The Nature of Learning Disabilities: Critical Elements of Diagnosis and Classification

by Kenneth A. Kavale, Steven R. Forness

The category of learning disabilities continues to be among the most contentious in special education. Much of the debate and dissent emanates from a lack of understanding about its basic nature. The failure to evolve a comprehensive and unified perspective about the nature of learning disabilities has resulted in the concept being lost. The loss is best illustrated through the failure to answer this seemingly simple What is a learning disability?

Using historical, empirical, theoretical, conceptual, and philosophical analyses, this volume explores a number of problems and issues facing the field of learning disabilities. The chapters cover historical influences, definitional problems, primary characteristics, assessment practices, theoretical development, major themes, research and measurement models, and long-term outcomes. The goal is to explicate the nature of learning disabilities by analyzing what it was supposed to be, what it has become, and what it might be. A predominant theme running through this text is the necessity for the field of learning disabilities to regain integrity by recapturing its essence.

444 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1995

About the author

Kenneth A. Kavale was a leading figure in the field of learning disabilities. He died on 13 December 2008, in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Ken was a prolific contributor to the Learning Disability Quarterly and a highly valued consulting editor. He was most recently a distinguished professor at Regent University, immediately prior to which he was a professor at the University of Iowa. He also taught at the Universities of Georgia, Colorado, and California at Riverside.