Literacy Proficiency and Science for Students With Learning Disabilities

The purpose of this article is to describe program alternatives in science for students with learning disabilities and their implications for reading and writing. We review opportunity to learn, the science performance of students with learning disabilities, science textbook instruction, literacy and science, and alternatives to reading-dependent science programs. Finally, we present an alternative framework for science and literacy as related to students with learning disabilities. The proposed alternative emphasizes the teaching of science with only minimal dependency on literacy skills and processes. In addition, we recommend the integration of the teaching of literacy skills and processes into the content of science after the science has been learned.