Adolescents with learning disabilities: Perspectives from an educational clinic

In recent years, diagnosis and treatment of LD adolescents have primarily been considered from the public school perspective. This article, however, examines the characteristics, diagnosis, and treatment of LD adolescents from a clinical perspective. Johnson, Blalock, and Nesbitt present data on LD adolescents that have been gathered at the diagnostic-remedial clinic at Northwestern University. Specifically, the following areas are discussed: (a) detailed descriptive data on the characteristics of the populations, (b) diagnostic and data coding strategies, (c) remedial goals, philosophy, and techniques for adolescents, and (d) issues related to programming for older students. This article clearly illustrates the value of studying LD populations in clinical settings as a means of better understanding their characteristics and their responsiveness to intervention procedures.