Preface

Summary

This book, Specific learning disabilities and difficulties in children and adolescents: Psychological assessment and evaluation, is devoted to the topic of specific learning disabilities, with a focus on their assessment. The terms ‘learning disabilities’ (LD) and ‘specific learning disabilities’ (SLD) are used interchangeably throughout the book. When a chapter author uses the term learning disabilities, it should always be interpreted as specific learning disabilities.

The field of learning disabilities assessment has long been controversial, and remains so as the twenty-first century begins. Controversies have raged over definitions, interventions, and instruments. Recent articles in the Journal of Learning Disabilities (by leaders in the field such as Linda Siegel, Keith Stanovich, and Frank Vellutino) have called for the elimination of the IQ—achievement discrepancy from the definition of specific learning disabilities, and some leaders are demanding the elimination of IQ tests from the psychoeducational assessment process. To some extent, these arguments are based on the continued use of Wechsler's scales for the diagnosis of specific learning disabilities. We deal with these controversies in the concluding chapter of this book. However, one of the reasons that we wanted to write this book in the first place was because of the many alternatives to the Wechsler scales that became available during the last two decades of the previous millennium.