The History of Special Education: From Isolation to Integration

Introduction

356 Part 3 / Into the New Century LEARNING DISABILITIES Defining Learning Disabilities Learning-disabled students, as they are known in our school systems today, have probably always been in society. But wherever pushing a plow is more important than pushing a pen, the subtle learning problems exhibited by these children are little cause for concern. And whenever the quests for universal schooling and mass literacy face these children with the complexities of learning the three Rs in traditional classrooms, they flounder and fail and soon come to the attention of educators and psychologists. Early research into learning disabilities, conducted by physicians and psychologists who emphasized clinical investigation rather than practical application in the schools, began with the study of brain-injured adults, moved on to brain-injured and mentally retarded children, and then to children of normal intelligence. The initial investigations focused primarily on disorders in three areas-spoken language, written language, and motor and perceptual skills (Mercer, 1979). The history of the field of learning disabilities reveals three main phases of development. During the foundations phase, between about 1800 and 1930, physicians investigated the etiology of specific learning disorders, classifying and categorizing them into different types. The transition phase took place from about 1930 to 1960, as psychologists and educators used many of their predecessors ' theories to develop diagnostic procedures and remedial programming. The integration phase began in 1960 and is still continuing. During this time the field of learning disabilities took the form that we see today (Wiederholt, 1978). Much of the pioneering research concerned children with reading problems. At the outset investigators regarded the condition as a form of imperception , sometimes called agnosia, sometimes mind blindness, word blindness, or word deafness. Word blindness was the most widely described (e.g., Hinshelwood 1900a, 1900b; Kussmaul, 1877; Tredgold, 1929). One Scottish physician, eye surgeon James Hinshelwood, investigated letter, word, and mind blindness (Hinshelwood, 1900a, 1900b). Hinshelwood published Congenital Word Blindness , the first true monograph on the unique problems of children we now refer to as learning disabled (Hinshelwood, 1917). In this work Hinshelwood outlined his belief that reading disabilities are due to the destruction or improper development of the memory centers of the left cerebral hemisphere of the brain (Park and Linden, 1968). Later, Alfred Tredgold (1929) explained that in word blindness the problems concern only the printed word, which the person can see but not understand. Children afflicted are either totally unable to learn to read or they read with the greatest difficulty. The condition is more common in boys than girls, and although , Tredgold said, some children are of average intelligence, the majority are, although not legally mentally defective, of subnormal intelligence. Tredgold also suggested that there could exist a relationship between the condition and left-handedness and mirror writing. Affected children, said Tredgold, often suffer emotional and social difficulties-lack of interest, general indifference, lack of initiative, emotional instability, impulsive behavior, lack of attention, and incapacity for sustained mental application. Chapter II/New Categories, New Labels 357 Sometimes word blindness is accompanied by agraphia, an inability in writing. Word deafness is analogous, but a much rarer condition. In cases of complete mind blindness there is an inability to interpret the meaning of any visual or auditory images, although the person can see and hear adequately (Tredgold, 1929). 1. E. Wallace Wallin, vitally interested in all facets of learning disorders, conducted orthophrenic research-"the righting or correction of the mental functions which are deviated or abnormal through either the removal of physical handicap or the stimulation by appropriate stimuli of functions which are slowed down or retarded" (Wallin, 1914, p. 160). Wallin worked with child prodigies and children with alexia (complete reading disabilities), agraphia (complete writing disabilities), and motor defects but no corresponding mental impairment. In the early 1920s Samuel T. Orton, an American psychiatrist, refused to accept the notions of some of his colleagues that many learning problems are caused by emotional maladjustment. Orton noted that children with learning difficulties often display mixed laterality or come from families where there is evidence of mixed dominance. Orton (1937) proposed a theory that rested on the bilateral symmetry of the brain when he suggested that the failure of one hemisphere of the brain to become dominant causes learning and reading disorders . Orton coined the term strephosymbolia to designate individuals who see "mixed symbols" when they try to read (Orton, 1925). Orton's publications on strephosymbolia attracted considerable attention; they seemed to offer a starting point for learning more...