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Learning Disabilities

New Perspectives from an Educational Specialist

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Textbook of Developmental Pediatrics

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Abstract

The cognitive development of the child identified as “learning disabled” has been the subject of varying hypotheses, considerable research, and controversy, for many decades. Interest in learning disabilities has been sparked by concerns of parents and professionals that some children may have difficulty acquiring and applying information presented in the traditional academic environment. In 1970, the United States Office of Education defined children with specific learning disabilities as

Those children who have a disorder in one of the more basic psychological processes involved in understanding, or in using language, spoken or written, which disorder may manifest itself in imperfectability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell or do mathematical calculations. Such disorders include perceptual handicaps, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental asphasia. Such terms do not include children who have learning problems which are primarily the result of visual, hearing or motor handicaps, of mental retardation, or of emotional disadvantages.1

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Section of Learning Disabilities, Institute for Child Development, Hackensack Medical Center, Hackensack, New Jersey, 07601, USA

    Dorothy Kletzkin

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  1. Dorothy Kletzkin
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Child Development, Hackensack Medical Center, Hackensack, New Jersey, 07601, USA

    Marvin I. Gottlieb M.D., Ph.D. (Director, Professor) & John E. Williams M.D. (Chief, Associate Director, Clinical Assistant Professor) (Director, Professor) &  (Chief, Associate Director, Clinical Assistant Professor)

  2. Department of Pediatrics, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School, Hackensack, New Jersey, 07601, USA

    Marvin I. Gottlieb M.D., Ph.D. (Director, Professor) & John E. Williams M.D. (Chief, Associate Director, Clinical Assistant Professor) (Director, Professor) &  (Chief, Associate Director, Clinical Assistant Professor)

  3. Section of Developmental Pediatrics, Hackensack Medical Center, Hackensack, New Jersey, 07601, USA

    John E. Williams M.D. (Chief, Associate Director, Clinical Assistant Professor) (Chief, Associate Director, Clinical Assistant Professor)

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© 1987 Plenum Publishing Corporation

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Kletzkin, D. (1987). Learning Disabilities. In: Gottlieb, M.I., Williams, J.E. (eds) Textbook of Developmental Pediatrics. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-1797-5_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-1797-5_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-9006-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4613-1797-5

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