Disabilities

Affecting
Learning
Mike Wilson, Book Editor
Christine Nasso, Publisher
Elizabeth Des Chenes, Managing Editor

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Disabilities affecting learning / Mike Wilson, book editor.

p. cm. -- (Introducing issues with opposing viewpoints)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7377-4338-8 (hardcover)
1. Learning disabled children. 2. Autistic children. 3. Dyslexic children. 4. Attention-
deficit disordered children. I. Wilson, Mike, 1954-
LC4704.D565 2009
371.94--dc22
2009013593

Printed in the United States of America

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 13 12 11 10 09
 Contents
Foreword 5
Introduction 7

Chapter 1: Are Disabilities Affecting Learning

a Serious Problem?
1. Dyslexia Is a Serious Problem 11
E. Ruth Wesby
2. Dyslexia Is Widely Misunderstood 17
David Mills
3. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Is a
Serious Problem 23
PR Newswire Contributor
4. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Is a Myth 29
Fred A. Baughman Jr. and Craig Hovey
5. Autism Is a Serious Problem 38
Chris Emery
6. Many Factors Have Contributed to the Rise in
Autism Diagnoses 44
Mike Stobbe
7. Autism Disabilities Vary Greatly 51
Robert Nohle

Chapter 2: What Harm Is Caused by Disabilities

Affecting Learning?
1. Learning Disabilities Cause Behavioral Problems 57
Diana Mahoney
2. Children with Learning Disabilities Are Vulnerable to Abuse 64
Freda Briggs
3. Autism Is Linked to Changes in the Brain 71
National Institutes of Health
4. ADHD Negatively Affects Adults in Numerous Ways 76
Steve Bates
5. ADHD Prevents Children from Making Friends 81
Ascribe Higher Education News Service
Chapter 3: How Should Society Address Disabilities
Affecting Learning?
1. Special Education Can Help Students with
Learning Disabilities 87
John W. Porter
2. Special Education Is Too Costly 93
Jennifer Mann
3. ADHD Drugs Can Help Many Children 100
Darshak Sanghavi
4. ADHD Drugs Are Overprescribed and Harmful
to Children 106
Barbara Davies
5. Preventing Exposure to Toxins Could Reduce
Learning Disabilities 115
Steven Kouris
6. Schools Should Prepare Learning-Disabled Students
for Employment 121
D. Richard Johnson, Daryl F. Mellard, and Paula Lancaster

Facts About Disabilities Affecting Learning 126

Organizations to Contact 129
For Further Reading 134
Index 139
Picture Credits 144
Foreword

I
ndulging in a wide spectrum of ideas, beliefs, and perspectives is a
critical cornerstone of democracy. After all, it is often debates over
differences of opinion, such as whether to legalize abortion, how
to treat prisoners, or when to enact the death penalty, that shape our
society and drive it forward. Such diversity of thought is frequently
regarded as the hallmark of a healthy and civilized culture. As the
Reverend Clifford Schutjer of the First Congregational Church in
Mansfield, Ohio, declared in a 2001 sermon, “Surrounding oneself
with only like-minded people, restricting what we listen to or read
only to what we find agreeable is irresponsible. Refusing to entertain
doubts once we make up our minds is a subtle but deadly form of arro-
gance.” With this advice in mind, Introducing Issues with Opposing
Viewpoints books aim to open readers’ minds to the critically diver-
gent views that comprise our world’s most important debates.
Introducing Issues with Opposing Viewpoints simplifies for students
the enormous and often overwhelming mass of material now available
via print and electronic media. Collected in every volume is an array of
opinions that captures the essence of a particular controversy or topic.
Introducing Issues with Opposing Viewpoints books embody the spirit
of nineteenth-century journalist Charles A. Dana’s axiom: “Fight for
your opinions, but do not believe that they contain the whole truth, or
the only truth.” Absorbing such contrasting opinions teaches students
to analyze the strength of an argument and compare it to its opposition.
From this process readers can inform and strengthen their own opin-
ions, or be exposed to new information that will change their minds.
Introducing Issues with Opposing Viewpoints is a mosaic of different
voices. The authors are statesmen, pundits, academics, journalists, cor-
porations, and ordinary people who have felt compelled to share their
experiences and ideas in a public forum. Their words have been collected
from newspapers, journals, books, speeches, interviews, and the Internet,
the fastest growing body of opinionated material in the world.
Introducing Issues with Opposing Viewpoints shares many of the
well-known features of its critically acclaimed parent series, Opposing
Viewpoints. The articles are presented in a pro/con format, allowing read-
ers to absorb divergent perspectives side by side. Active reading questions
preface each viewpoint, requiring the student to approach the material

Foreword 5
 thoughtfully and carefully. Useful charts, graphs, and cartoons supplement
each article. A thorough introduction provides readers with crucial back-
ground on an issue. An annotated bibliography points the reader toward
articles, books, and Web sites that contain additional information on the
topic. An appendix of organizations to contact contains a wide variety of
charities, nonprofit organizations, political groups, and private enterprises
that each hold a position on the issue at hand. Finally, a comprehensive
index allows readers to locate content quickly and efficiently.
Introducing Issues with Opposing Viewpoints is also significantly
different from Opposing Viewpoints. As the series title implies, its pre-
sentation will help introduce students to the concept of opposing view-
points and learn to use this material to aid in critical writing and debate.
The series’ four-color, accessible format makes the books attractive and
inviting to readers of all levels. In addition, each viewpoint has been
carefully edited to maximize a reader’s understanding of the content.
Short but thorough viewpoints capture the essence of an argument. A
substantial, thought-provoking essay question placed at the end of each
viewpoint asks the student to further investigate the issues raised in the
viewpoint, compare and contrast two authors’ arguments, or consider
how one might go about forming an opinion on the topic at hand. Each
viewpoint contains sidebars that include at-a-glance information and
handy statistics. A Facts About section located in the back of the book
further supplies students with relevant facts and figures.
Following in the tradition of the Opposing Viewpoints series,
Greenhaven Press continues to provide readers with invaluable exposure
to the controversial issues that shape our world. As John Stuart Mill once
wrote: “The only way in which a human being can make some approach
to knowing the whole of a subject is by hearing what can be said about it
by persons of every variety of opinion and studying all modes in which it
can be looked at by every character of mind. No wise man ever acquired
his wisdom in any mode but this.” It is to this principle that Introducing
Issues with Opposing Viewpoints books are dedicated.

6 Disabilities Affecting Learning

Introduction
“In my reading group each time I attempted to unscramble the words that
floated around in my head, I tried to tell Mrs. C. to let me stop. I couldn’t
breathe. I felt trapped. I was trying so hard and desperately wanted to be
like everyone else. I learned that year to hide in the bathroom to escape
reading out loud. I would stare at the mirror, hoping to God that no one
would walk in on me crying.”
—Jonathan Mooney, Learning Outside the Lines: Two
Ivy League Students with Learning Disabilities
and ADHD Give You the Tools, 2000

T
he quote above illustrates the isolation experienced by those
who have learning disabilities. However, during the past two
hundred years, medicine and the social sciences have made
progress toward reducing such isolation through discoveries about
the process of learning, potential causes of learning disabilities, and
methods to improve learning skills.
In 1802 Franz J. Gall, Napoleon’s surgeon, recognized a connec-
tion between brain injuries in soldiers and expressive language disor-
ders. This discovery, later proven more substantially, that certain parts
of the brain control certain emotions and actions was a revolutionary
idea at the time. During the next two centuries, and continuing today,
scientists have gained more precise knowledge about how the brain
processes experience and information, data relevant to identifying
brain parts and the processes that are critical to learning.
From various quarters the notion of learning disabilities as a spe-
cific type of condition began to appear. In 1867 German teacher
Heinrich Stotzner founded a school for children who were slow learn-
ers. Stotzner did not consider the children retarded; rather he viewed
them as handicapped by weak memory and poor motor coordination,
and he treated them with remedial, or corrective, teaching.
German physician Adolph Kussmaul is credited with being the first
person to identify dyslexia, which he called “word blindness.” Though
the term “dyslexia” was coined by Rudolf Berlin in 1887, the term
“word blindness” continued in use for some time, famously in the

Introduction 7
 work of Scottish physician James Hinshelwood during the early 1900s.
Hinshelwood theorized that “word blindness” was caused by damage to
the brain and was probably hereditary. Today, dyslexia is regarded as a
neurobiological condition that often is hereditary and genetic in origin.
Samuel Orton, an American physician, studied reading difficul-
ties in children during the early 1900s. He hypothesized that these
children had failed to establish the cerebral organization necessary to
associate visual words with their spoken forms. Orton also observed
that the children tended to reverse letters and be ambidextrous—
having equal ability in both hands—or have mixed-handedness, which
involves using one hand for some tasks and the other hand for other
tasks. This observation led him to hypothesize that left and right brain
functions were not properly integrated. Orton developed the concept
of “multisensory” teaching that integrated kinesthetic (movement-
based) and tactile (based on touch and other senses) learning strategies
with the teaching of visual and auditory concepts. Along the same
lines, psychiatrist Grace Fernard’s kinesthetic approach involved trac-
ing words while saying the names and sounds of the letters. Orton and
psychologist Anna Gillingham developed the “Orton-Gillingham”
teaching method, which teaches in a systematic and multisensory way
the sound structure of language. This method is still the basis of the
most prevalent forms of teaching intended to correct dyslexia.
Another disability that affects learning is attention deficit hyperac-
tivity disorder (ADHD). The first clinical description of ADHD was
reported in 1902 by British physician George Still. He noticed that
some of his young patients were impulsive and hyperactive, had limited
attention spans, and suffered from mood swings. It was theorized that
the behavior was caused by minimal brain damage, later modified to
minimal brain dysfunction (MBD) as the condition appeared to exist
without known brain damage. Hyperactive Child Syndrome also was
a term used to refer to the condition. During the 1970s, the work of
Canadian researcher Virginia Douglas suggested attention deficit, rather
than hyperactivity, was of greater significance in the syndrome. The
1980 edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM III ) defined
and named the disorder ADD. However, in 1987, DSM III replaced
ADD with ADHD, the term used today, and divided it into three types:
Predominantly Inattentive Type, Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive
Type, and Combined Type (having symptoms of both types).

8 Disabilities Affecting Learning

 Much controversy has developed over the very diagnosis of ADHD.
Critics have complained that the criteria for diagnosing ADHD are so
vague that many children with persistent unwanted behaviors may be
classified as having ADHD. This skepticism is increased by uncertainty
regarding the cause of ADHD. ADHD tends to run in families, indicat-
ing a genetic component. Some evidence indicates that differences exist
between the brains of persons with ADHD and those without the condi-
tion. Also, controversy exists over how to treat ADHD. Options include
medications, behavior-changing therapies, and educational interventions.
Like ADHD, autism has attracted tremendous media attention and
has sparked controversy over issues like diagnosis and treatment. The
word “autism” was coined by Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler in 1908
to refer to schizophrenic patients who appeared disconnected and self-
absorbed. In 1943 the American child psychiatrist Leo Kanner described
as autistic children demonstrating what he termed “autistic aloneness”
and “insistence on sameness,” characteristics still regarded as typical of
the range of disorders now known as autism spectrum disorders (ASD).
In 1944 Austrian physician Hans Asperger (later to have an ASD named
after him) described affected children as autistic psychopaths.
Starting in the late 1960s, autism was established as a separate syn-
drome, distinguished from mental retardation and schizophrenia and
from other developmental disorders. Research also demonstrated that
there were benefits to involving parents of autistic children in active
programs of therapy. By the 1980s, many researchers were convinced
that ASD grows out of neurological disturbances. Research also made
clear that autistic children ranged from severely disabled to highly
intelligent but eccentric. The Autism Society of America has stated
that “just as there is no one symptom or behavior that identifies indi-
viduals with ASD, there is no single treatment that will be effective for
all people on the spectrum.” To varying degrees, however, individuals
can learn to function and even thrive within the confines of ASD.
The articles in Introducing Issues with Opposing Viewpoints:
Disabilities Affecting Learning reflect disagreement about the extent,
cause, and treatment of various disabilities that have an impact on
learning. However, most can agree that the isolation experienced by
those with these disabilities can be acute. Medicine and social sci-
ences have made great strides in reducing that isolation, though most
experts acknowledge that much more can still be accomplished.

Introduction 9
Chapter 1
Are Disabilities Affecting
Learning a Serious
Problem?
How best to diagnose and treat
learning disabilities that include
dyslexia and autism has been the
subject of much discussion in the
last thirty years.
 Viewpoint Dyslexia Is
1 a Serious
Problem
E. Ruth Wesby
“Difficulties E. Ruth Wesby argues in this viewpoint
such as that many dyslexic students are not eval-
uated or given the proper programs they
dyslexia affect need to learn to read. Undiagnosed dyslex-
20 percent ia, she argues, affects learning throughout
a child’s educational career, because read-
of the U.S. ing is the foundation of effective learning.
Early detection and intervention, she says,
population— is crucial in addressing the serious problem
or one in of dyslexia. Wesby is a former teacher in
Cleveland, Ohio.
five.”

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to the author, what type of deficit causes dyslexia?
2. What is the intelligence level of children with dyslexia, accord-
ing to Wesby?
3. How is poor reading related to school suspensions and expul-
sions, in Wesby’s view?

E. Ruth Wesby, “Dyslexia: Serious Reading Problem Goes Undiagnosed, Victims Neglected,” Call and
Post (Cleveland), vol. 89, February 10, 2005, p. 2B. Copyright © 2005 by King Media Enterprises, Inc.
Reproduced by permission.

Are Disabilities Affecting Learning a Serious Problem? 11

 R
eading is the heart of the educational system in our nation’s
schools. Much time, effort and expertise are given to reading,
yet, far too many children are not learning to read.
Can it be that we have forgotten the varied pathways learners take
in being taught to read? Can it be we have failed to identify the stu-
dents who take the path “less traveled” in learning to read? When
thoughts of the dyslexic learners come to mind, the answer can very
well be a resounding “yes.”

Dyslexic Students Are Not Served

In our nation’s schools, the curriculum is geared to those who handle
the language, both oral and written expression, in the normal manner
with ease. For the readers discovering that words are challenging and
hard work, and for those who require a different course in expressing
the language, there is neglect.
The dyslexic reader is the student whose path to learning how
to read is different. Dyslexia, a language-based learning disability,
remains undiagnosed and unaddressed.
But, success starts with reading! When children become good read-
ers in their early years, they are more likely to become better learn-
ers throughout their school years
and beyond. Studies from Yale
University indicate that difficul-
F ast act F ties such as dyslexia affect 20 per-
cent of the U.S. population—or
As many as 15 percent of one in five.
American students may be
In busy classrooms where there
dyslexic.
are children with dyslexia, tradi-
tional programs are not always
effective for the dyslexic student,
particularly where there is no evaluation. Students with dyslexia need
special programs to learn to read, to write, to speak and to spell.
Certain behaviors are missed when instructors do not recognize
dyslexia.

Phonological Deficit
The dyslexic child is one who has a phonological deficit. The child
does not hear the letter sounds. Hearing the sounds of letters is a

12 Disabilities Affecting Learning

Dyslexic children have difficulty hearing letter sounds and require special instruction in
phonetics from speech therapists.

must. The letter sound system is critical in reading. The reader must
convert the letters into sounds, or phonetics, and decode. These are
two major components of reading. The dyslexic reader requires spe-
cialized instruction in order to overcome the deficit.
Dyslexia describes a different kind of mind, often gifted and pro-
ductive. The gap exists between aptitude and achievement in schools.
Dyslexic readers have normal to high intelligence. Contrary to beliefs,
dyslexic readers are not “lazy, stupid or dumb.” They do not read
“backwards.”
Dyslexia has no boundaries. It occurs among all groups, regardless
of age, race, gender or income.

Detection and Early Intervention

Educators must respect research. Although dyslexia is genetically
influenced, having dyslexia does not spell biological failure. Early

Are Disabilities Affecting Learning a Serious Problem? 13

 detection and intervention must take place. Symptoms must be noted
and acted upon.
Congress has criticized the Special Education Sector for not
replicating research practices. Placing dyslexic children in special
needs classes without certified teachers who are trained in the
specialized instructional methodology certainly compounds the
reading problems. Language deficiency is the root of most learn-
ing disabilities.
In communication with educational leadership and legislators in
our state of Ohio, persons to whom we entrust the education of our
children, the writer has found to date no plan or action for meeting
the needs of the dyslexic child. The reading problem continues to
remain invisible, therefore, undiagnosed and unaddressed.
Instructors of reading can be trained and certified through staff
development. Curriculum material on dyslexia should be a part of
Media resource centers in the schools. Information is vital for educa-
tors to become informed of the reading disorder.
The approach to language acquisition requires a multi-sensory struc-
ture, or a systematic approach in language instruction. Instruction
which is multi-sensory employs all pathways of learning at the same
time—seeing, hearing, touching, writing and speaking. The method
is a way of teaching the code of the written language in a direct and
explicit manner. Bit by bit the code is taught sequentially and the
focus is on teaching the rules of the written language, so that conver-
sion of the letters into sounds or phonemes can be acquired by the
child with dyslexia.

Poor Reading Can Lead to Behavior Problems

The poor reader is over-represented in school suspensions and expul-
sion in the juvenile system. The shame of not learning to read as well
as their peers drives them to high risks, and inappropriate behaviors,
according to a Harvard University study in 2002, “On Race, Inequity
in Special Education—A Shocking Trend in Our Nation’s Public
Schools.”
In 1998, approximately 1.5 million minority children were identi-
fied as having mental retardation, emotional disturbance or a specific

14 Disabilities Affecting Learning

learning disability. The most distinguishable group, the dyslexic child,
had language deficiencies as the root of the problem. Attempts to
teach the children in the traditional way failed the dyslexic reader.
They are underserved without specialized instruction and specialized
methodology.
The National Association for the Education of African-American
Children With Learning Disabilities Advocates “One Child at a Time.”

Reading Is a Gift
Finally, we must remember that reading is a gift of humanity. Great
pleasure is derived from the decoding of man’s invention. The history
of the English language is a fascinating study for all who love words.
Those who have the powerful tools of reading must help those for
whom the processing and using of words of our language is difficult.
All children have a desire to read. Observe the kindergartners as
they imitate a true reader.
Dyslexia, may I repeat, though genetically influenced, does not
spell biological failure. The failure lies with our educators, leadership

Dyslexia Is Widespread
 and legislators, whose attitudes and policies toward inclusion of all
children in the reading curriculum are abominable.
We cannot afford the continuous lack of vision. No child, dyslexic
or otherwise, should “fall through the cracks.” Dyslexia can be over-
come with science based instruction methods.

