Diagnostic Assessment of Learning Disabilities in Childhood

Amber E. Brueggemann Taylor, Ph.D., earned her doctoral degree from the University of Georgia with a specialization in learning disabilities. She is currently working as a full-time school psychologist with the Special School District of St. Louis County as well as a part-time supervising psychologist at Community Psychological Services of University of Missouri-St. Louis. Her previous work experiences include being a school psychologist for a program serving children with severe emotional and/or neurodevelopmental disorders, a staff psychologist providing therapy and evaluation for children and adolescents at St. Louis Behavioral Medicine Institute and an evaluator for the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum as part of the St. Louis University Partners for Success grant project. Dr. Taylor is a Missouri licensed psychologist, Missouri certified school psychologist and nationally certified school psychologist.

• 1. Introduction/History of Learning Disability Assessment.- 2. Aptitude-Achievement Discrepancy.- 3. Cognitive Processing.- 4. Response to Intervention.- 5. Low Achievement.- 6. Promising Practices.- 7. Comorbidity and Differential Diagnosis.- Appendix A. States’ Previous Discrepancy Models and Current Identification Models.- Appendix B. States' Response to Intervention Models.- Appendix C. Links to Useful Websites.

"The chapters are ordered in a logical sequence wherein the reader is introduced to learning disabilities as a distinct and separate field and then gradually provided with more specific research-driven chapters focusing on aptitude-achievement discrepancy, cognitive processing, response to intervention, low achievement, and evidenced-based practices. The book concludes with a discussion of comorbidity and differential diagnoses... The author does an excellent job of infusing into the text current research and questions being studied now... The book ... has value for clinicians and scholars who may not directly teach the subject or specialize in assessment but who are likely to come into contact with populations with learning disabilities." Victoria A. Comerchero (PsycCRITIQUES, Vol. 59, No. 44, Article 6)