that =present the alternatives in perspective previously mentioned-biological, cognitive, and contextual- they ma)i be read in any order. Similarly, the chapters within a part may be read in any order. In any case, many chapter authors camect two or even all three of these perspectives, Eurths, the number of chapters in each part of the book reflects the number of authors cont-acted who actually provided chapters rather than the number of individuals from each perspective who we^ invited to contribute.. We are gratefu( to Dean Birkenkamp, who originaily contracted the book for Westview, and to Cathy MurphJi, our current editor at Westview, fnr their support of the project, and to Marcus Blzggs fctr his continuifig support trhrotlghout this and other projects. W also l-hank our students and colkagues who have enabled us to develop and. expilore uur inte~st in learning disabilities. Robert Stembe%% contribution to editing the vofume was supported in part by grants (R286R500Qf and R206A79001) from the Javits Program of the U,S. Office of Educational Research and Improvement.