EVALUATING THE AUTHOR’S

ARGUMENTS:
After reading this viewpoint, what steps do you think
the author would recommend to address the problem of
dyslexia in schools?

16 Disabilities Affecting Learning

 Viewpoint Dyslexia
2 Is Widely
Misunderstood
“Dyslexia
David Mills
carries so
many wrong In the following viewpoint David Mills
argues that dyslexia is misunderstood by
associations, many people. Most of those labeled dyslex-
and is ic, he asserts, are not significantly different
from younger children who read at the same
understood level. The scientific consensus indicates that
in so many the common understanding of dyslexia is
erroneous. The term “dyslexia,” he says,
different ways can be defined in so many ways that there
. . . that it is major disagreement about how or even
whether the term should be used. Mills is
serves no useful a producer for Great Britain’s Channel 4
scientific or Dispatches program, for which he produced
therapeutic the documentary The Dyslexia Myth.

purpose.”

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to Mills, how many initiatives has the British gov-
ernment introduced in primary schools?
2. In the author’s view, what would happen if we tried to com-
pletely cease using the term dyslexia?
3. What would be the result, in Mills’s view, if we used the term
dyslexia to describe all children who have trouble reading due to
phonological problems?

David Mills, “The Dyslexia Myth,” Channel4.com, 2005. Copyright © 2005 Mills Productions Ltd.
Reproduced by permission by author.

Are Disabilities Affecting Learning a Serious Problem? 17

 A
s a current affairs producer, every story you tell brings surpris-
es. No story I have ever been involved with before though has
produced as many eye-openers as the Channel 4 Dispatches
programme The Dyslexia Myth.
There were numerous small revelations: ranging from the discov-
ery that dyslexic children do not reverse their letters any more than
younger children reading at the same level, to the discovery that the
Government has so far introduced no fewer than 650 different initia-
tives in primary schools.
Then there were even more dramatic discoveries: poor readers with
high IQs, usually seen as dyslexic, respond in exactly the same way to
help with their reading as poor readers with low IQs who are rarely
labelled as dyslexic.

Experts Agree Dyslexia Is a Myth

The biggest shock was that the ‘dyslexia myth’ story which sounded
so controversial when I first started the research, turned out not to be
controversial at all to the experts. The idea that the common under-
standing of dyslexia is a myth was startling when I first heard it. Yet
I found it was a view shared by every academic that I talked to. The
scientific consensus about it is overwhelming.
This poses two questions, both of which trouble me still, even
though we did not deal with them in the documentary. I am raising
them here in more detail. The first question is why has the story not
been reported before? The second is what is the future of the term
dyslexia?

An Underreported Story
The expert knowledge that the popular understanding of dyslexia [is]
a ‘myth’, has been around for at least ten years. The research findings,
taken collectively, are devastating. Yet they have never been properly
reported to the public. Perhaps the reason for this is the inadequacy
of the journalistic profession.
Or perhaps it reflects a bigger problem: a natural reluctance on the
part of researchers to simplify and popularise the findings of other
investigators. Although academics understand the big picture, few feel
comfortable about dragging together all the different research findings

18 Disabilities Affecting Learning

 Many Entrepreneurs in the United States
and England Have Dyslexia

about a complex subject, simplifying them and putting them together

to provide a simple overview. Academics are rated on their ability to
come up with their own findings, not on how effective they are at
popularising other people’s research.

Defining Dyslexia
The question of how dyslexia could be defined generated a lot of
controversy in the run up to the documentary. The reason we did
not deal with it in the documentary is that there is simply too much
disagreement about it. There are at least five major views about the
future use of the term ‘dyslexia’:
View 1: The term dyslexia should be dropped completely. It is said
that dyslexia carries so many wrong associations, and is understood
in so many different ways by so many different people, that it serves

Are Disabilities Affecting Learning a Serious Problem? 19

 no useful scientific or therapeutic purpose. It should be replaced by
‘reading problems’ or in more severe cases ‘reading disability’.
I have a lot of sympathy with this view. As a journalist I like to
know what words mean. There are problems though. The term dys-
lexia is so ingrained that a lot of people would still go on using it.
There is also the fact that ‘dyslexia’ is a handy term for those trying
to focus attention on the needs of those with reading problems.
View 2: ‘Dyslexia’ can be redefined to describe all children who find it
difficult learning to read because of phonological problems. This would
provide a clear definition which would identify children who have
a sufficient problem detecting the smallest sounds in words which
make learning to read difficult. It would thus identify children who
will need additional tuition in a small group or even one-to-one help.
This could result in labelling up to one fifth of children as ‘dys-
lexic’. Do we really want to suggest that so many children are in some
way ‘disabled’? Given that so many children have problems learning
to read, we should look upon difficulty in learning to read as an
entirely normal experience for quite a lot of children.
View 3: ‘Dyslexia’ should only be
used to describe children with the
F ast act F severest problems. These children
will need not only small group
An academic researcher teaching but also often skilled
has identified twenty-eight one to one assistance to overcome
different definitions of their problem.
dyslexia. Such a definition has the merit
that it would help institutions like
the Dyslexia Institute focus atten-
tion on such children. Yet it would still label children as dyslexic who,
with the right teaching at school, will learn to read perfectly well. It
may also suffer from the difficulty of arriving at a cut off point. So
on one side of this line a child would be labelled dyslexic, while on
the other, a very similar child would not be.
View 4: ‘Dyslexia’ should be used only for the 1–2 per cent of children
with a long-term reading problem who do not respond to the best school
teaching currently possible. There is no doubt that these children need
far more help than individual schools can provide, including diag-
nostic tests and long term support.

20 Disabilities Affecting Learning

 This view is supported by many leading researchers. It would mean
that ‘dyslexia’ defines a clear group of children who are significantly
disabled and for whom special help is both needed and justified.
View 5: ‘Dyslexia’ should no longer be really associated with reading
problems nor defined in relation to reading. The argument is that there
is a pattern disability, much wider than mere reading problems, which
can be used to define who is, and who is not dyslexic.
The problem is that, as far as I am aware, there is precious little
agreement on whether such a pattern exists or if it does exist, how at
present it might be defined. There are indications that some adults
who have suffered long-term reading disability do often share other
problems, such as poor memory or poor organisational skills, but
The author of this viewpoint contends that only children with severe reading problems
should be labeled dyslexic and receive special instruction in school.
 whether this could be used to redefine dyslexia seems, on the evidence,
problematic.
So what do I think after all the research that I have done? I am
tempted by the definition in View 3, that dyslexia should be used
to define children with the severest problems. However in the end
I think I would come down in favour of View 4, reserving the term
‘dyslexia’ for the 1–2 per cent of children whose problems, on present
evidence, are unlikely to be resolved by even the latest ‘state of the art’
school teaching. It would be a rigorous definition and focus attention
on those who suffer most. They need all the help we can give them.

EVALUATING THE AUTHORS’

ARGUMENTS:
Can this viewpoint, which asserts that experts agree that
dyslexia is a myth, be reconciled with the previous view-
point that dyslexia is a serious problem? On what points
are the authors in agreement? Are their disagreements a
matter of how the term “dyslexia” is used?

22 Disabilities Affecting Learning

 Viewpoint Attention
3 Deficit
Hyperactivity
Disorder Is
a Serious
“ADHD is Problem
a serious
PR Newswire Contributor
medical
In this viewpoint by PR Newswire con-
condition tributor, Shire Pharmaceuticals Group,
causing the author argues that attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) not only
significant, affects quality of life but also costs billions
life-long of dollars every year. Though many associ-
ate ADHD with childhood problems, the
impairments.” effects of the disorder, says the author, con-
tinue well into adulthood. ADHD results
in significantly less educational attainment,
which, argues the author, lowers income.
People with ADHD change jobs more fre-
quently, miss more days of work, and are
not able to work to full capacity. Shire is a
global specialty pharmaceutical company.

PR Newswire Contributor, “$77 Billion in Lost Income Is Attributed to Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity

Disorder (ADHD) Annually in the U.S.,” PR Newswire, May 23, 2005. Reproduced by permission.

Are Disabilities Affecting Learning a Serious Problem? 23

 As you read, consider the following questions:
1. According to the author, what is the average loss of household
income per adult with ADHD?
2. According to the author, how does the percentage of persons
with ADHD who fail to graduate from high school compare
with nongraduates without ADHD?
3. How do levels of stress and depression of adults with ADHD
compare to those without it?

U
.S. household income losses due to attention-deficit/hyper-
activity disorder (ADHD) total nearly $77 billion each year,
according to a new analysis of the national large-scale survey,
“Capturing America’s Attention,” presented [May 23, 2005] at the
American Psychiatric Association (APA) annual meeting in Atlanta.
“ADHD, a life-long disorder, may be one of the costliest medi-
cal conditions in the United States,” said Joseph Biederman, M.D.,
Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School and Chief of Pediatric
Psychopharmacology at Massachusetts General Hospital. “The same
ADHD symptoms that may cause young patients to perform poorly
in school or miss classes may also cause these patients, as adults, to lose
a significant amount of income each year. The compelling results of
this survey show that ADHD is a serious medical condition causing
significant, life-long impairments. Evaluating, diagnosing and treat-
ing this condition may not only improve the quality of life, but may
save adults with ADHD billions of dollars every year.”

ADHD Causes Income Loss

Biederman and his colleagues found that adults with ADHD have a
lower educational attainment and achievement than healthy adults—
factors that not only significantly impact employment rates and
income, but cause difficulties in the workplace as well. But even when
the investigators accounted for educational attainment and achieve-
ment, they found the average loss of household income per adult with
ADHD ranged from $8,900 to $15,400 per year, depending on the
econometric model used.
Over eight million adult Americans, or 4.3 percent of working-age
adults, struggle with the inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity of

24 Disabilities Affecting Learning

ADHD. With this large-scale survey, researchers examined a weight-
ed sample of 500 ADHD adults and 501 gender- and age-matched
healthy adults that reflect the general U.S. population. They also
accounted for personal and family characteristics, including character-
istics closely tied to ADHD status, to arrive at the estimate of yearly
household income losses due to the condition.
Barbara Eddy, an ADHD sufferer and working mom, like most people with ADHD, has
a difficult time balancing work and family life and is susceptible to having “lost days.”

Are Disabilities Affecting Learning a Serious Problem? 25

 Adult ADHD Rates in Selected Countries

Nearly a quarter of the U.S. workforce (28 million workers ages 18

to 54) experience a mental disorder, according to a 2002 study by the
University of Michigan. Employers are now starting to provide ser-
vices that could be helpful to affected families including flexible work
hours, family leave arrangements and childcare assistance, according
to Dr. Biederman. Most employers offer employee assistance pro-
grams primarily targeted to helping employees deal with psychological
issues, or work/life programs that focus on balancing work and family
responsibilities.

ADHD Lowers Educational Attainment

According to the “Capturing America’s Attention” survey results,
adults with ADHD reported lower educational achievement and were
less likely to be high school or college graduates. Higher education
is associated with an expected higher income, and also is associated
with higher rates of full-time employment. However, approximate-

26 Disabilities Affecting Learning

ly 17 percent of the adults surveyed with ADHD did not graduate
from high school, compared to 7 percent of those without ADHD.
Similarly, just 19 percent of the adults with ADHD graduated from
college compared to 25 percent of the adults without ADHD.

ADHD Reduces Employment, Increases Lost Days

In the survey, adults with ADHD had more jobs during the last 10
years, averaging 5.4 jobs compared to adults without ADHD, who
had 3.4 jobs. Of those surveyed, only 52 percent of the adults with
ADHD were currently employed, compared to 72 percent of the
adults surveyed without ADHD. Among adults with ADHD who
were currently employed and had more than one job in the last 10
years, 43 percent reported that they lost or left one or more of those
jobs in some part because of their ADHD symptoms.
ADHD adults in the survey were three times more likely to suffer
from stress, depression or other problems with emotion. These emotion-
al and physical effects can cause
people with ADHD to “lose” days
of their lives, Biederman explains.
“Lost days” may manifest as a day F ast act F
absent from work or several times According to a 2008 study,
throughout the month when the adults with ADHD work
person is not fully engaged both twenty-two fewer days per
physically and emotionally. About year than do their cowork-
one in four (24 percent) adults ers without ADHD.
with ADHD said that on 11 days
per month, on average, they were
prevented from normal activities such as work, due to poor mental or
physical health, compared to only nine percent of the adults without
ADHD.
The “Capturing America’s Attention” survey was conducted among
more than 1,000 adults aged 18 and older by Roper Public Affairs
(formerly Roper ASW) via telephone interviews. The sample list was
comprised of households where it was indicated in a health profile
survey that there was a member in residence, at least 18 years of age
or more, who had been diagnosed with ADHD. Shire US Inc. sup-
ported this survey.

Are Disabilities Affecting Learning a Serious Problem? 27

 ADHD Continues into Adulthood
Although many people tend to think of ADHD as a childhood
problem, up to 65 percent of children with ADHD may still exhibit
symptoms into adulthood, according to the National Institute of
Mental Health. Although there is no cure for ADHD, physicians and
advocates are finding ways to help people with the condition learn to
adapt to their school, home, social and work settings. ADHD usually
can be successfully managed with a combination of treatments, such
as medication and structured coping techniques. Psychostimulants,
medications that stimulate areas of the brain that control attention,
impulses, and self-regulation of behavior, remain among the most
successful treatments for people with ADHD. In fact, at least 70
percent of children with ADHD respond positively to psychostimu-
lants. Medication should be considered part of an overall multi-modal
treatment plan for ADHD.

EVALUATING THE AUTHOR’S

ARGUMENTS:
This viewpoint was written by a pharmaceutical company
that produces medications used to treat ADHD. How does
that affect your assessment of the author’s argument?

28 Disabilities Affecting Learning

 Viewpoint Attention
4 Deficit
Hyperactivity
Disorder Is a
Myth
“The Fred A. Baughman Jr. and
Craig Hovey
diagnostic
criteria Fred A. Baughman Jr. and Craig Hovey
argue in this viewpoint that attention defi-
for ADHD cit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) catego-
. . . are rizes normal childhood behavior as a dis-
ease to be combated by drugging children
comprised to make them more submissive. According
to the authors, the concept of “minimal
of normal brain dysfunction,” which evolved into
childhood ADHD, is completely unscientific, and the
criteria for diagnosing ADHD are far too
behaviors.” broad. Parents have been misled by diag-
noses of ADHD, they argue, as ADHD
has no biological basis. Drugs like Ritalin,
they say, are simply chemical restraints
and schools have become drug pushers.
Baughman is a neurologist for adults and
children, and Hovey is a writer and eco-
nomics teacher.

Fred A. Baughman Jr. and Craig Hovey, The ADHD Fraud: How Psychiatry Makes “Patients” of Normal
Children, El Cajon, CA: Trafford Publishing, 2006. Copyright © 2006 Fred Baughman. Reproduced by
permission of the authors.

Are Disabilities Affecting Learning a Serious Problem? 29

 As you read, consider the following questions:
1. According to the authors, what are the real reasons that children
are forced to take drugs for ADHD?
2. Why did the FDA ban the diagnosis of minimal brain dysfunc-
tion in 1979?
3. According to figures cited by the authors, how many children
today are being given Ritalin and other amphetamines to con-
trol behavior?

T
he discovery that amphetamines could be used to alter the
behavior of children was made by accident in 1937. Charles
Bradley was a physician at the Emma Pendleton Bradley
Home in Rhode Island, a residential treatment center for children
diagnosed with behavioral and neurological disorders. He observed the
“calming” effect of stimulants on children when he gave Benzedrine
(trademark for amphetamine) to a group of 30 children in order to
treat headaches that resulted from spinal taps they were given. The
Benzedrine did not do anything for the headaches, but it did make
the children less active and more compliant, in a fashion he called
“spectacular.”

Drugging Unruly Children

In a chilling preview of the epidemic to come, he reported, “to see a
single dose of Benzedrine produce a greater improvement in school
performance than the combined efforts of a capable staff working in
a most favorable setting, would have been all but demoralizing to the
teachers had not the improvement been so gratifying from a practi-
cal viewpoint.” In the years that followed, this anecdotal observation
that stimulants have this effect was further reinforced and sparked
the manufacture of both more drugs and the rationales necessary to
justify giving them to troublesome children everywhere.
Nobody is going to come out and say that children should be forced
to take speed and drugged into submission for the real reasons—it
makes dealing with unruly children easier and a hugely profitable
market exists for anything that can accomplish that feat. A diagnosible
abnormality needed to be invented in order to provide the appear-
ance of legitimate “treatment” being rendered in their best interests.

30 Disabilities Affecting Learning

 When Bradley further stated that, “It appears paradoxical that a
drug known to be a stimulant should produce subdued behavior,”
he gave seed to the root of a misconception that continues to persist
today, namely, that stimulants given to children labeled as ADHD
affects them differently than normal people. The hope was that this
would be so because a different reaction to the drugs could be used
to help support the notion that there really was something wrong
with the brains of ADHD labeled children that did not occur in the
heads of normal kids. As further study revealed, however, these drugs
have the same impact on just about anybody who gets them. The idea
that something paradoxical was going on came from the fact that the
“low” doses of amphetamines given to children increased their abil-
ity to focus on repetitive tasks and be compliant, just as happens to
adults. It is at higher dosage levels that the effects more commonly
associated with amphetamines (speed) occur.
In 1950 Dr. Bradley did another study with children, using
Benzedrine (amphetamine) and Dexedrine (dextro-amphetamine).
Of the 275 children given these, he reported between 60% and 70%
to be much improved while on the drugs. Much improved meaning,
as it does today, that their behavior became more appealing accord-
ing to adult standards while under the influence of addictive drugs.

