Here is a brief blurb I put into my psychological reports when assessing SLD:
"The assessment, diagnosis, and treatment for learning disabilities are often controversial in modern American education. There is some research which seemingly supports the existence of SLD and there is some research which does not. From a phenomenological perspective, learning disabilities are ultimately in the eyes of the beholder. Thus, this report attempts to address and assess this student's educational and psychological needs in hopes of finding appropriate services and interventions designed to meet those needs; an IEP team will need to determine if or if not this student possesses a learning disability" (Asbridge, 2001).
It may be an innocent enough disclaimer, but I've never had a parent or student challenge me, confront me, or disagree with this statement (maybe they're just not reading it -- does anyone actually read these lengthy reports we're required to produce?). Parents and students know that we don't know what a learning disability is... they know that we all get together and play this, uh, game.
This blurb has also stimulated a few interesting philosophical discussions with fellow special educators, who, possibly for the first time, start to think about some of these issues.
Sometimes it seems that we in special education are the only ones who don't know what we don't know.
Feel free to put that blurb into one of your reports as an experiment and let us know how it turned out.
