Dimensional Integration of Assessment Outcomes With Intervention Services for Children With Specific Learning Disabilities

Abstract

This article reviews critical issues with integrating different procedures for identifying children with specific learning disabilities permitted in the federal regulations of the 2004 Individual With Disabilities Education Act 2004. Theoretical differences between behavioral approaches that focus on recording behavioral responses based on manipulating variables and approaches that focus on measuring attributes internal to the person (e.g., cognition, cognitive processing, intelligence) are identified as primary barriers to integrating different approaches. A coding scheme that represents disability severity along a continuous dimension based on empirical evidence across multiple domains of functioning (e.g., academic, cognitive, social-emotional) is proposed. Similarly, interventions are represented along a continuous dimension and linked to disability severity through specification of intervention levels. The coding scheme provides a general framework for integrating assessment results with intervention services for children with specific learning disabilities and other developmental disabilities.

KEYWORDS:

• assessment
• intervention
• learning disabilities