“Minimal Brain Dysfunction” Is an Unscientific Diagnosis

The best known of the stimulants given to children, methylphenidate
(Ritalin), was synthesized by Ciba (a pharmaceutical company that
later morphed into Novartis) in 1944, with its pharmacology described
in 1954. In his excellent book, The Creation of Psychopharmacology,
David Healy, M.D., tells us, “Later Leon Eisenberg used Ritalin in
the first randomized controlled trial involving children, to test its
effects on hyperactive states. It was effective and its effectiveness led
to the acceptance of the concept of minimal brain dysfunction, which
in 1980 in DSM-III became attention deficit disorder (ADD). Since
then a growing, almost epidemic, use of Ritalin to treat this condition
has become headline news.”
Note the extremely important point made above by Healy; it was
the drug’s effectiveness that led to the acceptance of minimal brain
dysfunction, the parent to ADD and ADHD. The fact that Ritalin
worked in the same way on a particular group of children as it would

Are Disabilities Affecting Learning a Serious Problem? 31

 Drug Medication for ADHD Is Skyrocketing

on anybody was used to promote a diagnosis targeted at specific

groups of (normal) children it claimed, as proponents of ADHD
do today, had malfunctioning brains, as evidenced by their response
to drug treatment. Is this just bad reasoning? Or was a deliberately
deceitful strategy hatched to create patients and drug consumers
where none should have existed?
The earliest precursor of ADHD came in the early 1900s when
children who were unusually active, impulsive, or rebellious, might
be diagnosed as having minimal brain damage, a term coined by Dr.
George Still. The idea was that since brain damage can cause changes
in behavior these children may have suffered some kind of assault on
their brains. Indeed, a variety of conditions that damage the brain are
associated with difficulties in attention and heightened activity levels,

32 Disabilities Affecting Learning

such as fetal alcohol syndrome or lead poisoning, but there is no mean-
ingful correlation between known brain injuries or diseases in children
and the inability to pay attention, sit still, or regulate one’s impulses.
The minimal brain dysfunction label that came after Eisenberg’s
study of Ritalin removed the assumption of an injury to the brain
and replaced it with the notion that something in the heads of these
children was amiss, their brains somehow misfiring due to an abnor-
mality they were born with, though nobody ever figured out what, or
exactly where in the brain, it was. It was pure speculation with never
a shred of scientific evidence to back it up. Hyperkinetic reaction
was another label used in the 50s and 60s, though it never specified
what was being reacted to and was simply a label for an active child
in whom nothing verifiably wrong had been found.

ADD Is Typical Childhood Behavior

In 1979 the Food and Drug Administration ordered that minimal
brain dysfunction be eliminated as a diagnostic term. They banished
it because MBD was unscientific (had no grounding in facts). With
symptoms of it no different than normal childhood behaviors, the
diagnosis was rightly banished. Unfortunately, one bad idea was
replaced by a worse idea, the creation of ADD, still completely unsci-
entific but said to be an improvement because its diagnostic criteria
were expanded and seemingly more specific. What this really did,
however, was make it possible to include even more typical childhood
behaviors under the diagnostic umbrella so that millions of normal
children could be diagnosed and billions of dollars could be made off
needlessly drugging them.
During the days of minimal brain dysfunction and hyperkinetic
reaction the fields of psychology and psychiatry generally regarded
children’s problems as stemming from their environments, primarily
as the result of faulty parenting. No matter what emotional or behav-
ioral problems beset a person, so the reasoning went, the cause could
be found in something that had gone wrong, or was going wrong, in
childhood. Individuals were regarded as being in possession of natu-
rally healthy brains, with rare exceptions of those with conspicuous
brain damage, and only experienced psychological difficulties as the
result of unhealthy experiences.

Are Disabilities Affecting Learning a Serious Problem? 33

 The authors of the viewpoint argue that today’s doctors have been too eager to prescribe the
drug Ritalin to treat children with deficit disorders.

Speculation About the Brain

In this kind of climate, viewing the behavioral problems of a child
as being the result of defects within his own brain was a rare thing,
which is why relatively few children were diagnosed with minimal
brain dysfunction, or given behavior-modifying drugs. Things began
to change late in the 60s, with a major shift obvious by the beginning
of the 80s. Increasingly, psychiatry became a discipline where behav-
ioral problems were seen as having biological rather than environmen-
tal roots, even though no proofs were ever produced for this shift in
thinking. Now chemical imbalances and other forms of neurological
abnormalities became the fashionable explanations. The contradiction
right from the beginning was that, even though psychiatry increas-
ingly claimed a biological basis for behavioral disorders, the discipline
never produced any biological evidence to support its contentions.
On one hand, psychiatry claims to be scientific, but on the other it
has never produced evidence that passes scientific muster. What psy-
chiatry has is a set of unsupported assumptions we are told to accept

34 Disabilities Affecting Learning

on faith, until the always-promised proof is discovered. In effect we
are told to wait, like Charlie Brown sitting through the night in hopes
of the Great Pumpkin’s arrival.
Along with a different outlook on behavioral causes, in the past there
was more understanding and tolerance for the normal range of child-
hood behaviors. Children vary greatly in interests, abilities, talents,
and behavioral styles and this was commonly known and understood,
as it is today when we choose to be reasonable about it. In the years
since, with all the talk of diversity and the acceptance of differences
among individuals, the tolerance for differences in how children act
has plummeted. It used to be that the child who did poorly academi-
cally was understood to be somebody who would excel in other areas,
where things like physical talent, creativity, personal skills, and the
ability to switch gears quickly were called for, not the ability to sit still
and obey directives.

Schools Become Drug Pushers

In 1961 Ritalin was approved by the Food and Drug Administration
for use in children and remained, by today’s standards, a drug not often
employed, with the number of children taking it in 1970 being approx-
imately 150,000. How did it go
from that relatively low number to
the over 6 million children today
being given Ritalin and a variety Fast act F
of amphetamines? Lots of factors
People diagnosed with
are involved, but the most obvious ADHD who went on to
turning point came when schools become highly success-
began devoting themselves to ful include Paul Orfalea,
identifying candidates for chemi- founder of Kinko’s, and
cal restraint. And, as educators got David Neeleman, founder
better at it, psychiatry joined in by of JetBlue Airways.
broadening the diagnostic criteria
to the point where almost any
child could be targeted for behavior modifying drugs. Along with them,
pharmaceutical companies were quick to catch on to the huge market
for stimulant drugs and went to great lengths to market the “disease”
and their treatments for it. In speaking of pharmaceutical companies,

Are Disabilities Affecting Learning a Serious Problem? 35

 Dr. Healy points out that they have gone from barely existing prior
to World War II to become “. . . giant corporations and the darlings
of Wall Street . . . a medico-pharmaceutical complex that appears to
have gradually shifted from discovering treatments for major diseases
to medicalizing aspects of the human condition. We live in a Brave
New World which is shaped not just by new drugs created in company
laboratories, but by an almost Orwellian capacity to control the flow
of information.”

Parents Have Been Misled

Since 1970, parents have been flooded by misinformation from their
schools, psychiatry, ADHD support groups, and the pharmaceutical
companies, all telling them that even small deviations from narrow
standards of behavior are evidence of a disease within the child, when
none are—not a single one. Parents are also told these drugs are mild,
safe, and effective. Of the two, the “disease” lie is absolute, in and of
itself, abrogating the patient’s right to informed consent.
It is interesting to note that as the definitions of, and criteria for
MBD, ADD, and ADHD, were changed over the years, they became
broader instead of more specific. How much of this was driven by
the expanding knowledge of the impact of stimulants on children’s
behavior? Need one be paranoid to suspect that the diagnosis was
broadened to accommodate a treatment that would “work” across
the board?

ADHD Diagnosis Is Too Broad

Normally, as a condition is studied and more is learned about it,
the diagnostic signs (signs=objective abnormalities) are narrowed
down to a specific set of objective criteria that can be reliably applied.
With ADHD the opposite happened, with more and more behaviors
thrown into this free-for-all stew so that now it has become possible
to pretty much drug any child who is not behaving or performing
precisely as those with power over him want.
In their excellent book, Coping with Children’s Temperament,
William Carey, M.D., and Sean McDevitt, Ph.D., go into some of
the problems with the ADHD label, saying “. . . our view is that the
term ADHD is commonly used in the United States today to refer to

36 Disabilities Affecting Learning

an oversimplified grouping of a complex and variable set of normal
but incompatible temperament variations, disabilities in cognition,
problems in school function and behavior, and sometimes neurologi-
cal immaturities. We believe that many different conditions are being
called by this one name.” If there is ever to be a legitimate label to
denote a problem with attention, activity, or impulsivity, it will have
to be much more specific and refer to a physical abnormality that can
be identified objectively. This, after all, is the definition of disease.

ADHD Is Not a Disease

Carey and McDevitt talk about “when” ADHD is identified. But,
precisely because the diagnostic criteria for ADHD . . ., are com-
prised of normal childhood behaviors, we see no reason for this opti-
mism. If any true disease were to be discovered and verified that
interferes with a child’s ability to pay attention, control her activity
levels, or reign in her impulsivity, it will have a scientific basis and
objective means of identification. However, the American Psychiatric
Association’s DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) process of
cobbling together subjective symptoms, voting on them, and calling
them “diseases,” bears no resemblance to the discovery of unique,
new abnormalities (abnormality = disease) by observant physicians,
and will never validate ADHD or any other psychiatric “disorder” as
an actual disease.

EVALUATING THE AUTHORS’

ARGUMENTS:
The author of the previous viewpoint recommended the
prescription of medication to minimize the symptoms of
ADHD; the authors of this viewpoint condemn the prac-
tice of medicating children for what they consider normal
behaviors. Which argument do you find more persuasive?
Cite examples from the texts to support your answer.

Are Disabilities Affecting Learning a Serious Problem? 37

 Viewpoint Autism Is
5 a Serious
Problem
Chris E
In the following viewpoint Chris Emery
asserts that autism is a serious problem.
Children who suffer from autism, he
writes, do not perceive and interact with
“This text has been suppressed the world in the way other children do and
due to author restrictions” require special education services. Emery
explains that although parents frequently
notice symptoms of autism early in a child’s
life, a lag occurs between the time autism
appears and the time it is diagnosed. An
earlier diagnosis is important, he argues,
because early treatment is the key to effec-
tively dealing with autism. Emery writes for
the Baltimore Sun.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to the author, in the study of Maryland children,
typically how much time passed between when parents noticed
symptoms of autism and when autism was diagnosed?
2. At what age do many children benefit most from therapies
designed to treat autism?
3. According to experts cited by the author, what behaviors are
associated with autism spectrum disorder?

Chris Emery, “Study Finds High Rate of Autism,” The Baltimore Sun, 2007. Copyright © 2007 The Baltimore
Sun. Used by permission.

38 Disabilities Affecting Learning

 “This text has been suppressed
due to author restrictions”

Increase in Autism Rates, 1992–2006

 “This text has been suppressed
due to author restrictions”

The author argues that autistic children require early diagnoses so that special education
needs can be arranged and instituted.
 Viewpoint Many
6 Factors Have
Contributed
“The recent to the Rise
explosion
of [autism]
in Autism
cases appears Diagnoses
to be mostly
Mike Stobbe
caused by
Mike Stobbe argues in this viewpoint that
a surge autism rates are exaggerated. Rates of autism
in special diagnoses have increased dramatically, but
Stobbe asserts that behaviors now diagnosed
education as autism were just as common thirty or
forty years ago. Broadening the definition
services for of autism, he states, has caused the numbers
autistic to skyrocket. Stobbe claims that the main
reason more children are diagnosed with
children.” autism is because the diagnosis will entitle
them to special education services. Stobbe
writes for the Associated Press.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to the author, what motivates doctors and schools to
diagnose children as having autism?

Mike Stobbe, “Autism Epidemic Largely Fueled by Special Ed Funding and Shift in the Way Children
Diagnosed Analysis,” Capital (Annapolis), November 4, 2007. Copyright © 2007 Associated Press.
Reproduced by permission.

44 Disabilities Affecting Learning

 2. How has the rate of autism diagnosis changed in the last four-
teen years, according to statistics cited by the author?
3. As autism rates have increased, how have rates for diagnoses of
mild mental retardation changed, according to researchers cited
by the author?

A
few decades ago, people probably would have said kids such
as Ryan Massey and Eddie Scheuplein were just odd. Or dif-
ficult.
Both boys are bright. But Ryan, 11, is hyper and prone to angry
outbursts, sometimes trying to strangle another kid in his class who
annoys him. Eddie, 7, has a strange habit of sticking his shirt in his
mouth and sucking on it.
Both were diagnosed with a form of autism. And it’s partly
because of children such as them that autism appears to be sky-
rocketing: In the latest estimate, as many as one in 150 children
have some form of this disorder. Groups advocating more research
money call autism “the fastest-growing developmental disability in
the United States.”
Indeed, doctors are concerned there are even more cases out there,
unrecognized: The American Academy of Pediatrics last week stressed
the importance of screening every kid—twice—for autism by age 2.

Autism Formerly Characterized by Severe Impairments

But many experts believe these unsociable behaviors were just about
as common 30 or 40 years ago. The recent explosion of cases appears
to be mostly caused by a surge in special education services for autistic
children, and by a corresponding shift in what doctors call autism.
Autism has always been diagnosed by making judgments about
a child’s behavior; there are no blood or biologic tests. For decades,
the diagnosis was given only to kids with severe language and social
impairments and unusual, repetitious behaviors.
Many children with severe autism hit themselves or others, don’t
speak and don’t make eye contact. Blake Dees, a 19-year-old from
Suwanee, Ga., falls into that group. For the past eight years, he has
been in a day program with intense services, but he still doesn’t

Are Disabilities Affecting Learning a Serious Problem? 45

 The author of the viewpoint believes that autism rates are exaggerated due to the need to get
special education funding for autism treatment programs.

talk, he’s not toilet-trained, and he has a history of trying to eat

anything—even broken glass.
But he’s not a typical case.

The Autism Umbrella

In the 1990s, the autism umbrella expanded, and autism is now short-
hand for a group of milder, related conditions, known as “autism
spectrum disorders.” The spectrum includes Asperger’s syndrome
and something called PDD-NOS (for Pervasive Developmental
Disorder—Not Otherwise Specified). Some support groups report
more than half of their families fall into these categories, but there is
no commonly accepted scientific breakdown.
Gradually, there have been changes in parents’ own perception of
autism, the autism services schools provide, and the care that insurers
pay for, experts say.
Eddie, of Buford, Ga., was initially diagnosed with obsessive-
compulsive disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and other
conditions. But the services he got in school were not very helpful.

46 Disabilities Affecting Learning

His mother, Michelle, said a diagnosis of autism brought occupa-
tional therapy and other, better services.

Diagnosis Is Given to Get Services

“I do have to admit I almost like the idea of having the autistic label,
at least over the other labels, because there’s more help out there for
you,” said Scheuplein.
“The truth is there’s a powerful incentive for physicians and schools to
classify children in a way that gets services,” said Dr. Edwin Trevathan
of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC].
Many with Asperger’s and PDD-NOS succeed in school and do
not—at first glance—have much in common with children such as
Mr. Dees.
At a recent gathering of families with Asperger’s children in the
Atlanta area, parents told almost comical stories about kids who fre-
quently pick their noses, douse food in ketchup or wear the same
shirt day after day. Such a frank, humorous exchange was once a
rarity. Doctors for many years believed in the “refrigerator mom”
theory, which held that autism was the result of being raised by a cold,
unloving mother. The theory became discredited, but was difficult to
dislodge from the popular conscience.
Even in the early 1980s, some parents were more comfortable
with a diagnosis of mental retardation than autism, said Trevathan,
director of the CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and
Developmental Disabilities. Today, parents are more likely to cringe
at a diagnosis of mental retardation, which is sometimes equated to
a feeble-mindedness and may obscure a child’s potential.

Autism Has Become Culturally Acceptable

And increasingly, professionals frown at the term: The special edu-
cation journal Mental Retardation this year changed its name to
Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities. The editor said that “men-
tally retarded” is becoming passe and demeaning, much as the terms
idiot, imbecile and moron—once used by doctors to describe varying
degrees of mental retardation.
In contrast, autism has become culturally acceptable—and a ticket to
a larger range of school services and accommodations. In 1990, Congress
added the word “autism” as a separate disability category to a federal law

Are Disabilities Affecting Learning a Serious Problem? 47

 that guarantees special education services, and Education Department
regulations have included a separate definition of autism since 1992.
Before that, children with autism were counted under other dis-
abling conditions, such as mental retardation, said Jim Bradshaw, an
education department spokesman.
The Social Security Administration also broadened its definition of
disability to include spectrum disorders, such as Asperger’s.
Something else changed: The development of new stimulants and
other medicines may have encouraged doctors to make diagnoses with
the idea of treating them with these drugs.

Numbers Increase Due to Services Categorization

Perception of the size of the problem changed, too. Fourteen years ago,
only 1 in 10,000 children were diagnosed with it. Prevalence estimates
gradually rose to the current government estimate of one in 150.
That increase has been mirrored in school districts. Gwinnett County
Public Schools—Georgia’s largest school system—had eight classrooms
for teaching autistic youngsters 13 years ago; today there are 180.
Some researchers suggest that as autism spectrum diagnoses have gone
up, diagnoses of mild mental retardation have fallen. U.S. Department
of Education data show that the number of students with autism rose
steadily, from about 42,500 in
1997 to nearly 225,000 in 2006.
Meanwhile, the number of stu-
F ast act F dents counted as mentally retarded
declined from about 603,000 to
A 2004 Australian study
found that 58 percent
about 523,000.
of the doctors surveyed CDC scientists believe edu-
admitted that they have cation numbers are misleading,
been exaggerating the diag- because they reflect only how kids
nosis of autism in children are categorized for services. They
in order to help families say there’s no clear evidence doc-
get access to assistance at tors are substituting one diagnosis
home and in schools. for the other.
Some parents believe environ-
mental factors—ranging from a
preservative in vaccines to contaminants in food or water—may be
important contributors. (The last doses of early childhood vaccines

48 Disabilities Affecting Learning

 Funding for Speech and Language Therapy

containing the preservative thimerosal expired in 2002, although

some children’s flu shots still contain it.)

Some of the Increase Is Real

Dr. Gary Goldstein, scientific adviser to the national advocacy group
Autism Speaks, said the explanation for the rising autism prevalence is
probably complex. Labeling and diagnosing probably play a role, as do
genetics, but he believes the increase surpasses those two explanations.
“I’m seeing more children with autism than I ever would have
expected to see,” said Dr. Goldstein, who is chief executive of the
Kennedy Krieger Institute, a treatment center for pediatric develop-
mental disabilities in Baltimore.
Autism Speaks budgets more than $4 million each year to research
the causes of autism, and about 90 percent of that has gone to genetics

Are Disabilities Affecting Learning a Serious Problem? 49

 research. But organization officials recently have been talking about
changing that mix, and spending as much as 50 percent of that money
on potential environmental triggers, Goldstein said.
Whether it’s because of genes or the environment (or both), autism
has hit the Massey family hard. Chuck and Julia Massey, of Dacula,
Ga., have three sons with Asperger’s.
The youngest, Ryan, was first diagnosed after he was slow to devel-
op speaking ability. His brothers—Trevor, 14, and Morgan, 16—
had learning and behavior problems and were later diagnosed with
Asperger’s, too. All got special education services and were treated with
medications. Morgan has improved, or matured, or both, and is now
a social kid in mainstream classes at a Gwinnett County high school.
Trevor seems to be making the same transition, his mother said.
Ryan is the most extreme. He still has uncontrollable tantrums and
must attend an Asperger’s-only sixth-grade classroom that teaches
social skills along with traditional subjects.
In a recent interview at the family’s home, Ryan acknowledged he
still has anger control issues. One of the three other students in his
class is particularly irritating. Ryan said the way he reacts is by “grab-
bing his throat.”
But on this night, Ryan was calm. He described himself as happy,
and paced the room telling jokes, like a nervous stand-up comedian.
(“Why didn’t the skeleton go to the party? He didn’t have the guts,”
he said, eyes fixed on his audience.)
Having three Asperger’s boys under one roof has at times been very
intense, Mrs. Massey said, noting a replaced dining room window.
Ryan acknowledged it’s been educational living in a house full
of Asperger’s kids. Asked to name something he’s learned from his
brothers, he replied, “Swears.”

