SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

Summer Semester 1999

EDUC 422 - 4 ?

Dr. B.Wong

Learning Disabilities

Office MPX 9505

Tel:

291-4115

D01.00 ?

E-mail: bwong©sfu.ca

PREREQUISITE

60 credit hours & Corequisite Educ 220

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Major topics covered in Educ 422 include: A lifespan approach to understanding learning

disabilities (LD), conceptual and definitional issues in LD, a language-oriented view to reading.

disability, visual processing problems, reading research and LD, metacognition and LD, and social

aspects of LD.

Educ 422 will consist of lectures supported by tutorial sessions. For these tutorial sessions students

will be divided into groups which will meet regularly with either an instructor or a teaching

assistant. Tutorial participation is important because it ensures thorough understanding of text.

OBJECTIVES

This course focuses on the conceptual, research and assessment aspects of learning disabilities. It is

the prerequisite course to Educ 424-4: Learning Disabilities Lab. Educ 424 focuses on providing

students with instruction and practice in informal assessment of reading, mathematic and writing

problems and remediation of them.

A pointer from the instructor:

Students are encouraged to take both courses (422 and 424) together. However, it is NOT

mandatory for them to take both together. The advantages of taking both courses are that a

student can better relate learning in Educ 422 to Educ 424. Students who took an integrated course

load of both Educ 422 and Educ 424 in the past summers tended to report that despite the heavy

demands of the course work, they found them to be worthwhile because they learned a lot from

seeing theory translated into practice before their eyes. The disadvantages come from the heavy

demands of course work, especially Educ 424. So students must make well-considered decisions

when it comes to whether or not to take both courses together.

REQUIREMENTS

• Two quizzes, each worth 35% - total 70%

• Three short think papers, each worth 10% each - total 30%

REQUIRED READING

Wong, B.Y. L. The ABC's of Learning Disabilities. San Diego: Academic Press, 1996.

ISBN 0-12-76254-3.