Learning Disabilities
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Abstract
A capacity conference, hosted by Dr. William Cruickshank a t the University of Michigan, recently reviewed the accomplishments of the learning disabilities field, dissected current developing trends, and probed the future. Using a logical perspective of the field, the presentors were able to weave a positive approach o u t of the current web of issues and viewpoints. The needs of “these” children dominated the conference, not the politics of ambition or discipline. Setting the tone of the meeting, Cruickshank faced the problems created by the extraordinary and rapid growth of the psychoeducational endeavor known as learning disabilities. Fueled by a very real need, and accelerated by the establishment of ACLD in 1963, he pointed out that the LD field has literally raced ahead on an unstable base of incomplete data and knowledge. The resultant confusion could have been predicted. However, as reiterated at the meeting, confusion can be useful if it jars us out of complacency and ignorance. While delineating future issues, Cruickshank focused first on the problem of “definition.” The current approach allows an arbitrary division along the IQ spectrum and is a definition of exclusion. Committees appointed by Nicolas Hobbs of Vanderbilt University (under the aegis of USOE) have been investigating problems of definition and classification. A document containing an updated definition is due momentarily. Cruickshank, a committee member, stated that the new definition is one of inchsion rather than exclusion and Void5 the concept of intellectual demarcation. It wil l emphasize more “what these children are rather than what they are not.” When there are children with problems in learning and social adjustment based on perceptual disturbance, we must think in terms of the functioning of the organism’s neurological system regardless of whether these issues can be definitely demarcated at this time. Where we are talking perception, we are talking neurology! Cruickshank defined as additional issues to be explored by research in the decade ahead: the process of integrating intersensory information; the role of structure whether it be environmental, spatial, programmatic o r in relationship t o teaching materials; the role of early stimulation and nutrition in perceptual development; the unknowns of medication during pregnancy; biochemical .imbalances; the need for a highly trained core of college professors with the capacity t o inspire teachers in this field; the need to prepare psychologists to understand the perceptual dynamics of behavior; the need t o prepare administrators t o understand the developmental and psychopathological problems of LD children; and the need for continuing research into specific effects of medication. Additional issues of the future discussed by