EVALUATING THE AUTHORS’

ARGUMENTS:
After reading this article and the one preceding it, which
author do you think best supports his argument regarding
the incidence of autism? Give reasons for your answers.

50 Disabilities Affecting Learning

 Viewpoint Autism
7 Disabilities
Vary Greatly
“Autism Robert Nohle

can be a In the following viewpoint Robert Nohle

explains that the disabilities associated
confusing with autism vary greatly. He contends that
some people with autism are relatively high
diagnosis functioning, while others are severely dis-
because the abled. While the classic form of autism
often includes severe restriction of language
behaviors development, he explains, other types of
and degrees autism, such as Asperger’s syndrome, may
not have any general language delay. The
of disability author states that some types of autism do
not fit into any category. Medications can
can vary treat some of the symptoms of autism and
greatly.” specialists can provide treatment, but there
is no cure for the various types of autism.
Nohle is chief of pediatrics for Seattle-based
Group Health Cooperative.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. By what age is the “classic” form of autism almost always pres-
ent in children who have it?
2. What terms are used to categorize children who do not meet
the criteria of other categories of autism?
3. While children with Asperger’s may have good language skills,
why might they still have trouble communicating, according to
the author?
Robert Nohle, “Degree of Disability Varies Greatly in Autism (Life and Arts),” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, February 1,
2007. Copyright © 2007 Seattle Post-Intelligencer. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of the author.

Are Disabilities Affecting Learning a Serious Problem? 51

T
he word autism conjures up several different images for many
parents. Some might think of Dustin Hoffman’s character in
Rain Man. Others may picture a child continually banging his
head against a wall. Still others may think of an autistic person who
is unexplainably and extraordinarily talented as a musician or artist.

Autism Varies Greatly

Autism can be a confusing diagnosis because the behaviors and degree
of disability can vary greatly. Some people with autism are relatively

Range of Autism Spectrum Disorders

high functioning, with speech and intelligence intact. Others are
mentally retarded, mute, or have serious language delays. Some people
with autism seem closed off and shut down; others seem locked into
repetitive behaviors and rigid patterns of thinking.
Autistic disorder is characterized by impairments in three areas:
communication, socialization and imaginative play.
The “classic” form of autism
most always is present by age 3—
with most children showing signs
between the ages of 15 to 24
months. Classic autism often
Fast act F
Approximately 10 percent
includes severe restriction of lan- of persons with autistic
guage development. disorder also have some
special skills in areas such
Asperger’s Syndrome as math calculations, art,
A more common type of autism, or music.
most often diagnosed in school-age
children, is Asperger’s Syndrome.
Asperger’s shares the same features of autism but to a lesser degree.
Their intelligence typically is average to above average and typically
there is not a general language delay.
The terms “autism spectrum disorder” or “pervasive developmental
disorder not otherwise specified” are used to categorize children who
do not meet the criteria for one of the other categories of autism.
Across the entire autism spectrum, a small percentage of children
have some special skill at a much higher level than the rest of their
abilities—in such fields as art, music, mathematics or memory.
Children with Asperger’s may have good language skills, yet still
have trouble communicating. They don’t always pick up on non-
verbal signs and have trouble reading social cues.
For example, I once was talking with a mom of an 11-year-old child
with Asperger’s. Out of nowhere her child said, “Dr. Nohle, your nose
is sure big.” Whether or not this is the truth (hmmm), it was irrelevant
to what was going on and inappropriate. It is that kind of inappro-
priateness that can make it very hard for children with Asperger’s to
develop friendships.
In fact, often parents will come to me with unspecific concerns
such as their child has problems with relationships, has a strange or

Are Disabilities Affecting Learning a Serious Problem? 53

 Children with Asperger’s syndrome sometimes have good language skills but cannot pick up
on nonverbal communication signs from others and have trouble reading social cues.

narrow range of interests or is just “different.” This type of behavior,

combined with a thorough health history, raises the suspicion of an
Asperger’s diagnosis.

Difference in the Brain Causes Autism

Autism spectrum disorders are the result of biologic or neurologic
differences in the brain; it is not a mental illness. What makes this
especially frustrating for parents is that we are not sure what causes
autism and there is no “cure.” Autism can run in families, so many
researchers think there likely is a genetic element.
We are more sure of what does not cause autism. There is no
known psychological cause. Autism is not caused by post-traumatic
syndrome or stress. There is also no known relationship between
immunizations and autism. I realize that this may be a controversial
statement to some parents.
Parents will bring this up to me, but I have to tell them that immu-
nizations are one of the most studied areas of pediatric medicine. No

54 Disabilities Affecting Learning

link has ever been found, not even remotely, that immunizations—or
mercury previously used in immunizations—causes autism. There
just isn’t the data to support a link.

No Miracle Cure
Once an autistic disorder is diagnosed, treatment usually is provided
through a number of specialists depending on the child’s needs: occu-
pational and physical therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, pedia-
trician and perhaps a neurologist. Medications can be prescribed to
target some of the symptoms of autism, such as aggression, attention
deficit, and obsessive compulsiveness, but they do not cure it.
I need to caution parents to be careful when doing research on
treatments or miracle cures for autism. The Internet is rife with both
bad information and people out to make a dollar on another’s suffer-
ing. Your child’s physician is there to help you navigate the informa-
tion. It is his or her job to ensure that your child is getting the most
appropriate treatment.
I understand that some parents can feel so hopeless that they want
to do something, but you need to make sure you are helping rather
than hurting.

EVALUATING THE AUTHOR’S

ARGUMENTS:
If autism has so many variations, what do you think the
author would say are characteristics common to all autism
disorders? Identify parts of the viewpoint that support
your answer.

Are Disabilities Affecting Learning a Serious Problem? 55

Chapter 2

What Harm Is Caused

by Disabilities Affecting
Learning?

A large majority of
learning-disabled
children have behavioral
and emotional problems
that often lead to
substance abuse.
 Viewpoint Learning
1 Disabilities
Cause
“Adolescents Behavioral
with learning Problems
disabilities
Diana Mahoney
frequently
In the following viewpoint Diana Mahoney
exhibit asserts that learning disabilities create a psy-
chological burden on students that affects
co-occurring their behavior. She contends that an abnor-
emotional mally high percentage of students with learn-
ing disabilities have behavioral and emotional
and problems. Students with learning disabilities
are more likely to drop out of school and
behavioral engage in risky behavior. Intervention can
problems.” help, she contends, but schools need to be
more aware of the behavioral problems asso-
ciated with learning disabilities. Mahoney
writes for Clinical Psychiatry News.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to studies cited by the author, how do the rates of
emotional distress in students with learning disabilities compare
to rates in students without learning disabilities?
2. What percentage of learning-disabled children have behavioral
and emotional problems, according to data cited by the author?
3. According to the author, how much more likely are high school
dropouts, as compared to graduates, to have trouble with the law?

Diana Mahoney, “Social and Emotional Costs of Learning Disabilities,” Clinical Psychiatry News, February 1,
2008. Copyright © 2008 International Medical News Group. Reproduced by permission.

What Harm Is Caused by Disabilities Affecting Learning? 57

 T
he notion that learning disabilities are an academic problem
exclusively is not only erroneous, it’s dangerous. The strug-
gles of children with impairments in reading, writing, math,
memory, and organization extend far beyond the classroom and often
contribute to a heavy psychological burden.

The Learning Disabled Have More Behavioral Problems

Multiple studies demonstrate that adolescents with learning disabilities
frequently exhibit co-occurring emotional and behavioral problems,
including depression, anxiety, conduct disorders, and delinquency.
In the landmark 2001 National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent
Health, a cross-sectional analysis of the in-home interview data of
more than 20,000 adolescents included in the study showed that rates
of emotional distress, suicide attempts, and involvement in violence
were significantly increased in the 1,301 adolescents who were identi-
fied as having a learning disability, compared with their non–learning
impaired peers. Similar results have been reported in a variety of com-
munity and clinical samples.
As many as 20% of people in the United States have a learn-
ing disability (including about 3 million children aged 6–21 years
who receive special education services in school), and about 30% of
learning-disabled children have behavioral and emotional problems,
according to data presented in the Department of Education’s 2005
report to Congress on the Individuals With Disabilities Education
Act. The lesson? The societal impact of this problem is huge.
In the 2003 National Survey of Children’s Health, learning disabili-
ties were the most commonly diagnosed emotional, developmental,
or behavioral problem of children aged 0–17 years. Compared with
their peers without developmental problems, these children had lower
self-esteem, had more depression and anxiety, and missed more school
and were less involved in sports and other community activities.

More Likely to Drop Out of School

In addition, children with learning disabilities drop out of high
school at a disproportionately higher rate than their peers, and high
school dropouts are 3.5 times more likely to have trouble with the
law than are those who graduate, according to the National Center
for Educational Statistics.

58 Disabilities Affecting Learning

 Literature on the causal direction of the co-occurrence of behavioral/
emotional and learning problems is inconsistent. For example, it is
unclear whether learning impairments beget mental health troubles
or vice versa, whether the causation is reciprocal, or whether a shared
etiologic factor [a factor related to cause] underlies the overlap. It is
clear, however, that “a cascade of negative psychosocial effects occur
Studies have shown that teens with learning disabilities or ADHD are significantly more
likely to abuse alcohol.

What Harm Is Caused by Disabilities Affecting Learning? 59

 with learning disabilities,” said David Osher, Ph.D., project director
for the American Institutes for Research in Washington.
Adult expectations of adolescents make them particularly vulner-
able to negative sequelae [conditions resulting from a disorder or
event], contends John McNamara, Ph.D., associate professor in the
department of child and youth studies at Brock University in St.
Catharines, Ont. A younger child with a learning disability who
exhibits a behavioral need probably would be identified in elemen-
tary school, but a teenager at risk for emotional or behavioral prob-
lems “is operating within a setting where expectations shift to the
adolescents advocating for themselves—so a kid in trouble can fall
off the radar,” he said.

Learning Disabled and Risky Behavior

In a large-scale study published in 2005, Dr. McNamara and his col-
leagues explored the relationship in adolescents between learning dis-
abilities and risk-taking behavior. They determined that adolescents
with learning disabilities (and adolescents with learning disabilities and
comorbid attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder) were significantly
more likely to smoke, use alcohol and marijuana, engage in acts of
direct aggression, and engage in acts of minor delinquency.
In a recent follow-up to that study, which is slated for publication
this summer [2008], Dr. McNamara said he and his colleagues asked
why adolescents with learning disabilities engage in these risk-taking
activities to a greater extent than their non-learning disabled peers.
The investigators found support for their hypothesis that psychosocial
factors partly mediate the link.
Among the mediating psychosocial covariates [variables that affect
psychological and social well-being] were adolescents’ familial relation-
ships, engagement in school and extracurricular activities, and feelings
of well-being and of being victimized. “To us, these findings support
the idea that it is a combination of the learning disability, per se, and
the secondary psychosocial characteristics associated with adolescents
with learning disabilities that explains the more frequent engagement
in risk taking,” he said.
The findings also show that “these kids require someone to step
into their space to ensure they’re thriving.”

60 Disabilities Affecting Learning

Intervention Can Help
These adolescents can thrive, Dr. McNamara stressed. “It is evident
in the research that successful adolescents with learning disabilities
are self-aware and have accepted their learning disability. They have
learned to seek support when they
need it, and they have learned to
seek out and operate in environ-
ments where they have the tools to F ast act F
succeed,” he said. “The ability to
Recent studies indicate
do these things comes from some- that between 30 percent
one teaching them how to do so and 70 percent of children
through well-designed interven- with ADHD continue to
tions.” exhibit symptoms in their
The key components to effective adult years.
intervention for these adolescents,
according to Dr. McNamara,
include “intensive intervention during the early school years; ongo-
ing one-on-one, or close to it, tutoring; consistent academic and life
skill-based counseling; and consistent ongoing parental support and
understanding.”
Feeling a sense of connectedness to and support from school also
serves as an important protective factor, according to the findings of the
adolescent health survey. Adolescents who receive such support “often
have higher self-esteem, feel more in control of their own academic
achievement, and understand how to advocate for themselves,” Dr.
McNamara said.

Schools Need to Be More Aware

To best serve not only the academic needs of adolescents with learn-
ing disabilities but also the social and emotional ones, educators and
mental health providers first must understand “that the co-occurrence
of behavioral and emotional problems with learning disabilities is
common and leads to poorer outcomes,” according to Dr. Osher.
Next, they must work together to create emotionally safe and sup-
portive school environments.
Also, “the interventions should be culturally and linguistically com-
petent, strengths based, capacity building, and as child and family

What Harm Is Caused by Disabilities Affecting Learning? 61

 Behavioral Issues Among Teens
with and Without ADHD

driven as possible,” Dr. Osher said. “Wherever possible, labeling and

pullout approaches and special classes should be avoided.”
But multiple barriers impede the development of such emotionally
safe and supportive learning environments. Problematic are disinterest,
lack of information about what to do and how to do it, and the pres-
sures faced by school administrators to produce “short-term gains on
high-stakes tests,” Dr. Osher said. “What gets assessed gets addressed,”
he said, so if schools are to become a protective factor in the lives of
at-risk kids, social and emotional considerations must be assessed.

Strategies and Funding Are Needed

Toward this end, Dr. Osher and colleagues at the American Institutes
for Research, together with the Collaborative for Academic, Social,
and Emotional Learning and the Learning First Alliance, developed a

62 Disabilities Affecting Learning

strategy for overcoming barriers. The three-component intervention,
which has been implemented by the Chicago Public Schools, includes
a psychometrically robust 57-item survey of the social and emotional
conditions for learning, the results of which are incorporated into
school, district, or state score cards; a customized report informing
administrators on the significance of specific subgroup responses to
the survey; and an online tool kit linked to individual school reports
that provides strategies and programs that have proven effective in
similar contexts.
In Chicago, the results of the survey reports have begun to change
discourse in the district, Dr. Osher reported. Still, several barriers to
widespread implementation and efficacy of such strategies have yet to
be overcome. For example, Dr. Osher said, the ongoing “marginaliza-
tion of social [and] emotional factors” makes it difficult to generate
financial resources for comprehensive assessments and intervention
design.
And even when financial support exists, “another barrier is making
sure that interventions enter the classroom, affect the learning process,
and reach the individual child. This is a struggle in all systems change,
including education.”

EVALUATING THE AUTHOR’S

ARGUMENTS:
The author says that studies are conflicting regarding
whether learning problems cause psychological problems
or vice versa. Do you think it is important to know the
answer to this question? Do you think the author would
say that it is important? Why or why not?

What Harm Is Caused by Disabilities Affecting Learning? 63

 Viewpoint Children with
2 Learning
Disabilities Are
“Children
with learning Vulnerable to
disabilities
[are
Abuse
vulnerable] Freda Briggs
to the risks Freda Briggs argues in this viewpoint that
having a learning disability makes a child
of drugs, more likely to be a victim of violence, sex-
violence, ual abuse, and other hazards. Citing prior
studies and the results of her own study,
psychological Briggs contends that learning disabilities
bullying, make children more vulnerable to abuse
both at school and at home. Learning dis-
pornography, abled children, she says, need assistance in
sexual protecting themselves from older and more
powerful perpetrators. Briggs is a professor
abuse and emerita of child development.
other safety
hazards.”
As you read, consider the following questions:
1. According to statistics cited by the author, how does the like-
lihood that a severely learning disabled child will be sexually
abused compare to that of other children?

Freda Briggs, “Safety Issues in the Lives of Children with Learning Disabilities,” Social Policy Journal of New
Zealand, November 1, 2006. Copyright © 2006 Crown. Reproduced by permission.

64 Disabilities Affecting Learning

 2. How likely are learning disabled children to discuss safety issues
with parents, compared with non-LD children?
3. In the present study, how does the likelihood that a learning
disabled child will experience violence vary depending upon
whether the child is in a special education unit versus main-
stream school?

Q uantitative and qualitative data were collected from 116 spe-

cial education students aged 11–17 years (61 females and 55
males) who had been identified as 3 or more years behind
their peers in all aspects of the curriculum. The study confirmed
the vulnerability of children with learning disabilities to the risks
of drugs, violence, psychological bullying, pornography and sexual
abuse. Significant levels of violence were found in both schools and
homes. The study also showed the need for special attention for the
protection of boys. It is possible that children with learning disabilities
were targeted because they were less likely than others to (a) recognise
abuse as wrong, (b) understand their rights and report abuse, and (c)
be regarded as competent witnesses for court proceedings. On the
other hand, it is possible that they were learning-disabled as a result of
abuse. The findings suggested that children with learning disabilities
require more vigilant and more intensive, explicit forms of protection
than other children.

Danger to LD Children Has Been Known for Some Time

The particular vulnerability of children with disabilities to all forms
of abuse was brought to public notice in the 1980s. American and
Canadian studies suggested that these children are up to seven times
more likely to be sexually abused than their non-disabled peers.
The literature suggests that children with disabilities are at high-
est risk of all forms of abuse because they are devalued by society in
general. They were found to be the least well informed about their
rights, their sexuality and the limits of acceptable social behaviour.
They are inadequately protected by the justice system and child
welfare agencies and lack self-esteem and the confidence to com-
plain. Furthermore, there is a high risk that abuse will continue

What Harm Is Caused by Disabilities Affecting Learning? 65

 Abuse of the Disabled

into adulthood. Research . . . showed that the victimization of

children with disabilities compounds the low self-esteem, emotion-
al problems, sense of helplessness, frustration, anger, depression,
fearfulness and withdrawal associated with their disabilities. . . .
[One study] evaluated the curriculum with 252 intermediate school
children aged 11 and 12 years and their parents in both North and
South Islands [of New Zealand]. Children identified as having severe
learning problems were at greatest risk of all forms of abuse and expo-
sure to illegal drugs, pornography (63% versus 24% of others), drug
abuse (50% versus 12%) and sexual abuse (81% versus 4%). Eighty-
one per cent of girls in special education groups for learning disabili-
ties had previously reported substantiated sexual offences committed
by from two to 10 offenders before the age of 11. In all cases, students
had been shown pornography to stimulate their curiosity, desensitize
them and normalize deviant sex. . . .

