Learning Disabilities: Management
Academic failure always requires evaluation and intervention because it has serious implications for a child's current adjustment and future success. A learning disability is one possible etiology, but the specific exclusions mentioned in the legal definition—visual, hearing, or motor handicaps; mental retardation; emotional disturbance; and environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage (including poor teaching)—all are significant causes of academic failure. Because a reading disability is the most common disability identified, a minimal rule of thumb to remember is that any child who has not "cracked the code" and begun to read by the end of the first grade requires a full evaluation.
