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Learning Disabilities

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Handbook of Pediatric Behavioral Healthcare

Abstract

Learning disabilities are prevalent and have significant health implications. Healthcare and school systems must work collaboratively with families to promote academic health. This chapter proposes best practices in preventing, identifying, and treating learning disabilities with a focus on interprofessional care. Barriers to collaboration across systems are many, including: definitional, conceptual, and linguistic differences across settings; administrative and fiscal pressures; varying beliefs and attitudes related to responsibility of assessing and treating learning disabilities; absence of built mechanisms to coordinate care; and differences in communication preferences. This chapter outlines a shared conceptual and definitional understanding of learning disabilities; delineates roles of healthcare and school settings in the prevention, identification, and treatment of learning disabilities; and synthesizes conceptual and empirical work into an actionable plan for interprofessional care. A case study is included to elucidate what this interprofessional collaboration may look like in practice.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Cody A. Hostutler

  2. Department of Educational Psychology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA

    Matthew J. Gormley

  3. Easton Area School District, Easton, PA, USA

    Seth D. Laracy

  4. Department of Pediatrics, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA

    Melissa Winterhalter

Authors
  1. Cody A. Hostutler
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  2. Matthew J. Gormley
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  3. Seth D. Laracy
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  4. Melissa Winterhalter
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cody A. Hostutler .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of School Psychology, Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Susan G. Forman

  2. Department of School Psychology, Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Jeffrey D. Shahidullah

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Hostutler, C.A., Gormley, M.J., Laracy, S.D., Winterhalter, M. (2018). Learning Disabilities. In: Forman, S., Shahidullah, J. (eds) Handbook of Pediatric Behavioral Healthcare. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00791-1_15

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