Rethinking Learning Disabilities: Understanding Children Who Struggle in School

Experts have yet to reach consensus about what a learning disability is, how to determine if a child has one, and what to do about it. Leading researcher and clinician Deborah Waber offers an alternative to the prevailing view of learning disability as a problem contained within the child. Instead, she shows how learning difficulties are best understood as a function of the developmental interaction between the child and the world. Integrating findings from education, developmental psychology, and cognitive neuroscience, she offers a novel approach with direct practical implications. Detailed real-world case studies illustrate how this approach can promote positive outcomes for children who struggle in school.

Deborah P. Waber, PhD, is Senior Associate in Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Children’s Hospital Boston and Associate Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Her research includes innovative work on the development of children with learning and attention disorders and large-scale studies of the typical development of schoolchildren. Dr. Waber has published peer-reviewed studies on related topics, including neuropsychological effects of therapy in childhood cancer patients and outcomes in children with neurogenetic disorders, prematurity, and early malnutrition. In addition to her research work, she has a clinical practice as Senior Neuropsychologist in the Learning Disabilities Program in the Department of Neurology at Children’s Hospital Boston. She is also actively engaged in clinical training and mentoring young investigators.