USD School of Education Professors Receive Grant to Study Learning Disability Identification
The grant, funded by the Woodcock Institute of Neurocognitive Research and Applied Practice, supports the University School of Education researchers’ efforts to help school psychologists accurately assess and identify learning disabilities such as dyslexia. School psychologists would be better equipped to provide referral services, thus allowing more students with learning disabilities to receive support from special education services.
“What is most exciting about this work is the potential to impact how we use cognitive ability assessments within a learning disability identification framework,” Hajovsky said. “This study is a new look at an old problem that is long overdue.”
Working effectively at the margins of skill level (i.e., lower skill level) includes early identification of students who will likely need more intensive academic skill instruction.
“I am excited for this research as it uses a novel methodology, quantile multiple regression, to study cognitive abilities and academic skills,” Villeneuve said. “Using quantile multiple regression in this line of research may lead to greater accuracy in specific learning disability identification.”
Another potential outcome from this research is that it can help inform measures of giftedness. For example, this study may reveal which variables explain individual differences for more academically-capable students. One notable individual difference is writing ability, a relatively understudied area of achievement.
Hajovsky and Villeneuve hope to present their findings at the American Education Research Association in 2019.
