This investigation examines the relationship between prior disability-focused training and university staff members’ attitudes toward students with learning disabilities (LD). A survey containing items pertaining to prior disability-focused training experiences and attitudes about students with LD was administered to 300 university staff members. Responses from 112 participants indicated that staff who had not received any form of prior training had greater interest in receiving training regarding LD and had insufficient knowledge to support students with LD. In contrast, staff who had received some form of prior training reported greater scores on general knowledge and sensitivity toward university students with LD. Analyses of training type indicated that staff who had previously participated in disability-related workshops and coursework reported the most positive attitudes, followed by staff who had participated in other forms of training (i.e., reading books and articles or visiting websites). Total number of training types experienced, time spent engaged in training activities, and the amount of time elapsed since training experiences predicted different aspects of staff members’ attitudes and perceptions as well as their satisfaction with prior training. The implications of these findings for future disability-focused professional development efforts within postsecondary settings are discussed.

This investigation examined faculty attitudes, beliefs, and practices with regard to students with learning disabilities (LD). An instrument was designed to measure attitudes and administered to all faculty in a large urban, private university. Responses from 192 faculty members were subjected to an exploratory factor analysis; results indicated that the instrument contained 12 reliable factors. Further, correlational analyses provided preliminary support for the instrument's construct validity by showing that major constructs were associated with each other in expected directions. Descriptive analyses indicated that faculty generally had positive perceptions about students with LD and were willing to spend time supporting students with LD. Consistent with prior research, faculty expressed greater willingness to provide minor, rather than major, accommodations. Group comparisons by faculty gender, academic unit, and rank are reported. The implications of these findings for future research and training efforts are discussed.

This study examined cognitive, academic, and attitudinal predictors of college grade point average (GPA) among college students with learning disabilities (LD). The study population included 84 youth who attended a large private university in the midwestern United States. Measures of cognitive and academic functioning, along with a self-report measure of study habits and study attitudes, were used to predict college GPA. The results indicated that Full Scale IQ and one factor on the self-reported study habits scale accounted for a significant amount of variance in students' college GPA. These findings suggest that variables other than traditional cognitive and academic skills are important for determining the performance of youth with LD during college. The implications of these findings for future research efforts and practice are discussed.

This investigation examined the relationship between prior disability-focused training and university faculty members' attitudes towards students with learning disabilities (LD). A survey containing items designed to measure faculty attitudes was sent to all full-time faculty at one university. Analyses of 198 responses indicated that faculty who had received some form of disability-focused training scored higher on factors pertaining to Willingness to Provide Exam Accommodations, Fairness and Sensitivity, General Knowledge About LD, Willingness to Personally Invest in Students with LD, and personal actions, such as Inviting Disclosure and Providing Accommodations, and lower scores on negatively valenced factors than did faculty who had not received prior training. Faculty who had previously attended disability-related workshops and courses reported the most positive attitudes, followed by faculty who had participated in “other” forms of training (i.e., reading books and articles or visiting websites) and faculty who had received no prior training. The total number of types of training experienced and time spent engaged in training was predictive of faculty attitudes as well as faculty-reported satisfaction with prior training. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Although it is important that children produce enough spontaneous language to be analyzed, length is not the only criterion to be considered when collecting language samples. This article suggests that comparability, representativeness, and typicality must also be considered when selecting language elicitation tasks: A framework is suggested as a basis for selecting or devising tasks, and one successful battery is described which has been field tested on language-disordered children with syntax problems. These tasks elicit a wide variety of language from the children as well as stimulate them to produce a large, representative corpus of utterances.