66 Disabilities Affecting Learning

Adults Not Protecting LD Children
Although the school programme has parent participation built into
it, children with learning disabilities were the ones least likely to
have had any conversations with parents about personal safety issues
(44% versus 82% of others). Clearly, it is more difficult for staff to
communicate effectively with parents if children travel by school
bus. Communications are even harder to achieve if parents also have
learning disabilities and are illiterate. Most abuse was committed by
mothers’ boyfriends, siblings and uncles. Only one student in this
group was sexually abused by her biological father. The low rate of
father-daughter incest could possibly be explained by the fact that
most students in this group had little or no contact with their fathers.
The researchers were concerned about the safety of boys, many
of whom stated that child protection programmers were irrelevant
to them because only girls and homosexuals are sexually abused. A
previous study of safety issues for New Zealand secondary students
supported these concerns and also showed that boys would be afraid
to disclose abuse by males because of confusion about their sexuality,
embarrassment and the fear of (a) being disbelieved; (b) violent retri-
bution and (c) being labeled as gay and bullied by peers.

Children Chosen for This Study

Because of the finding that girls with learning disabilities were so highly
vulnerable to drug and sexual abuse and violence, the present study was
extended in 2003/2004 to examine more closely safety issues affecting
children with learning disabilities (both boys and girls).
One hundred and sixteen subjects (all the available students) were
interviewed individually in special education centres using [a] 1996
questionnaire designed for intermediate school children. Issues for
boys were then compared with issues for girls.
The period of time that subjects had spent in special education
ranged from five weeks to two years. Before that, all subjects previ-
ously attended mainstream schools in both the North and South
Islands of New Zealand. A few older respondents continued to attend
the local mainstream school in a part-time capacity. All participants
had an individually designed curriculum to cater for the fact that
they were at least three years behind their chronological age group in

What Harm Is Caused by Disabilities Affecting Learning? 67

all areas. Some were diagnosed as having ADD or ADHD, one with
Down Syndrome, and one was brain damaged as a result of physical
abuse in infancy. Some had minor intellectual disabilities. The ages
of respondents ranged from 11 to 17 years. . . . There were slightly
more girls (61, or 53%) than boys (55, or 47%). . . .

Violence Against LD Children

Students were asked to assess and compare the levels of violence
experienced in special education units versus mainstream schools.
Although some had anger management problems requiring medica-
tion, children with learning disabilities said they experienced more
violence in mainstream schools (47%) than in separate single-sex
special education centres (34%). There were no sex differences on
this variable.
One-quarter of respondents thought there was a lot of violence in
their own homes. Males were reported as being the most frequent
users of physical violence against children with learning problems in
the family home.
Learning-disabled children are less likely to report physical or sexual abuse than children
without disabilities.
 Children gave various reasons for why they were hit at home. There
were no consistent sex differences in the pattern revealed. These chil-
dren with special needs were shown to be very vulnerable to the
aggression of irritable adults and siblings. . . .

Bullying at School
Although bullying was considered
to be a big problem for many chil- F ast act F
dren with learning disabilities in Research has estimated
special education (38%), it was that 90 percent of people
more frequently perceived to be with developmental disabil-
a problem when they attended a ities will experience sexual
mainstream school (56%). violence at some point dur-
ing their lives.
Name-calling and teasing were
most frequently identified by girls
(60%) and boys (57%) as the
most distressing form of bullying. Spreading false, unpleasant, sex-
related rumours (such as “She’s got AIDS”, “She’s a lesbian”, “She’s a
prostitute”, “She’s promiscuous”) and insults relating to body appear-
ance (fat, ugly) were twice as prevalent among girls (13%) than boys
(6%), who were usually referred to as “poofter” or homosexual to
create distress.

Drugs, Abduction, and Sexual Abuse

Boys were significantly more likely to have been offered various major
types of drugs than girls.
Almost two-thirds of the students (63%) reported having seen
hardcore pornography. Magazines and videos were the most frequent
source of such material.
Twenty cases (or 17%) reported that a stranger had tried (unsuc-
cessfully) to persuade them to accompany them. There was no sig-
nificant difference in the frequency with which this had happened to
boys and to girls. The common theme for both girls and boys was an
attempt by a male stranger to get the children into their car.
While school counsellors indicated that 44% of girls were victims
of (substantiated) sexual abuse, only 32% of female respondents dis-
closed these offences to researchers. . . .

What Harm Is Caused by Disabilities Affecting Learning? 69

 LD Children Must Be Protected
The study confirmed the vulnerability of children with learning dis-
abilities to the risks of drugs, violence, psychological bullying, por-
nography, sexual abuse and other safety hazards. The study showed
significant levels of violence in both schools and homes. This presents
challenges to finding ways of assisting children to protect themselves
against older and more powerful perpetrators.

EVALUATING THE AUTHOR’S

ARGUMENTS:
Given the data presented by the author, what do you think
accounts for the differences between safety risks LD chil-
dren experience in mainstream schools compared with
those in special education units?

70 Disabilities Affecting Learning

 Viewpoint Autism Is
3 Linked to
Changes in
the Brain
“Social fear
National Institutes of Health
in autism
In this viewpoint from the National Institutes
[causes an] of Health, the author argues that the social
adaptation fear experienced by autistic children trig-
gers a reaction that ultimately causes brain
that kills cells to die in the amygdala, the brain’s “fear
amygdala hub.” Shrinkage of this part of the brain,
the author contends, is linked to impaired
cells and nonverbal social behavior in childhood.
Persons with smaller amygdalae have more
shrinks the difficulty recognizing emotional expressions
structure.” and avoid looking at others in the eye. The
National Institutes of Health, a part of the
U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services, investigates causes, treatments, and
cures for diseases.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to the author, how does social fear in autism initially
affect the amygdala part of the brain?
2. According to study results cited by the author, how did autistic
subjects with the smallest amygdalae compare to those with the
largest amygdalae in the time it took to recognize emotion in
facial expressions?

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health Contributor, “Brain’s Fear
Center Shrinks in Autism’s Most Severely Socially-Impaired,” NIH News, December 4, 2006.

What Harm Is Caused by Disabilities Affecting Learning? 71

 3. According to study results cited by the author, how much lon-
ger did autistic subjects with the larger amygdalae spend look-
ing at the eyes of other persons, compared to those with the
smaller amygdalae?

T
he brain’s fear hub likely becomes abnormally small in the
most severely socially impaired males with autism spectrum
disorders, researchers funded by the National Institutes
of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
and National Institute on Child Health and Human Development
(NICHD) have discovered. Teens and young men who were slowest
at distinguishing emotional from neutral expressions and gazed at eyes
least—indicators of social impairment—had a smaller than normal
amygdala, an almond-shaped danger-detector deep in the brain. The
researchers also linked such amygdala shrinkage to impaired nonver-
bal social behavior in early childhood.

Social Fear Is the Initial Trigger

The new findings suggest that social fear in autism may initially trig-
ger a hyperactive, abnormally enlarged amygdala, which eventually
gives way to a toxic adaptation that
kills amygdala cells and shrinks
the structure, propose Richard
F ast act F Davidson, Ph.D., and colleagues
at the University of Wisconsin,
In the brain of a child who report on their magnetic reso-
with autism, cells and
connections—especially
nance imaging (MRI) study in the
those that affect commu- December 2006 Archives of General
nication, emotions, and Psychiatry.
senses—do not develop In a related study, another research
properly, or they get team led by Davidson found that
damaged. well siblings of people with autism
share some of the same differences
in amygdala volume, and in the way
they look at faces and activate social/emotional brain circuitry, particu-
larly an area critical for face processing.

72 Disabilities Affecting Learning

A PET scan shows the left amygdala (highlighted in yellow) reacting to fear. Autism
initially triggers a hyperactive, abnormally enlarged amygdala but later leads to an
atrophied amygdala.

“Together, these results provide the first evidence linking objective

measures of social impairment and amygdala structure and related
brain function in autism,” explained Davidson. “Finding many of
the same differences, albeit more moderate, in well siblings helps to
confirm that autism is likely the most severe expression of a broad
spectrum of genetically-influenced characteristics.”

Avoiding Eye Contact

While some people with minimal expression of these traits might
be perceived as aloof or loners, those at the more severe end of the
spectrum are unable to engage in give-and-take interactions and fail
to develop age-appropriate peer relationships. Notably, they shy away

What Harm Is Caused by Disabilities Affecting Learning? 73

 Location of the Amygdala in the Brain

from looking at eyes. Davidson’s research team . . . last year [2005]

linked such eye-gazing with hyperactivation of their fear hub. Yet
different studies have found the amygdala in autism to be variously
enlarged, shrunken or even normal in size.
Davidson, Kim Dalton and colleagues suspected that these seem-
ingly inconsistent findings resulted from the wide variability of the
autism spectrum, which masked amygdala changes—that a clearer
picture would emerge if the length and severity of hypersensitivity to
social interactions were factored in. They brought to bear eye-tracking
and other measures of facial emotion processing in combination with
MRI to find out if degree of non-verbal social impairment might
predict amygdala volume in 49 males, aged 8–25, including 25 with
autism spectrum disorders.

Unable to Identify Facial Expression

Those in the autism group who had a small amygdala were signifi-
cantly slower at identifying happy, angry, or sad facial expressions and

74 Disabilities Affecting Learning

spent the least time looking at eyes relative to other facial regions.
Autistic subjects with the smallest amygdalae took 40 percent longer
than those with the largest fear hubs to recognize such emotional
facial expressions, and those with the largest amygdalae spent about
four times longer looking at eyes than those with the smallest. Eye
fixation did not correlate with amygdala volume among 24 control
subjects. The size of the amygdala increased early in autism group
subjects with normal eye fixation, while it increased little in those
with low eye fixation. Moreover, autism group subjects with small
amygdalae had the most non-verbal social impairment as children.

Chronic Stress Causes Brain Cell Death

The researchers suggest that the amygdala in autism fits a model in
which a brain structure adapts to chronic stress—in this case, fear of
people—by first becoming hyperactive, but over time succumbing to a
process of toxic cell death and atrophy, as has been proposed occurs in
the hippocampus for some forms of depression. Children with autism
who are least hypersensitive to interaction with people would thus
show slower amygdala shrinkage while those who were most hyper-
sensitive would begin to show amygdala changes early in life. Such
amygdala adaptations likely affect most people with autism by adult-
hood, according to the researchers. However, they caution that these
changes do not explain all autistic behavior, but account for slightly
more than half of the variability in nonverbal social impairment.

EVALUATING THE AUTHOR’S

ARGUMENTS:
After reading this viewpoint, do you think autism causes
the brain’s “fear hub” to shrink, or that the shrinking of
the “fear hub” causes autism? Give reasons for your answer.

What Harm Is Caused by Disabilities Affecting Learning? 75

 Viewpoint ADHD
4 Negatively
Affects Adults
in Numerous
“People
with ADHD
Ways
change jobs Steve Bates

more often In the following viewpoint Steve Bates

argues that attention-deficit/hyperactivity
than other disorder (ADHD) causes social, financial,
workers and personal problems for adults who suf-
fer from it. The author cites the results of
and tend to the Capturing America’s Attention study of
the disorder. According to the study, adults
‘gravitate to with ADHD are more likely to have difficul-
professions ty staying employed. Adults with ADHD,
says the author, are also more likely to suffer
that don’t from depression. However, employers can
require a help employees with ADHD and their com-
pany by “sponsoring educational events to
lot of sitting raise awareness” about the disorder, which
might prompt ADHD-affected employees
time.’” to seek screening for the disorder, if they
have not already. Bates is managing editor of
HR News. HRMagazine is a monthly mag-
azine of the Society for Human Resource
Management.

Steve Bates, “ADHD Takes Toll on Workers, Employers,” HRMagazine, vol. 50, no. 8, August 2005, p. 36.
Copyright © 2005 Society for Human Resource Management. Reproduced by permission.

76 Disabilities Affecting Learning

As you read, consider the following questions:
1. How many U.S. adults are potentially affected by ADHD,
according to the author?
2. What is the expected loss of U.S. household income per year for
someone who suffers from ADHD?
3. How many adults with ADHD are likely to be employed com-
pared to adults without ADHD, according to a survey cited in
this viewpoint?

A
ttention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects mil-
lions of American workers—many of whom might not be
aware of the disorder and how it is affecting their job perfor-
mance and career potential, according to a major new study of the
disorder.
The exact number of adults with ADHD is not known. An esti-
mated 4.3 percent of the U.S. adult population—more than 8 mil-
lion Americans—is affected by the disorder. Because of the impact of
ADHD, the study’s authors say, some of these working-age people
may be unable to hold a steady job.
The loss of U.S. household income to ADHD symptoms totals near-
ly $77 billion each year, according to the study, Capturing America’s
Attention. That equates to at least
$8,900 in annual lost income per
adult with ADHD. The study,
backed by a pharmaceutical com-
pany, was presented in May at the
F ast act F
Ten to 20 percent of the
American Psychiatric Association adult population with
annual meeting in Atlanta. ADHD has a disorder
Adults with ADHD may have involving addiction, com-
grown up with the condition and pared with 2 percent of
associated impairments, such as adults in general.
reduction in educational and pro-
fessional achievements, reduced
self-image and poor interpersonal relationships, according to the study.
It states that 24 percent of adults with ADHD experience symptoms
that prevent normal activities, such as work, for an average of 11 days

What Harm Is Caused by Disabilities Affecting Learning? 77

 Adults in Certain Professions Are More
Likely Than in Others to Have ADHD

every month, compared to only 9 percent of adults without the dis-

order.
Dr. Joseph Biederman, the lead researcher in the ADHD study,
said that HR professionals can help affected employees and the orga-
nization’s bottom line by sponsoring educational events to raise
awareness about the underdiagnosed and poorly understood disorder.
HR can sponsor seminars and group discussions of the symptoms
and impact of ADHD that might prompt individual employees to
seek screening for the disorder on their own, potentially improving

78 Disabilities Affecting Learning

their quality of life and workplace productivity, helping the organiza-
tion in the process, he said.
“Many people don’t know they have this. Many people get
fired because of this,” said Biederman, a professor of psychiatry at
Harvard Medical School and chief of pediatric psychopharmacology
at Massachusetts General Hospital. “It’s characterized by inattention,
impulsivity and hyperactivity,” he said. “They have trouble with time
management, completing tasks, paying attention. They may be late
for work, and they are not always prepared.”
Not everyone who exhibits these symptoms has ADHD, Biederman
noted. But “if the symptoms are persistent, the level of suspicion
should go up.”
For most people who discover they have ADHD, “it’s a great relief
to know,” Biederman added. They realize that there was a chemical
reason for their problems.
Biederman said people with ADHD change jobs more often than
other workers and tend to “gravitate to professions that don’t require
a lot of sitting time.” The study found that adults with the disorder
Adults with ADHD are more likely to be unemployed and have a difficult time holding
down a job than adults who do not have ADHD.
 are three times more likely than others to suffer from stress, depres-
sion or other problems with their emotions.

Among other findings:

• Forty-six percent of adults with ADHD indicate a strong tendency
toward having a hard time paying attention at work, compared to
20 percent of adults without ADHD.
• Only half of adults with ADHD are employed, compared to 72
percent of adults without the disorder.
• Over the past 10 years, adults with ADHD have had on average 5.4
jobs, compared to 3.4 jobs for people without ADHD.

“The compelling results of this survey reinforce the fact that

ADHD is a serious medical condition causing significant, life-long
impairments. ADHD can no longer be dismissed as a ‘fake’ or ‘made-
up’ disorder,” Biederman said in announcing the results of the study.

EVALUATING THE AUTHOR’S

ARGUMENTS:
The author cites the Capturing America’s Attention study
to show that adults with ADHD have problems function-
ing socially, financially, and personally. What evidence
does the author give to support the claim that the prob-
lems discussed are the result of a real and serious medical
condition? Give reasons for your answer.

80 Disabilities Affecting Learning

 Viewpoint ADHD Prevents
5 Children from
Making Friends
Ascribe Higher Education
News Service
“[ADHD]
In the following viewpoint, the author
symptoms get argues that children with attention defi-
cit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) need
in the way special training in order to learn to make
of making friends. Problems making friends in child-
hood, it is argued, results in a spiral of fail-
and keeping ure as children mature. Friendship skills
friends.” can be taught to children with ADHD
and their parents. Doing so, contends
the author, causes marked improvement
in overall social skills. Ascribe Higher
Education News Service is a public interest
wire service.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to the author, how many children with ADHD have
serious problems making friends?
2. According to the author, how much does ADHD intervention
usually focus on developing friendship skills?
3. In addition to making friends more easily, what other positive
results have occurred for ADHD children who have participated
in “friendship clinic” interventions?

Ascribe Contributor, “Friendship Clinic: University of Virginia Psychologist Helps ADHD Children
Make Friends,” Ascribe Higher Education News Service, December 7, 2006. Copyright © 2006 AScribe.
Reproduced by permission.

What Harm Is Caused by Disabilities Affecting Learning? 81

 M
any children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
[ADHD] suffer through a range of problems, from poor
grades to poor relations with parents and teachers. But
more than half of these children also have serious problems making
friends. Too often they live lonely lives, never learning to develop the
social skills they need to make friends as children or as adults.

Spiral of Failure
“Children with ADHD often are peer-rejected, and their difficulties
multiply as they grow to adulthood,” said Amori Yee Mikami, assistant
professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and principal
investigator for a new clinical study designed to help children with
ADHD become better at making friends. “Children with ADHD
often grow up with depression
and relationship problems, some
may develop criminal behavior
F ast act F and substance abuse problems,”
Mikami said. “There can be a spi-
The impaired ability of
autistic children to imitate
ral of failure that is partly the result
others leads to additional of not having learned to make and
impairments in sharing keep friends as children.”
emotions, pretend play, About 5 percent of school-age
pragmatic communication, children are affected by ADHD.
and understanding the Symptoms include a short atten-
emotional states of others. tion span, poor organization,
excessive talking, disruptive and
aggressive behavior, restlessness
and irritability. Children with ADHD often are uncooperative and
may make their own rules.

