Join us for our four-part webinar series!
The landscape of learning disability identification is ever-changing, resulting in the need for frequent updates on research and practice. To meet this need, The LD Institute of LDA is presenting its inaugural Science to Practice Webinar Series. In this series four important topics are covered. Each webinar is approximately 90 minutes.
Sign up for one webinar, or the full series! LDA Members receive a discounted rate. Please note that APA credits can only be earned by attending live.
Our Spring S2P Webinar Series has passed, but you can still register to receive the recordings! Just use the button below!
March 25th, 12pm EST
The PSW Method of SLD Identification: Controversies, Diagnostic Accuracy Revisited, and Implementation
Dr. Dawn Flanagan will discuss a widely used method of LD identification known as patterns of strengths and weaknesses or PSW. She will compare and contrast the various PSW methods currently available, critically review the research on PSW, provide a simple and practical way of reducing diagnostic errors when using PSW or any other method of LD identification, and argue for a continuum of data gathering methods that begins with universal screening and evidence-based intervention, and culminates in a comprehensive evaluation for students who do not respond as expected to intervention.
April 6th, 7pm EST
Cognitive Neuroscience Contributions for Adopting an Objective Processing Strengths and Weaknesses Approach
Brain Literacy Empowers Teachers to Meet Individual Needs for Children with Specific Learning Disabilities
Children with Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) have a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes that adversely affects academic achievement and/or socioemotional functioning, but it is hardly a disorder of low intellectual functioning or underachievement due to instructional or motivational factors.
Discussing the latest neurobiological and neuropsychological findings for children with SLD, this presentation will argue there are disparate causes for the learning challenges these children experience. Using a processing strengths and weaknesses (PSW) approach to SLD identification to illuminate this argument, the cognitive and academic characteristics of SLD subtypes will be explored.
Findings suggest that instruction/interventions should be designed to remediate individual weaknesses instead of compensating for those deficits. The importance of developing participant brain literacy in assessment and intervention practices will be emphasized, so that targeted interventions can be more sensitive and specific to individual student needs. The “one-size-fits-all” approach to teaching children with SLD not only minimizes what makes children with SLD unique, but it undermines a student’s ability to overcome learning challenges and could lead to poor response-to-instruction and intervention in affected individuals when the learning problem is not accurately identified.
A model of comprehensive evaluation will be offered, one that leads to both accurate SLD identification and effective instruction/intervention. A case study will show how a student who repeatedly did not respond to intervention in her SLD school was given a comprehensive PSW evaluation, and this information was used to develop an effective intervention. Not only did this student begin liking school following her subsequent academic success, but her brain changed as well, showing more adaptive patterns of learning, socioemotional, and neurobiological functioning as a result. Implications for future research and practice will be elucidated.
April 19th at 12pm EST
The Neurobiology of Reading Disability: A Case for Equifinality in Learning Disorders
The term “neurobiological in origin” has been used in the definition of Dyslexia crafted nearly 20 years ago. After twenty years of brain and behavioral research, we readdress the multifaceted nature of reading disability and discuss how a learning disorder can emerge from a “constellation” of underlying deficits yet also describe why explicit, systematic multisensory interventions have an impact across varying etiologies. We will discuss the complex role of nature and nurture in this process.
Dr. Bolger has nearly 20 years of hands-on experience in using functional neuroimaging methods with typically developing children as well as those with learning disabilities including dyslexia.
You can earn APA credits by attending Dr. Bolger’s webinar live!
May 4th at 12pm EST
Learning Disabilities vs. Producing Disabilities: Implications for Instruction and Intervention
This workshop will explain the distinction between difficulties in learning and difficulties in producing. Dr. McCloskey will also describe how executive control is involved in reading, writing, and math and will conclude with instructional techniques that can be used to address academic difficulties related to executive function/executive control difficulties.
