MATHEMATICS LEARNING-DISABILITIES - A VIEW FROM DEVELOPMENTAL-PSYCHOLOGY

U.S. education suffers from shortcomings that put even children posses sing adequate intellectual abilities at risk for low mathematics achie vement. Consequently, identifying and understanding children whose aca demic failure is influenced by a genuine learning disability requires a complex ''developmental'' research agenda. This perspective suggests the use of sensitive research methods-clinical interviews, ethnograph ies-to examine the development of children's construction of knowledge in the context of schooling. Researchers should consider such factors as the adequacy of classroom instruction, the availability in childre n of informal knowledge, the role of motivation, the effects of specif ic interventions, the role and operation of different cognitive proces ses in constructing mathematical understanding, children's difficultie s across different areas of mathematics, and the development of childr en's thinking throughout the school years.