The Perspective of Teacher Educators

Although the number of students suffering from a learning, emotional or physical disability continues to flourish, the successes of special education services provided in the classroom are heavily contingent on when the child was diagnosed. One of the main issues surrounding early identification is the fact that not all disabilities are initially evident. In contrast, many children are diagnosed with disabilities impairing their ability to learn as they progress through school. The inability to diagnose a condition that may impair the child’s ability to learn in a traditional classroom setting is problematic, as children diagnosed with a learning disability later in their academic training tend to respond worse to special education programs. However, this is in part attributed to the fact that the child may have struggled academically for years prior to being diagnosed. As a result, these children often struggle to catch up to their peers and meet state standards. Therefore, it is increasingly important for parents and teachers to work together to identify the child’s strengths and weaknesses in order to determine if the child suffers from a learning disability.