Our Labeled Children: What Every Parent and Teacher Needs to Know About Learning Disabilities

Our Labeled Children: What Every Parent and Teacher Needs to Know About Learning Disabilities





A hard-hitting look at the problems of-and solutions for-diagnosing and teaching children with learning disabilities.

Twenty percent of all school-aged children in this country have been labeled Learning Disabled. But what is a genuine learning disability? How does it differ from garden-variety poor learning? How can we more accurately assess and then teach to individual learning strengths instead of merely pinpointing learning weaknesses? In this passionately argued yet clear-headed book, internationally acclaimed cognitive psychologist Robert Sternberg and research scientist Elena Grigorenko tackle these controversial issues, urging that we understand the full range of factors that contribute to learning disabilities (and sometimes to their misdiagnosis) in order to improve the American educational and diagnostic systems.

From the biological bases of dyslexia and other disabilities, to the tests that do and do not accurately assess learning abilities, to the social and educational pressures that contribute to misdiagnosis, Our Labeled Children clearly outlines the issues that concern both parents and teachers, ultimately pointing to clear strategies for improving our system to help children with all manner of learning problems.Every student has a learning disability, according to psychologists Robert Sternberg and Elena Grigorenko. The best reader may be a poor musician; a top math student may struggle to communicate with people. Yet an unfortunate one-fifth of today's schoolchildren are tagged as "LD." In this scholarly attack on the labeling of our children, the two Yale-based researchers take issue with everything from the unscientific methods used to designate children as learning disabled to the way students with distinctly different problems are grouped together and taught. They base much of their case on modern ideas about learning, such as Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences, which argues against the traditional one-size-fits-all IQ.

The authors manage to avoid the jargon that plagues most discussions about learning disabilities. They briefly describe the history of the LD label, how battles over it have fared in the courts, and what studies have begun to link its origins to genetic makeup. Much of the dry and precise writing deals with reading problems, particularly dyslexia. The writers clearly map out a plan for how schools should teach reading to avoid future labeling of many children. Their perspective is a valid and important one for anybody concerned about children pigeonholed as LD, particularly parents faced with this reality, educators who deal with it on a day-to-day basis, or anyone studying to be a teacher. --Jodi Mailander Farrell









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