Teaching Learning Disabled Children to Memorize

A great deal has been written recently about the relative difficulties that learning disabled children manifest in using efficient study or problem-solving strategies. Some studies have also suggested that it may be relatively easy to train these children to use more efficient strategies and thus improve their performance on specific tasks. However, this month's Topical Review shows why such training, if it is to achieve a general increase in learning efficiency, may actually be very difficult. An appreciation of the factors that underlie this difficulty can contribute to the development of effective approaches to helping learning disabled children become more efficient learners.—J.K.T.