ADHD Symptoms Prevent Friendships

These symptoms get in the way of making and keeping friends,”
Mikami said. “The child with ADHD can become stigmatized, known
as ‘the bad kid,’ and this can lead to more inappropriate behavior. It
can become a vicious cycle resulting in more social isolation.”
Treatment for ADHD usually involves medication and counseling
designed to help the children improve their attention spans and con-
trol impulses. But little intervention is focused on helping children

82 Disabilities Affecting Learning

At “Friendship Clinics” autistic children participate in workshops that help develop social,
play, and learning skills as well as friendships with other students.

with ADHD to become better at developing and maintaining good

relationships with their peers.

Friendship Skills Can Be Taught

Mikami is working to change that. Through her new “Friendship
Clinic,” she is developing new methods to help parents help their chil-
dren with ADHD improve social skills and develop positive behav-
iors. So far, the results are promising.
Parents and teachers are reporting that the children with ADHD
who have participated in the intervention program are making friends
more easily, are better behaved, and [are] more willing to cooperate
with peers.
“These skills are not easily taught,” Mikami said. “Making friends
is a proactive process that does not come naturally to children with
ADHD. We really have to work closely with the parents and children
to set the stage for life-long social skills.”
Mikami’s clinic offers children with ADHD and their parents an
eight-week program involving weekly 90-minute parent group training

What Harm Is Caused by Disabilities Affecting Learning? 83

 Peer Relationships of Children with
ADHD, According to Their Parents

sessions, three one-hour supervised playgroups and “homework” assign-

ments designed to put into practice the techniques learned for making
friends. The parents learn new skills as a group working with a therapist,
helping each other in the process.
“We teach the parents how to be friendship coaches,” Mikami said.

Parents Must Be Taught Also

Parents in the program learn ways to help their children play coop-
eratively, how to settle social disputes, how to foster a relationship
that can last. They learn to help the child pick the right playmate,
they learn to structure time for positive activities and to intervene in
a positive way when problems develop. Several play dates are arranged
to allow Mikami and her colleagues to assess the effectiveness of the
training, to see the work in practice.

84 Disabilities Affecting Learning

 “We help the parents build a relationship with their child,” Mikami
said. “We do some role-playing, where the parent steps into the role of
the child, to try to understand the world from the child’s point of view.”
One parent who participated in the treatment group, Stephanie
Shelton, said her son Brandon and her entire family have benefited
from the program. “I came to know other people who are dealing
with the same issues of having a child with ADHD,” she said. “It
meant we didn’t have to deal with this alone. We had a focus group
that positively helped us work through issues.”

Friendship Training Works

The techniques Shelton learned, such as “active listening,” have made
her personal time with her son a rich experience. “We look forward to
our time together,” she said. “And his teacher said she has seen a tenfold
improvement in his social skills.”
Mikami recently worked with two groups in her study: the “treat-
ment” group, which received training, and a control group of children
with ADHD who did not receive training. She is comparing the
outcomes of the two groups and is finding that the treatment group
children are exhibiting a marked improvement over the ADHD group
that did not receive treatment.
The families in the study, from both groups, represent a range of
income and education levels and both genders. So far Mikami has
worked with 20 families, 10 from each group, and she is planning anoth-
er phase of the study. “The idea is to help them when they’re young, so
they may have a lifetime of successful relationships, the kind of positive
experiences that will carry over into everything they do,” she said.

EVALUATING THE AUTHORS’

ARGUMENTS:
After reading this article and the one preceding it, do you
believe that ADHD experiences as a child cause the prob-
lems that adults with ADHD have functioning in society?
Give reasons for your answer.

What Harm Is Caused by Disabilities Affecting Learning? 85

Chapter 3
How Should Society
Address Disabilities
Affecting Learning?

Autism sufferers often

feel muzzled and
unheard by society.
 “This text has been suppressed
due to author restrictions”

Based on his own personal experience, the author of this viewpoint argues that special
education makes a huge difference in the lives of children with learning disabilities.
 Viewpoint Special
2 Education Is
Too Costly
Jennifer Mann
“Special
In the following viewpoint, Jennifer Mann
education . . . asserts that special education is too costly.
The federal mandate to provide special
is squeezing education, she says, flooded local schools
school with disabled children but failed to provide
adequate funding for special education. As
budgets like a result, she says, local schools must cut
never before.” services for the majority of children who
do not need special education, creating
friction between parents. Mann writes
for the Patriot Ledger, located in Quincy,
Massachusetts.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to the author, how many children in Massachusetts
receive at least some special education?
2. How much can special education for a child placed in a private
school cost per year, according to figures cited by the author?
3. What percentage does the federal government contribute
toward special education on average, according to the author?

Jennifer Mann, “Pass or Fail? Special Ed: What Do We Get?; Big Budget Crunch and Parent Battles,”
The Patriot Ledger, November 10, 2007. Copyright © 2007 The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, MA. Reproduced
by permission.

How Should Society Address Disabilities Affecting Learning? 93

 R
andolph [Massachusetts] eliminated school buses. Scituate
delayed opening a much-needed elementary school. Fees
could not save Milton from slashing 20 teachers and aides.
Yet none of these communities touched special education spending.
They can’t. It’s the law.
Special education, a state- and federally mandated program with
a hefty price tag, is squeezing school budgets like never before.
Massachusetts spent $1.8 billion on 163,396 special needs students
last year. It costs twice as much to educate a special ed student
in the state, which is seventh-highest in the nation for special ed
enrollment.

Public Money Paying for Private Schools

More public school money is being used to pay for fewer students
to attend costly private and specialty schools. Massachusetts is sixth-
highest in the nation for the percentage of special ed spending on
private and specialty schools at local schools’ expense.
Last year, one-third of public school spending on special ed was used
to pay private and specialty schools. In some South Shore communi-
ties, it accounted for up to half of special ed spending.
A Patriot Ledger review of public school spending shows those that
spend the most for private and specialty schools placement often spend
a disproportionate share of the school budget on special ed.

Regular Ed Versus Special Ed Parents

The high costs are creating worry for school officials and, in some
towns, friction between special ed parents and those who say general
education is being shortchanged.
“It’s regular ed parents against special ed parents,” said Marynell
Henry, co-chairwoman of a Scituate foundation that supports special
ed programs. “It’s real easy . . . it’s special ed costs, and it may very
well be, but . . . we’re all a community and we’re here to educate and
support all our children.”
School superintendents fear that spending more money on fewer
high need special ed students leaves less for in-house programs that
would help all special and regular ed students achieve, said Tom Scott,
president of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents.

94 Disabilities Affecting Learning

 Spending on Special Education in
Several Massachusetts Towns

“You’re not going to hear that as a vocal debate; you’re going to hear
that as a subtle debate,” he said.
There is evidence that their concerns are justified.

Special Ed Is Not Working

In 2005, more than half of Massachusetts school districts failed to
meet state standards for special ed students on the English portion of
MCAS [Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System]. More
than 60 percent did not measure up in math, even though advocates
say with assistance most special ed students can succeed.
Special ed students in the state also have higher drop-out and in-
school violence rates than their peers.
“I understand completely the horrendous financial pressures that
are on our districts,” said Ellen Chambers, founder of SpEdWatch,

How Should Society Address Disabilities Affecting Learning? 95

 an advocacy group. “But the answer to that problem cannot be to
deny the proper education to these students.”

Schools Were Flooded with Disabled Students

Until the early 1970s, students with severe mental or physical handi-
caps were placed in private institutions at a parent’s expense or in a
state-run school. All that changed in 1975 when Congress passed the
Education of All Handicapped Children Act, which required a free
and appropriate public education for all handicapped students in the
least restrictive environment.
Suddenly, teachers had to teach students who used to be in seg-
regated classrooms, and public schools were flooded with severely
disabled students as institutions closed or changed their focus.
Today, one in six children in Massachusetts receives at least some
special education, and a growing number are diagnosed with dis-
abilities such as autism, rarely seen 30 years ago. Public schools must
teach them or pay to send them elsewhere.

Financial Toll on Public Schools

“Given that rise—and given that we identify these children at age 3
and generally have to provide services to that child in a very signifi-
cant way—it puts a large strain on the school district,” said Dover
Sherborn Superintendent Perry Davis, co-author of a 2001 report
by the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents on why
special ed spending has gone up.
When a public school must pay to place a child in a private school,
the yearly toll can be upwards of $100,000 for one child. This can
lead to finger-pointing. “I’ve heard it said: We have a new family
in town and now we have to find $50,000—as if that child isn’t a
human being, but a $50,000 problem,” said Earl Fay, the father of
two autistic children in Milton public schools.

Federal Government Is Not Helping Enough

In 1975, Congress set a goal of contributing 40 percent to the cost of
educating special needs children, but today the federal contribution
is closer to 17 percent, varying by state. Massachusetts Sen. Edward
Kennedy, a co-sponsor of the law, said the federal government has
failed to live up to its commitment to special ed funding.

96 Disabilities Affecting Learning

 The $1.8 billion cost in Massachusetts is largely paid by cities and
towns, which are limited by state law in their ability to raise new taxes.
The state kicks in about 35 percent—not far from the share it pays for
regular ed. The federal government kicks in about $400 million for
specific grant programs for special
ed students.
Barbara Anderson, executive
director of Citizens for Limited F ast act F
Taxation, said state or federal California school districts
human services agencies should shift more than a billion
be picking up more of the tab. dollars a year out of their
“There’s no reason that prop- regular school budgets to
erty taxes should be paying for pay for special education.
a human services problem,” she
said.
The state’s contribution is based on estimates of how much
it costs to educate a special ed student, but superintendents say
this guess is chronically too low. Further, they say, an emergency
state fund to help public schools cope with extraordinary spend-
ing for a high needs child falls short because it does not cover
transportation costs.

Locals Must Cut Other Services to Pay for Special Ed

The federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 holds special ed stu-
dents to the same standards as general population, but advocates say
the mandate has been under-funded. This all leads to a squeeze on
the local level.
In Weymouth and Sharon, special ed accounts for nearly a fourth
of school budgets, up from 18 percent a decade ago. More than a
fourth of Holbrook’s school budget goes to special ed, and in Halifax,
it is a third.
In Randolph this year [2007], special ed consumed one-third
of the district’s spending, with a $2 million increase resulting in
cuts in other services including sports. “We’re required by law to
provide those special education services; we’re not required by law
to provide (busing and sports),” Randolph Superintendent Richard
Silverman said.

How Should Society Address Disabilities Affecting Learning? 97

Inclusion Is Not Working
Superintendents say the goal is for public schools to create in-house
or collaborative programs so they spend less on private and specialty
schools. The savings would allow schools to devote more resources to
early intervention and classroom support so that special and regular ed
kids could be taught side by side—what educators call mainstreaming
or inclusion.
Advocates say only about a third of the state’s 389 public school
districts have successfully implemented inclusion. “A lot of school
systems say they’re doing inclusion, but what they’re really doing is
just putting kids in the regular classroom without the support, and
that’s just disastrous,” said Kevin Lenane, a special ed administrator
in Newton, a district known for its mainstreaming program.
A teacher works with autistic children in a Los Angeles school. Critics say that the federal
mandate to provide special education for learning-disabled students has forced schools to
cut services to the majority of students.
 The result can be battles between special ed parents and adminis-
trators over out-of-district placement. “The only time (administra-
tors) start talking about out-of-district is after the kids are falling flat
on their face,” said Suzanne Gervais, president of the Massachusetts
Association of Special Education Parent Advisory Councils.

EVALUATING THE AUTHORS’

ARGUMENTS:
After reading this viewpoint and the preceding one, how
would you balance the need for special education with the
cost of providing it?

How Should Society Address Disabilities Affecting Learning? 99

 Viewpoint ADHD Drugs
3 Can Help
Many Children
“For many Darshak Sanghavi
children who Darshak Sanghavi asserts in this viewpoint
that Ritalin and similar drugs can provide
have ADHD important help to persons with attention
and need help deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
People who suffer from ADHD, he
desperately, explains, have impaired ability to regulate
the drugs their thoughts, resulting in a lack of impulse
control. He argues that Ritalin can cause
[such as immediate and often dramatic improve-
ment in behavior. The popular impression
Ritalin] are a that Ritalin is over-prescribed or dangerous
breakthrough.” is not well supported by research, he con-
tends. Sanghavi is a pediatric cardiologist
at the University of Massachusetts Medical
School.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. How many hyperactive behaviors must children display to be
diagnosed with ADHD, according to the author?
2. How many doctors use the right questionnaires to diagnose
ADHD, according to Sanghavi?
3. According to studies cited by the author, what percentage of
children may have ADHD and thus benefit from treatment
with drugs like Ritalin?

Darshak Sanghavi, “Ritalin Fears Overblown,” The Boston Globe, April 26, 2005. Copyright © 2005 The Boston
Globe. Reproduced by permission of the author.

100 Disabilities Affecting Learning

T
oday, almost one in 20 children is diagnosed with attention
deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD.
It isn’t a condition like strep throat or pneumonia, which
a doctor can confirm or refute using a blood test, stethoscope, or
brain scan. Like many other psychological problems, ADHD appears
to some critics to be a made-up problem that “medicalizes” nor-
mal behavior. But, in fact, the increased diagnosis and treatment of
ADHD may be a major public health success story.

Inability to Regulate Thoughts

Just as an air-traffic controller supervises the taking off and landing of
flights from the runway, the brain’s “executive center” coordinates the
entry and exit of thoughts from consciousness. To prevent chaos, a
controller must decide which flights are urgent, and which may wait.
In ADHD, the air-traffic controller of the mind fails. Thoughts
arrive and take off with no regulation. A child may steal something
from a classmate without asking. He or she may repeatedly lack
impulse control. The condition has serious consequences. Compared
with normal children, those with ADHD later get arrested four times
more frequently, develop alcoholism and drug problems more often,
and end up with lower-paying jobs.
Understanding how doctors think about ADHD explains why so
many children have been treated with Ritalin or Adderall and why
that may not be so bad despite media attention to “overtreatment.”

The Origin of ADHD

The story begins with Charles Bradley, a Rhode Island psychiatrist
who in 1937 gave amphetamines to 30 children who were having
various problems in school. According to Bradley, 14 children had a
“great increase of interest in school material.” However, he lacked a
reliable system to classify patients. It was like having chemotherapy
but no way to tell which children had cancer.
It was not until 1979 that a psychologist named Robert Spitzer
essentially made up a disorder he called “attention-deficit disorder,”
(previously called, among other names, “minimal brain dysfunction”
and “hyperkinesis”). He created a list of specific symptoms to make
the diagnosis in children.

How Should Society Address Disabilities Affecting Learning? 101

 The drug Adderall has been found to be effective in treating ADHD but also controversial
because of possible negative side effects.

Medications Work
These weren’t just rambunctious kids. Diagnosed children must
have at least six hyperactive behaviors such as the inability to sit still,
excessive talking, and acting “as if driven by a motor,” the onset of
symptoms before 7 years of age, impairment of normal school func-
tion, and problems at both home and school. Once the diagnosis was
more consistent, treatment could be tested scientifically. By 1997, it
became clear that affected children responded spectacularly to drug
treatment. Researchers at McMaster University in Canada systemati-
cally compiled 92 studies and showed that more than 70 percent of
patients taking methylphenidate (Ritalin) and dextroamphetamine
(Adderall) responded to the drugs.
According to an article in the New England Journal of Medicine in
1999, the drugs cause “immediate and often dramatic improvement
in behavior. Attentiveness improves, and interpersonal interactions
[are] less confrontational.”

102 Disabilities Affecting Learning

Side Effects Are Uncertain
Of course, there are many limitations. Studies suggest the drugs slow
a child’s growth, in part because some children lose their appetite.
Though Canada recently pulled the extended release form of
Adderall from shelves for possibly causing a rare cardiac side effect,
US regulators found the connection unlikely and didn’t follow suit.
And good, controlled trials of the drugs have only followed children
for a few years. No one knows for sure if the drugs will really result in
long-term academic improvement and reduce high-risk behaviors as
children enter adulthood. And taking the drugs for many years may
cause unforeseen side effects.
Furthermore, less than two-thirds of doctors use the right question-
naires to diagnose ADHD, perhaps causing misdiagnosis. Some don’t
check for other problems like depression, which may be an additional
or alternative explanation for school problems.

ADHD Drugs Are a Breakthrough

But for many children who have ADHD and need help desperately,
the drugs are a breakthrough. Studies estimate that 6 to 11 per-
cent of all children may have ADHD, and thus may benefit from
treatment.
Due to increased awareness
and diagnosis, drug treatment for
ADHD has been skyrocketing. F ast act F
Maryland, which tracks ADHD Worldwide, about 75 per-
cases, saw a sixfold increase in cent of Ritalin prescriptions
diagnoses since the 1970s. are for children, with four
Despite the popular impres- times as many boys taking
sion that these drugs are overpre- the drug.
scribed, no studies in respected
medical journals confirm that fear.
Still, some critics think increased diagnosis of ADHD is society’s
fault. In his book “Ritalin Nation,” Richard DeGrandpre blames
the uptick in diagnoses on our “rapid-fire culture.” Blaming the
“authority of American psychiatry,” DeGrandpre assails modern cul-
ture for allowing kids to become “addicted” to sensory stimulation
and encourages parents to slow their own lives and spend time with
their kids.

How Should Society Address Disabilities Affecting Learning? 103

 Ritalin Use Is on the Rise in America

This is a noble idea, but has a curious blame-the-parents subtext

that doesn’t jive with the data.

ADHD Drugs Are More Effective than Therapy

While behavioral therapy and greater adult involvement have great
appeal for treating ADHD, they’re less effective than drugs. In a
major 1999 National Institute of Mental Health-sponsored project,
children getting 35 behavioral therapy sessions, an in-class teaching
aide, a summer treatment program, and specialized teacher and parent
counseling didn’t do much better than another group of children who

104 Disabilities Affecting Learning

didn’t get such intensive therapy. But a third group on medication
did much better, and adding behavioral interventions for children
taking the drugs provided some modest benefit.
In the end, we should stop blaming parents, teachers, and pedia-
tricians for diagnosing ADHD. As Malcolm Gladwell writes in The
New Yorker, the world mourned by critics like DeGrandpre was “a
ruthlessly Darwinian place” where kids with “neurological quirks”
were simply allowed to fail.
Today, many people are no longer content to see these children left
behind and they shouldn’t feel guilty for using medicine to help them.

EVALUATING THE AUTHOR’S

ARGUMENTS:
Why does the author believe that increased diagnosis of
ADHD is a success story rather than a problem?

