First published in 1973, this book considers the differences between mainstream schools and special educational needs schools, for children with learning disabilities. It contains a wealth of research data, case history material and reference to existing literature, designed to answer many questions which parents, heads, and schoolteachers have asked. Questions considered include whether children with disabilities do as well in ordinary schools as children without, whether they are as happy and well adjusted, and how they fit into the social structure of the class. The book also looks at whether much teasing occurs and how practical difficulties can be overcome.

The Disabled Schoolchild and Kitchen Sense deals with home economics for physically handicapped schoolchildren. This book is concerned mainly with activities in the kitchen; but these activities are not separated from the many other facets of home economics taught in schools. At all times, there should be consideration of home making in its entirety, and no separation is intended or implied. As with physically handicapped adults, physically handicapped children are capable of and enjoy many more home activities than they are normally allowed or encouraged to undertake. If they are to grow up to become self-sufficient and as independent as possible within the limits of their disability, they must have the opportunity of learning these skills. This book provides necessary information in helping the disabled schoolchildren learn the activities. This text is intended for the home economics teachers in a special school for physically handicapped children.

Experts have yet to reach consensus about what a learning disability is, how to determine if a child has one, and what to do about it. Leading researcher and clinician Deborah Waber offers an alternative to the prevailing view of learning disability as a problem contained within the child. Instead, she shows how learning difficulties are best understood as a function of the developmental interaction between the child and the world. Integrating findings from education, developmental psychology, and cognitive neuroscience, she offers a novel approach with direct practical implications. Detailed real-world case studies illustrate how this approach can promote positive outcomes for children who struggle in school.

Parents of teens with learning disabilities face a wide range of questions and concerns regarding the education of their children. This guide helps parents as their children shift from teenage life to adulthood.

This book, described by reviewers as “shocking” and “a masterpiece,” exposes the tragic tale of the millions of schoolchildren who are never taught basic skills in reading, writing, and math. With heart-wrenching stories of individual children from his own experience as an advocate and ground-breaking policy researcher, Kalman “Buzzy” Hettleman documents what can only be labeled educational abuse. It may be unintentional, but it is gross negligence because we know how to prevent it, yet fail do it. Many of the victims are “Mislabeled as Disabled.” Denied proper instruction, they fall behind in regular general education, overwhelm teachers, and hold back classmates. Out of desperation, school systems unlawfully “dump” such "Mislabeled as Disabled" students in special education, even though they do not have a true medical disability. Yet, unlike students with severe limitations who are “Truly Disabled,” the special education they receive is hardly special at all. They fall farther behind and suffer stigma and segregation. Moreover, school systems cover up this educational malpractice with misleading progress reports and data. The fact that a disproportionate number of “Mislabeled as Disabled” students are from poor and minority families is no excuse. Hettleman not only cites in detail the better instruction that will enable them to succeed; he spells out the kind of legislative and judicial civil right to learn to read that is required for reform. Hettleman also perceptively reveals how teachers, like children, are victimized by educational abuse. Dedicated frontline teachers are denied the instructional tools—the training, class sizes, and curricula—with which they can get the job done right. He concludes with a call to action by all of us. Parents, educators, policymakers, and entire communities should read this book, become enraged, and then take up the struggle for reform.

Introduction to the core concepts of teaching and supporting children with disabilities alongside their peers will help teachers ensure that all children meet their potential.

This book introduces current theories and research on disability, and builds on the premise that disability has to be understood from the dialectical dynamics of biology, psychology, and culture over time. Based on the newest empirical research on children with disabilities, the book overcomes the limitations of the medical and social models of disability by arguing for a dialectical biopsychosocial model. The proposed model builds on Vygotsky’s cultural-historical ideas of developmental incongruence, implying that the disability emerges from the misfit between individual abilities and the cultural-historical activity settings in which the child with impairments participates. The book is a theoretical contribution to an updated understanding of disability from a psychological and educational perspective. It focuses on the first years of the life of the child with impairment, and travels through infancy, toddler, preschool and early school age, to track the developmental trajectories of disability through the dialectical processes of cultural, social, individual, and biological processes. It discusses a number of themes that are relevant for the early development and support for children with various types and degrees of disability through the lens of Vygotsky’s cultural-historical developmental theories. Some of the themes discussed are inclusion, mental health, communication, aids and family life.