Learning Re-abled

Students with learning disabilities are entering college in far greater numbers than ever before, but most composition instructors have little experience working with these students and current composition theory doesn't offer much help. In the first comprehensive study to connect composition and learning disabilities, Patricia Dunn will both challenge and confirm what many believe about writing. Learning Re-Abled examines the many issues that contribute to the learning disability controversy and provides historical perspectives on LD and composition, showing how the two fields complement and conflict with each other. She discusses the disagreements surrounding different educational approaches and makes sense of the claims and counterclaims of the experts. Dunn wrote this book because years of teaching experience and a doctorate in composition studies could not account for the linguistic difficulties some of her students were experiencing - including her own nephew. By reading widely, tutoring, and interviewing LD college students, she came to realize that there is much hope for our educational system and its ability to help all students learn - but only if we adopt a much more flexible, creative, and broad-minded approach to learning, which is what her book demonstrates. Learning Re-Abled is not a claim to know but an invitation to explore and include, not exclude. It is also a challenge to broaden and enrich the learning of all students and teachers by recognizing ways of knowing that will allow the learning disabled to become re-abled.