How Should Society Address Disabilities Affecting Learning? 105

 “This text has been suppressed
due to author restrictions”

Ritalin Use Skyrocketed in the

United States During the 1990s
 Viewpoint Preventing
5 Exposure
to Toxins
“Toxic Could Reduce
exposures Learning
during
pregnancy Disabilities
and early Steven Kouris
childhood [are] Steven Kouris contends in this viewpoint
a preventable that many developmental disabilities in chil-
dren could be prevented by reducing envi-
cause of neuro- ronmental toxins. Such toxins, he says, can
have serious effects on children, especially if
developmental the exposure occurs during a critical stage of
disabilities in development. The harmful effect of many
toxins, such as lead and mercury, are well
the U.S. and documented, he says, but other less-studied
around the toxins also should be regulated as a precau-
tion. Kouris is a pediatric and developmental
world.” neuropsychiatrist. He is an associate profes-
sor and the chairman of psychiatry at the
University of Illinois College of Medicine at
Rockford.

Steven Kouris, “Update on the Role of Environmental Toxins in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities,” The
Exceptional Parent, February 1, 2007. Copyright © 2007 EP Global Communications, Inc. Reproduced
by permission.

How Should Society Address Disabilities Affecting Learning? 115

 As you read, consider the following questions:
1. How does the exposure of children to environmental toxins
compare to that of adults, according to the author?
2. According to the author, how much human safety data exists for
the vast majority of chemicals to which we are routinely exposed?
3. How does lead affect intellect and learning ability, according to
the author?

T
oxic exposures during pregnancy and early childhood con-
tinue to play an important role as a preventable cause of
neurodevelopmental disabilities in the U.S. and around the
world. Identifying and eliminating these toxins should be a priority
but the task is made exceedingly difficult due to the severe limits of
scientific knowledge in this area as well as the competing interests of
industry and commerce. . . .

Children More Susceptible to Toxins

From conception through at least the first decade of life, children
are recognized to have a heightened susceptibility to environmental
insult. Additionally, critical windows of vulnerability exist relative
to brain development and proper maturation of the central nervous
system. Children’s overall exposure to environmental contaminants is
also increased compared to adults. Many substances a mother comes
in contact with may cross the placental barrier and affect her fetus.
After birth, a child still has an incomplete blood-brain barrier, imma-
ture metabolic pathways, and disproportionately greater intestinal
absorption of nutrients and contaminants. Pound for pound, children
take in more air, water and food than adults. Dwelling nearer to the
ground with an enlarged surface area, children are exposed to more
dust and soil, heavy vapors and any contaminants present on floors
and in carpets. And as parents of young children know, everything
goes into a child’s mouth as well.

Toxins Cause Abnormal Development

Manifestations of abnormal development caused by toxic exposure
can range from fetal death and structural birth defects to retarded

116 Disabilities Affecting Learning

growth and developmental or behavioral disability. An estimated 12
million children in the U.S. now suffer from one or more develop-
mental disabilities. In some parts of the country, rates of reported
autism and other developmental disorders are markedly increased.
As mounting concerns for possible environmental factors are publicly
expressed, little information has been forthcoming. Surprisingly, there
exists no human safety data for the vast majority of chemicals we are
routinely exposed to in our environment, and currently, there is no

Lead Concentrations in Children

 nationwide system for collecting toxic exposure data. What is known
is restricted to a relatively small number of substances. Extensive data
exist on the effects of lead, mercury, alcohol, nicotine and PCB’s
(polychlorinated biphenyls). Less extensive but substantial data exist
for some neurotoxic pesticides and solvents, other than alcohol. There
are still fewer data on other compounds such as manganese, fluoride
and brominated flame-retardants.

Harm Is Well Documented

Lead is a well-known neurodevelopmental toxin that impairs intellect
and learning ability, produces inattention, impulsiveness and hyper-
activity, and, more recently, has been causally linked to predatory
aggression in animals and juvenile delinquency in humans. As this
substance has been removed from paints and fuels, exposure levels
have steadily and markedly dropped. Unfortunately, the toxic effects
continue to be seen even at very low levels (2.5 ug/dl) of exposure. It
appears that perhaps no level of exposure is safe for children after all.
Mercury, likewise, is a well-documented toxin. Effects from high
dose exposure during pregnancy include impaired intellect, seizures,
visual, auditory and sensory disturbances, cerebral palsy, abnormal
movements with problems walking, swallowing and speaking. Low
doses impair motor skills, atten-
tion, memory, language and
visual spatial abilities. As a result,
F ast act F strict limits are advised for fish
According to a 2006 study,
consumption, especially by preg-
after the removal of heavy nant mothers. Coal-fired power
metals that had built up in plant emissions are also being
children’s bodies, parents more closely regulated.
reported improvement in PCB’s, a class of chemicals
their children’s behaviors. used to insulate electrical trans-
formers, are no longer produced.
PCB’s persist indefinitely in the
environment, however, and bioaccumulate in the food chain. Effects
in the exposed infant include reduced birth weight, head circumfer-
ence, gestational age, and impaired performance on the Brazelton
Neonatal Behavioral Assessment in the areas of motor immaturity,
emotional ability and startle response. In early childhood, effects may

118 Disabilities Affecting Learning

As part of a national effort to increase monitoring of toxins, a University of Nebraska geologist
sets up a mercury monitoring station to track mercury levels in North Platte.

include problems with memory, attention, verbal ability, information

processing, psychomotor development and mood regulation. Older
children may have diminished intellect, memory, attention and read-
ing comprehension.

More Data Needed for Certain Toxins

The most commonly used brominated flame retardants (PBDE’s)
resemble PCB’s in chemical structure. Exposure to these chemicals
during critical windows of brain development decreases memory and
learning in animals. No human data exist yet, but these chemicals
are now documented to be present in human breast milk in U.S. and
Canadian populations.
Organophosphate pesticides cause decreased brain weight, decreased
cholinergic receptors, hyperactivity, motor and coordination problems

How Should Society Address Disabilities Affecting Learning? 119

 in laboratory animals. Human effects are unknown; however, high rates
of human exposure are reported. Among urban newborns, 95% to
100% were exposed. One study found a correlation between umbilical
blood levels and head circumference. A CDC study found organophos-
phate pesticide residues in 75% of the general U.S. population and
90% of children, with the highest concentrations found in the children.

Regulation of Toxins Is Needed

Despite the lack of incontrovertible evidence linking all environmen-
tal toxins to specific health outcomes, adoption of a precautionary
principle was proposed by [organizers of a conference at the University
of Wisconsin called Making the Connection: Human Health and
Environmental Exposures]: “When an activity raises the threats of
harm to the environment or human health, precautionary measures
should be taken, even if some cause and effect relationships are not yet
fully established.” It remains to be seen whether regulatory authorities
will see the wisdom in such an approach.

EVALUATING THE AUTHOR’S

ARGUMENTS:
What do you think about the author’s argument that
toxins that have not been researched should be regulated
as a precaution? What arguments can you make for and
against doing so?

120 Disabilities Affecting Learning

 “This text has been suppressed
due to author restrictions”

A learning-disabled teen receives job training at the Walgreens training center in Anderson,
South Carolina. Walgreens plans to train two hundred disabled people for employment.
 Facts About Disabilities Affecting Learning

Editor’s note: These facts can be used in reports or papers to reinforce

or add credibility when making important points or claims.

Learning Disabilities in the United States

According to LDHope.com:
• Of special education students identified as learning disabled (LD),
75 to 80 percent have their basic deficits in language and reading.
• Of students identified with learning disabilities, 35 percent drop
out of high school.
• About 2.25 million children in public schools have learning
disabilities.
• Of adults with severe literacy problems, 60 percent have unde-
tected or untreated learning disabilities.
• Of juvenile delinquents tested, 50 percent were found to have
undetected learning disabilities.
• Up to 60 percent of adolescents in treatment for substance abuse
have learning disabilities.
• Of learning disabled students, 62 percent were unemployed one
year after graduation.
• Of adolescents with learning disabilities, 31 percent will be arrest-
ed three to five years out of high school.

According to the Learning Disabilities Association of Washington:

• Nearly 2.9 million students are currently receiving special educa-
tion services for learning disabilities in the United States.
• Of students receiving special education services through the pub-
lic schools, 50 percent are identified as having learning disabilities.
• The majority of all individuals with learning disabilities have dif-
ficulties in the area of reading.
• Two-thirds of secondary students with learning disabilities are
reading three or more grade levels behind and 20 percent are
reading five or more grade levels behind.

126 Disabilities Affecting Learning

 • Of parents who noticed their child exhibiting signs of difficulty
with learning, 44 percent waited a year or more before acknowl-
edging their child might have a serious problem.
• More than 27 percent of children with learning disabilities drop
out of high school, compared to 11 percent of the general student
population.
• Two-thirds of high school graduates with learning disabilities
were rated “not qualified” to enter a four-year college, compared
to 37 percent of nondisabled graduates.
• Only 13 percent of students with learning disabilities (compared
to 53 percent of students in general population) have attended a
four-year post-secondary school program within two years of leav-
ing high school.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
• The British Medical Journal estimates that some 7 percent of
school-age children have ADHD—and that boys are affected
three times as often as girls.
• According to ADHD expert Richard A. Barkley, the symptoms of
ADHD on average arise between 3 and 6 years of age, particularly
for subtypes of ADHD associated with hyperactive and impul-
sive behavior. Fifty to 80 percent of children clinically diagnosed
with ADHD in childhood will continue to meet the criteria for
diagnosis in adolescence.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):

• In 2002, 7 percent of children in the United States ages six to
eleven had ADHD.
• Half of children in whom a diagnosis of ADHD was made also have
a learning disability. The CDC calculated that at least 1 million chil-
dren have a learning disability without ADHD. The total number
of children with at least one of these disorders was 2.6 million.
• The average annual increase in childhood ADHD diagnoses from
1997 to 2006 was 3 percent, and children with ADHD diagno-
ses were more likely than other kids to have other chronic health
conditions.
• A survey indicated that ADHD is more common among adolescents
and teens than among younger kids; more common among whites

Facts About Disabilities Affecting Learning 127

 or African American children than among Hispanic children; and
more common among kids covered by Medicaid than among unin-
sured or privately insured kids.
Autism
According to the American Society for Autism:
• One in 150 children born has some form of autism.
• Between 1 and 1.5 million Americans have some form of autism.
• Autism is the fastest-growing developmental disability.
• Autism is growing at an annual rate of 10 to 17 percent.
• Autism costs $90 billion annually.
• Of the costs for autism, 90 percent are for adult services.
• Costs of lifelong care for autism can be reduced by two-thirds
with early diagnosis and intervention.
• In ten years the estimated annual cost of autism in the United
States will be $200–400 billion.

128 Disabilities Affecting Learning

 O r ga n i z a t i ons t o C o n t a c t

The editors have compiled the following list of organizations con-

cerned with the issues debated in this book. The descriptions are
derived from materials provided by the organizations. All have pub-
lications or information available for interested readers. The list was
compiled on the date of publication of the present volume; the infor-
mation provided here may change. Be aware that many organizations
take several weeks or longer to respond to queries, so allow as much
time as possible.

Autism Research Institute

4182 Adams Ave.
San Diego, CA 92116
(866) 366-3361
Web site: http://autism.com
The Autism Research Institute (ARI), a nonprofit organization, was
established in 1967. For more than forty years, ARI has devoted its
work to conducting research and to disseminating the results of research
on the triggers of autism and on methods of diagnosing and treating
autism. ARI provides research-based information to parents and profes-
sionals around the world. The searchable ARI Web site has extensive
information on autism.

Autism Society of America (ASA)

7910 Woodmont Ave., Ste. 300
Bethesda, MD 20814-3067
(301) 657-0881
Web site: www.autism-society.org
ASA, a grassroots autism organization, exists to improve the lives of all
affected by autism. ASA attempts to increase public awareness about
the day-to-day issues faced by people on the autism spectrum, advocat-
ing for appropriate services for individuals of all ages and providing
the latest information regarding treatment, education, research, and

Organizations to Contact 129

 advocacy. The organization publishes Autism Advocate, and the group’s
Web site has articles and research about autism.

Council for Exceptional Children (CEC)

1110 North Glebe Rd., Ste. 300
Arlington, VA 22201
(703) 620-3660
e-mail: [email protected]
Web site: www.cec.sped.org
The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) is an international
professional organization dedicated to improving the educational
success of individuals with disabilities and/or gifts and talents. CEC
advocates for appropriate governmental policies, sets professional
standards, provides professional development, advocates for indi-
viduals with exceptionalities, and helps professionals obtain condi-
tions and resources necessary for effective professional practice. The
organization’s Web site has resources concerning the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act.

International Dyslexia Association

40 York Rd., 4th Flr.
Baltimore, MD 21204
(410) 296-0232
Web site: www.interdys.org
The International Dyslexia Association (IDA) is an international orga-
nization that concerns itself with the complex issues of dyslexia. The
IDA membership consists of a variety of professionals in partnership
with dyslexics and their families. The IDA promotes effective teach-
ing approaches and related clinical educational intervention strategies
for dyslexics. IDA publishes Annals of Dyslexia, an interdisciplinary,
peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the scientific study of dyslexia and
related language disabilities, and IDA’s Web site has informative fact
sheets on dyslexia.

Learning Disabilities Association of America (LDA)

4156 Library Rd.
Pittsburgh, PA 15234-1349

130 Disabilities Affecting Learning

(412) 341-1515
Web site: www.ldanatl.org
LDA is a nonprofit volunteer organization advocating for individu-
als with learning disabilities and has over two hundred state and local
affiliates in forty-two states and Puerto Rico. LDA’s international mem-
bership of over fifteen thousand includes members from twenty-seven
countries around the world. The membership, composed of individuals
with learning disabilities, family members and concerned professionals,
advocates for students with learning disabilities and for adults affected
by learning disabilities. The state and local affiliates, through their
affiliation with the national LDA, work continuously for individuals
with learning disabilities, their parents, and the professionals who serve
them. The organization’s Web site has informative position papers on
issues related to learning disabilities.

National Autism Association

1330 W. Schatz Ln.
Nixa, MO 65714
(877) 622-2884
Web site: www.nationalautismassociation.org/
The mission of the National Autism Association is to educate and
empower families affected by autism and other neurological disorders,
while advocating on behalf of those who cannot fight for their own
rights. The organization’s Web site has many articles on autism.

National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD)

381 Park Ave. South, Ste. 1401
New York, NY 10016
(212) 545-7510 or toll-free: (888) 575-7373
Web site: www.ncld.org
NCLD provides essential information to parents, professionals, and
individuals with learning disabilities; promotes research and programs
to foster effective learning; and advocates for policies to protect and
strengthen educational rights and opportunities. The organization’s
searchable database has information about learning disabilities useful
both to parents and educators.

Organizations to Contact 131

 National Institute on Early Childhood
Development and Education
Office of Educational Research and Improvement
U.S. Department of Education
555 New Jersey Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20208
(202) 219-1935
Web site: www.ed.gov
The National Institute on Early Childhood Development and
Education (ECI) was created to carry out a comprehensive program
of research, development, and the spread of information to improve
early childhood development and learning. The institute helps its cus-
tomers through its own research as well as through grants for national
research and development centers and for field-initiated studies. The
institute also provides information and referrals on families and early
childhood development and education. The organization’s Web site
features publications, announcements, and papers on early childhood
development.

Parents Helping Parents

Sobrato Center for Nonprofits—San Jose
1400 Parkmoor Ave., Ste. 100
San Jose, CA 95126
(408) 727-5775
Web site: www.php.com
Parents Helping Parents (PHP) provides lifetime guidance, support,
and services to families of children with any special need and the pro-
fessionals who serve them. The organization’s Web site provides con-
tact information on resources available locally in cities throughout the
United States.

U.S. Autism and Asperger Association

PO Box 532
Draper, UT 84020-0532
(801) 816-1234
Web site: www.usautism.org

132 Disabilities Affecting Learning

U.S. Autism and Asperger Association (USAAA) is a nonprofit orga-
nization for autism and Asperger’s education, support, and solutions.
USAAA’s goal is to provide the opportunity for individuals with autism
spectrum disorders to achieve their fullest potential. The organization
publishes a weekly newsletter, and the group’s Web site has an extensive
library on autism and Asperger’s syndrome.

Organizations to Contact 133

 F o r F u r t h e r Re a d i n g

Books
Ashley, Susan. The ADD and ADHD Answer Book. Naperville, IL:
Sourcebooks, 2005. A reference book that provides advice and
answers to many questions. The book includes questionnaires and
checklists to help parents prior to their child’s evaluation.
Barkley, Russell A., Kevin R. Murphy, and Mariellen Fischer. ADHD
in Adults: What the Science Says. New York: Guilford, 2008. Provides
a new perspective on ADHD in adults based upon two major stud-
ies directed by Barkley. Information is presented on the significant
impairments produced by the disorder across major functional
domains and life activities, including education, work, relationships,
health behaviors, and mental health. Accessible tables, figures, and
sidebars encapsulate the study results.
Bock, Kenneth. Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD,
Asthma, and Allergies. New York: Ballantine, 2007. A clinician spe-
cializing in the biomedical approach to autism asserts that four com-
mon childhood disorders may share the same underlying causes, and
offers a plan to reverse the symptoms of all four.
Buchman, Dana. A Special Education: One Family’s Journey Through
the Maze of Learning Disabilities. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo, 2006.
Describes the story of the author and her daughter, Charlotte, who
has learning disabilities. Buchman tells how she came to terms with
her daughter’s condition and the family’s triumph over the daunting
circumstances of learning disabilities.
Eide, Brock, and Fernette Eide. The Mislabeled Child: How
Understanding Your Child’s Unique Learning Style Can Open the Door
to Success. New York: Hyperion, 2006. The Eides are a husband-wife
team who run a neurolearning clinic in Washington State. Their
book describes the brain processes that underlie different systems
of learning of children who have been labeled autistic, ADHD, and
the like, and offers steps that can be taken to help children whose
processes fall into each category.

