Cognitive Training with Learning-Disabled Pupils

Abstract

Considering the broad array of symptoms and conditions that characterize children identified as exceptional, it is reasonable to hypothesize that learning-disabled children are likely candidates for cognitive training programs. Learning-disabled children learn many things well, yet show puzzling patterns of inconsistency in achievement and performance. Their school work may be satisfactory one day but dramatically inadequate the next; they may be deficient in reading but do average work in arithmetic; they may be attentive and task-directed at one moment, but erratic and distracted the next. It is these very inconsistencies that, although puzzling, provide the intuitive basis for the belief that learning-disabled children would profit from cognitive training techniques. Said directly, if learning-disabled children can learn and perform well in some situations, they may be helped through cognitive training to learn and perform well in many situations.

Preparation of this chapter was supported in part by Project REACH, Contract #300-77-0306 between the Office of Special Education and the University of California, and by the Virginia Learning Disabilities Research Institute, Contract #300-80-0623 between the Office of Special Education and the University of Virginia.