Gifts Special Needs and Issues - Learning Disabilities

In the last panel we looked at disabilities funded by the federal government under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Here we look at specific learning disabilities (LDs). The graph shows total students enrolled from 1980-2000. Note first of all that students with speech and language impairments are down; as are the mentally retarded. Those with serious emotional disturbance are up — those with specific learning disabilities are way up.

In the last panel we learned that students with LD appear intelligent yet cannot communicate orally or in written form in line with their evident intelligence, cannot read well or comprehend what they are reading, and cannot do math or reason abstractly.

The causes of LD are unknown. The condition was once thought to be caused by one or more neurological problems, but these explanations have given way to vague speculations suggesting flaws in fetal brain development. These are thought to be caused by toxins in the environment; tobacco, alcohol, and drug abuse; genetic problems; and so on.¹ But it's clear that no conclusive answers are offered by science — which is not to say that these speculations are wrong. But ignorance prevails.

At the same time, it has been observed that 80% of children with learning disabilities have problems with reading, that this problem appears early — and if not corrected early, is difficult to reverse. As one of the more insightful papers on this subject states: "The poor first-grade reader almost invariably becomes a poor middle school reader, high school reader, and adult reader. In short, children who get off to a poor start in reading rarely catch up. We wait — they fail."² Yet most diagnoses of LD take place at a time when it is already too late to help the students.

To oversimplify somewhat, it might be said that much of the dramatic increase in students with disabilities is due largely to a failure to detect reading problems early and to teach children with reading problems using intensive methods.

Another contributing cause to the rise in disabilities is the growing number of children with serious emotional disturbances. This may be due to medical conditions or possibly, to the "medicalization" of behavioral problems by government agencies and the educational establishment. The problems equally may stem from failures in child raising, inappropriate nutrition, pollution, and societal causes which we're not facing squarely but hiding behind medical jargon. In the case of emotional disturbances, as in the case of special LDs, the causes remain vague although the symptoms are quite evident to frustrated teachers.

The rise in the special ed population is not, as some might believe, due to the availability of federal funding. IDEA was to provide up to 40% of funding for special education. During its history, the legislation has provided only 12% of the cost. School systems lose money on each child put into special ed. The pressure to put children into special ed classes arises not from the schools but from teachers who wish to find places for unresponsive, frustrated, or disruptive children.

All this has led calls for reform. A summary of reforms is listed in the source. "Medication" is another solution. We deal with that next panel. It is clear, however, that special education needs a new approach. One hopes that the right way will eventually emerge.

Sources: National Center for Education Statistics. Digest of Education Statistics, 1992. Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services. Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, various years. National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data survey. April 2001. Rethinking Special Education for a New Century, Chester E. Finn, Andrew J. Rotterham, and Charles R. Hokanson, editors, Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, May 2001.