134 Disabilities Affecting Learning

The Healing Project. Voices of Autism: The Healing Companion: Stories
for Courage, Comfort and Strength. New York: La Chance, 2008.
Relates real-life stories of lives transformed by autism. Perspectives
include parents of autistic children and autistic adults living success-
fully. The book also contains a comprehensive resources section for
those seeking help and information on the current state of autism
research and treatment.
Heinkle-Wolfe, Peggy. See Sam Run: A Mother’s Story of Autism.
Denton, TX: University of North Texas Press, 2008. Relates
the author’s experience caring for her son, Sam, after he became
uncommunicative and unmanageable. Her struggle to deal with
her child’s autism resulted in a transformation of her own ability
to love and a new appreciation of her son.
Koegel, Lynn Kern, and Claire LaZebnik. Growing Up on the Spectrum:
A Guide to Life, Love and Learning for Teens and Young Adults with
Autism and Asperger’s. New York: Viking, 2009. Describes inter-
ventions for managing life with autism, focusing on issues such as
making and keeping friendships; dating, sex and romance; suc-
cessful school experience; life beyond high school and college; and
improving daily life. Each chapter features real-life narratives. The
book demonstrates how kids with autism can function and thrive
with dignity, self-respect, and autonomy.
McCarthy, Jenny. Louder than Words: A Mother’s Journey in Healing
Autism. New York: Dutton, 2007. Actress and TV personality Jenny
McCarthy describes her life as the mother of an autistic child and
what she has learned from the process.
Rosemond, John K., and Rose Bavenal. Diseasing America’s Children:
Exposing the ADHD Fiasco and Empowering Parents to Take Back
Control. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2008. Argues that certain pro-
fessionals and pharmaceutical companies have used faulty science to
label millions of children with false illnesses. The authors assert that
the science behind ADHD as it is currently defined is unraveling.
Whiffen, Leeann. A Child’s Journey Out of Autism: One Family’s Story
of Living in Hope and Finding a Cure. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks,
2009. A personal account of a young married couple’s struggle after
their child is diagnosed with autism.

For Further Reading 135

 Periodicals
Adams, Caralee. “Girls & ADHD: Are You Missing the Signs?” Instructor
(1990), March 1, 2007.
Albemaz, Ami. “Smoking and Lead Exposure Could Contribute to
ADHD,” Boston Globe, September 25, 2006.
Altonn, Helen. “Hope for Autism Seen,” Honolulu Star-Bulletin, April
12, 2008.
Baldauf, Sarah. “8 Questions Adolescents Are Asking About Stimulants:
Addition Researchers Answer Teens’ Questions about ADHD
Medications,” U.S. News & World Report, April 21, 2008.
Benson, Cathy. “Caring for Children with Autism,” Roanoke Times &
World News, March 28, 2008.
Burrell, Jackie. “Thriving with ADHD,” Oakland Tribune, February
18, 2008
Cannell, John J. “Autism and Vitamin D,” Townsend Letter, April 1,
2008.
Chang, Alicia. “Autism Cases Rise Despite Vaccine Ingredient Removal,”
Deseret News (Salt Lake City), January 8, 2008.
Conan, Neal. “Analysis: Adults with Learning Disabilities,” Talk of the
Nation (NPR), June 8, 2005.
Feldner, Claudia. “People with Learning Disabilities as Consumer
Researchers,” Learning Disability Today, May 1, 2007.
Foley, Nancy E. “Preparing for College: Improving the Odds for Students
with Learning Disabilities,” College Student Journal, September 1, 2006.
Goldberg, Carey. “Rare Genetic Hot Spot Is Linked to Autism,” Boston
Globe, January 10, 2008.
Gwynn, Hilary. “Learning Disabilities: The Pediatrician’s Role,” Pediatric
News, April 1, 2008.
Hadley, Wanda M. “The Necessity of Academic Accommodations for
First-Year College Students with Learning Disabilities,” Journal of
College Admission, April 1, 2007.
Jancin, Bruce. “Memory Training Lifts Some ADHD Symptoms,”
Clinical Psychiatry News, February 1, 2008.
Johnson, D. Richard, Daryl F. Mellard, and Paula Lancaster. “Road to
Success: Helping Young Adults with Learning Disabilities Plan and
Prepare for Employment,” Teaching Exceptional Children, July 1, 2007.

136 Disabilities Affecting Learning

Lovett, Benjamin J., and Lawrence J. Lewandowski. “Gifted Students
with Learning Disabilities: Who Are They?” Journal of Learning
Disabilities, November 1, 2006.
Lyon, Lindsay. “Treating ADHD Without Stimulants,” U.S. News &
World Report, April 21, 2008.
Mahoney, Diana. “Adults with ADHD Need to Know Treatment
Options,” Clinical Psychiatry News, September 1, 2007.
———. “Social and Emotional Costs of Learning Disabilities,” Clinical
Psychiatry News, February 1, 2008.
Neufeld, Paul, and Seanna Takacs. “Learning Disabilities, Schools, and
Neurological Dysfunction,” Journal of Thought, December 22, 2006.
Prater, Mary Anne, Tina Taylor Dyches, and Marissa Johnstun.
“Teaching Students About Learning Disabilities Through Children’s
Literature,” Intervention in School & Clinic, September 1, 2006.
Stein, Martin T. “Go with Experience for ADHD,” Family Practice News,
March 15, 2007.
Stolzer, J.M. “The ADHD Epidemic in America,” Ethical Human
Psychology and Psychiatry, January 1, 2007.
Vogel, Gila, Barbara Fresko, and Cheruta Wertheim. “Peer Tutoring for
College Students with Learning Disabilities: Perceptions of Tutors and
Tutees,” Journal of Learning Disabilities, November 1, 2007.
Wright, Patricia. “Help and Hope for Families Living with Autism,”
Exceptional Parent, April 1, 2008.

Web Sites
Child Development Institute (www.childdevelopmentinfo.com/index
.htm). Includes information on various disabilities affecting learning,
offering articles on diagnosis, treatment, medication, and strategies
for coping.
Mayo Clinic (www.mayoclinic.com/). Provides overviews and related
articles on numerous disabilities affecting learning, including dyslexia,
ADHD, and autism.
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (www.ninds
.nih.gov/disorders/autism/detail_autism.htm). Provides information
about signs, diagnosis, and treatment of autism. The site also includes

For Further Reading 137

 information about the role heredity may play in autism and offers an
excellent list of related organizations.
National Institutes of Health (www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications).
Offers a wealth of information on autism and ADHD. Easy-to-read
booklets on these topics are available for download. The site also includes
scientific studies and the latest news about ADHD and autism.

138 Disabilities Affecting Learning

 Index

A income losses due to, 24–26, 77

Abductions, 69 medications for, 32, 100–114
Abuse victims, children with learning misinformation about, 36
disabilities as, 64–70 as myth, 29–37
Adderall, 102, 103 overdiagnosis of, 103, 108–110
ADHD. See Attention deficit hyperactivity overprescribed drugs for, 106–114
disorder (ADHD) problems caused by, 76–80
Adolescents rates of, 26
adult expectations of, 60 as serious problem, 23–28
with behavior problems, 58–63 treatment of, 9, 82–83
employment preparation for, 121–125 types of, 8
interventions for, 61–63 as typical childhood behavior, 33, 37
risk-taking behavior by, 60 worsening of, with drugs, 112
Adults, with ADHD, 24–28, 76–80, 111 Autism
Alcohol abuse, 59 age of diagnosis of, 39, 42
Ambidextrous, 8 brain changes and, 71–75
Amphetamines causes of, 41–43, 48–49, 54–55
calming effects of, 30–31, 101 classic, 53
schools and, 35–36 controversy over, 9
See also Ritalin as culturally acceptable, 47–48
Amygdala, 72, 73, 74, 75 diversity in severity of, 51–55
Anderson, Barbara, 97 factors contributing to rise in diagnoses
Anti-psychotics, 108–109 of, 44–50
Ascribe Higher Education News Service, identification of, 9
81–85 rates of, 39–41, 48–50
Asperger, Hans, 9 research on, 49–50
Asperger’s syndrome, 46, 47, 50, 53–54 as serious problem, 38–43
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder services for, 47–48
(ADHD) symptoms of, 40–41, 45–46
adults with, 24–28, 76–80, 111 therapy for, 9
behavioral problems and, 62 treatment of, 48, 55
behavioral therapy for, 104–105 Autism Society of America, 9
characteristics of, 101 Autism Speaks, 49–50
controversy over, 9 Autism spectrum disorders (ASD)
criteria for, 36, 37 criteria for, 9, 53
diagnosis of, 9, 36–37, 102 diagnosis of, 46–47
educational attainment and, 26–27 incidence rate of, 39
employment impact of, 27–28 medications for, 48
guidelines for treatment of, 113–114 range of, 52
identification of, 8, 101 Autistic children
impact of, on peer relationships, 81–85 characteristics of, 45–46, 72–75

Index 139
 services for, 47 drugging of unruly, 30–31, 35–36, 108
social interaction difficulties in, 40–41 effects of toxin exposure in, 116–120
as underserved, 40 lead concentrations in, 117, 118
minority, 14–15
B susceptibility of, to toxins, 116
Bates, Steve, 76–80 Children with learning disabilities
Baughman, Fred A., Jr., 29–37 behavior problems in, 57–63
Behavioral problems employment preparation for, 121–125
autism diagnosis and, 45–46 interventions for, 61–63
drugging children with, 30–31, 35–36, isolation experienced by, 7, 9
108 in schools, 96
explanations for, 34–35 social skills instruction for, 125
learning disabilities as cause of, 57–63 special education helps, 87–92
reading difficulties and, 14–15 vulnerability of, to abuse, 64–70
Behavioral therapy, for ADHD, 104–105 Chronic stress, 75
Benzedrine, 30, 31 Ciba, 31
Berlin, Rudolf, 7 Citizens for Limited Taxation, 97
Biederman, Joseph, 24, 26–27, 78–80 Clarkson, Amanda, 113
Bleuler, Eugen, 9 Coal-fired plant emissions, 118
Boys, autism rates in, 41 Cocaine abuse, 111
Bradley, Charles, 30, 31, 101 Concerta, 112
Bradley, Emma Pendleton, 30 Coping with Children’s Temperament
Bradshaw, Jim, 48 (Carey and McDevitt), 36–37
Brain, changes in linked to autism, 71–75 The Creation of Psychopharmacology
Brain function, 7 (Healy), 31
Brain injuries, 7, 32–33
Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment, D
118 Dalton, Kim, 74
Briggs, Freda, 64–70 Davidson, Richard, 72–74
Brominated flame retardants (PBDEs), Davis, Perry, 96
119 Deaths, from Ritalin, 108
Bullying, 69 Dees, Blake, 45–46
Buxton, Craig, 112 DeGrandpre, Richard, 103
Developmental disabilities, 117
C Dexedrine, 31
“Capturing America’s Attention” survey, Dextro-amphetamine, 31, 102
24–27 Diagnosis
Carey, William, 36–37 of ADHD, 9, 36–37
Centers for Disease Control and of autism, 39, 42, 44–50
Prevention (CDC), 39, 47 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM
Chambers, Ellen, 95–96 III), 8
Childhood behavior Dopamine, 107
ADHD as typical, 33, 37 Douglas, Vivian, 8
tolerance for normal, 35 Drug abuse, 69
Children Drug companies. See Pharmaceutical
with ADHD, 81–85 companies
autistic, 40–41, 45–47, 72–75 Drugs. See Medications

140 Disabilities Affecting Learning

Dyslexia G
defining, 19–22 Gall, Franz J., 7
detection of, 13–14 Gerberding, Julie L., 39
early intervention for, 13–14 Gervais, Suzanne, 99
identification of, 7–8 Gillingham, Anna, 8
misunderstandings about, 17–22 Gladwell, Malcolm, 105
multisensory approach for, 14 Goldstein, Gary, 39–43, 49–50
as myth, 18 Growth stunting, 111
phonological deficit and, 12–13
prevalence of, 12, 15, 19 H
research on, 8 Hartman, Benjamin, 40–41
as serious problem, 11–16 Hartman, Elisa, 40–41
teaching methods for, 8 Healy, David, 31, 36, 108–109, 111
undiagnosed, 12 Heavy metals, 118
Dyslexic students Henry, Marynell, 94
intelligence of, 13 Higgs, Steven, 40
neglect of, 12 High school dropouts, 58
Hinshelwood, James, 8
E Hovey, Craig, 29–37
Eddy, Barbara, 25 Hyperactive child syndrome, 8
Education. See Special education Hyperkinetic reaction, 33
Education of All Handicapped Children
I
Act, 96
Immunizations, 41, 48–49, 54–55
Educational attainment, ADHD and,
Inclusion, 98
26–27
Income loss, from ADHD, 24–26, 77
Eisenberg, Leon, 31
Individuals with Disabilities Education
Eli Lilly, 114
Act (IDEA), 122
Emery, Chris, 38–43 Interactive Autism Network, 49
Employment Isolation, 7, 9
ADHD and problems with, 27–28,
77–80 J
preparation of learning-disabled Janssen-Cilag, 114
students for, 121–125 Johnson, Richard, 121–125
Environmental factors
in autism, 48–49 K
in learning disabilities, 115–120 Kanner, Leo, 9
Expressive language disorders, 7 Kendall, Tim, 109–110, 114
Eye contact avoidance, 73–74 Kennedy, Edward, 96
Kennedy Krieger Institute, 39, 49
F Kinesthetic learning strategies, 8
Facial expressions, inability to identify, Kouris, Steven, 115–120
74–75 Kussmaul, Adolph, 7–8
Fernard, Grace, 8
Fletcher, Daniel, 107 L
Fletcher, Hayley, 107, 111–112 Lancaster, Paula, 121–125
Friendships, difficulties with, and ADHD, Language instruction, multisensory
81–85 approach for, 14

Index 141
 Lead, 117, 118 National Institutes for Health, 71–75
Learning disabilities National Longitudinal Study of
as cause of behavioral problems, 57–63 Adolescent Health, 58
prevalence of, 12, 58 National Longitudinal Transition Study 2
research on, 7–9 (NLTS-2), 123
special education to address, 87–92 National Survey of Children’s Health, 58
toxin exposure and, 115–120 Neeleman, David, 35
See also Children with learning No Child Left Behind Act, 97
disabilities Nohle, Robert, 51–55
Lenane, Kevin, 98 Novartis, 31, 114

M O
Mahoney, Diana, 57–63 Orfalea, Paul, 35
Mainstreaming, 98 Organophosphate pesticides, 119–120
Mann, Jennifer, 93–99 Orton, Samuel, 8
Massey, Chuck, 50 Orton-Gillingham teaching method, 8
Massey, Julia, 50 Osher, David, 60–63
Massey, Morgan, 50
Massey, Ryan, 45, 50 P
Massey, Trevor, 50 Parents
McDevitt, Sean, 36–37 blame of, for autism, 47
McNamara, John, 60, 61 of children with ADHD, 84–85
Medications misinformation about ADHD and, 36
for ADHD, 32, 100–114 Peer relationships, difficulties with, and
alternatives to, 113 ADHD, 81–85
for autism spectrum disorders, 48, 55 Pelham, William, 111
excessive dosages of, 111–112 Pervasive developmental disorder—not
overprescribed, 106–114 otherwise specified (PDD-NOS), 46,
pushing of, by drug companies, 111 47, 53
side effects from, 103, 107–108, Pesticides, 119–120
110–112 Pharmaceutical companies, 35–36, 111,
Mellard, Daryl F., 121–125 114
Mental retardation, 47, 48 Phonological deficit, 12–13
Mercury, 41, 55, 118 Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), 118–
Methylphenidate, 31, 102, 107 119
See also Ritalin Pornography, 66, 69
Mikami, Amori Yee, 82–85 Porter, John W., 87–92
Mills, David, 17–22 PR Newswire, 23–28
Minimal brain dysfunction (MBD), 8, Pregnancy, toxin exposure in, 116
31–33 Psychiatry, 34–35
Minority children, 14–15 Public schools. See Schools
Mooney, Jonathan, 7
Multisensory teaching, 8, 14 R
Reading
N components of, 13
National Institute for Health and Clinical difficulties in, and behavior problems,
Excellence, 114 14–15

142 Disabilities Affecting Learning

 as gift, 15–16 helps students with learning disabilities,
importance of, 12 87–92
Reading difficulties. See Dyslexia inclusion and, 98–99
Rice, Catherine, 39 ineffectiveness of, 95–96
Risk-taking behavior, 60 vs. regular education, 94–95
Risperdal, 107–112, 114 school resistance to, 90
Ritalin spending on, 94–97
effects of, 31–32 as too costly, 93–99
increase in use of, 104, 113 unequal services in, 90–91
ineffectiveness of, 107 SpEdWatch, 95–96
lack of long-term benefits of, 110–111 Speech and language therapy, 49
as overprescribed, 34, 108–110 Speed. See Amphetamines
prescriptions for, 103 Spitzer, Robert, 101
promotion of, 35–36 Still, George, 8, 32
response to, 102 Stimulants
safety of, 114 calming effects of, 30–31
side effects from, 107–108, 111 market for, 35–36
study of, 33 See also Ritalin
Stobbe, Mike, 44–50
S Stotzner, Heinrich, 7
Sanghavi, Darshak, 100–105 Stress, 75
Scheuplein, Eddie, 45 Substance abuse, 69
Schools
autistic children as underserved in, 40 T
behavioral problems and, 61–62 Thimerosal, 49
bullying in, 69 Toxin exposure, 115–120
as drug pushers, 35–36 Treatment
employment preparation in, 121–125 of ADHD, 9, 82–83
financial burden of special education of autism, 55
on, 96 See also Medications
number of learning disabled students Trevathan, Edwin, 47
in, 96 Tyson, John, 112–113
resistance by, to special education, 90
Scott, Tom, 94 V
Sexual abuse, of children with learning Vaccinations, 41, 48–49, 54–55
disabilities, 65–70 Violence, against children with learning
Shepherd, Linda, 110 disabilities, 64–70
Shire Pharmaceuticals Group, 23
Silverman, Ralph, 97 W
Social fear, 72–73 Wesby, E. Ruth, 11–16
Social interaction, difficulties with, 40–41 Word blindness, 7–8
Social isolation, 7, 9 Workers with disabilities, 122–125
Social skills instruction, 125
Special education Z
funding of, 90–92, 96–97 Zyprexa, 107, 112, 114

Index 143
 Picture Credits

Maury Aaseng, 15, 19, 26, 32, 41, 49, 52, 62, 66, 74, 78, 84, 91,
95, 104, 113, 117, 124
AP Images, 25, 98, 109, 119, 123
© Roger Bamber/Alamy, 68
© Bubbles Photolibrary/Alamy, 10
© Jeff Greenberg/Alamy, 79
© Christina Kennedy/Alamy, 13
Will & Deni McIntyre/Photo Researchers, Inc., 46
© Brian Mitchell/Alamy, 42
© Max Palmer/Alamy, 59
Phanie/Photo Researchers, Inc., 54, 83, 88
© Phototake, Inc./Alamy, 34
Publiphoto/Photo Researchers, Inc., 86
JB Reed/Bloomberg News/Landov, 102
© vario images GmbH & Co.KG/Alamy, 21
WDCN/Univ. College London/Photo Researchers, Inc., 73
© Janine Wiedel Photolibrary/Alamy, 56

144 Disabilities Affecting Learning