Linking the Needs of Students with Learning Disabilities to a Whole Language Curriculum

Editor's Comment: In this issue we continue with the four-part special series on a constructivist view of learning disabilities. For an overview of this special series, see Dr. Mary Poplin's Introduction in the August/September 1995 issue (Volume 28, Number 7) of the Journal of Learning Disabilities.—JLW As a curricular approach to language arts instruction, whole language has gained prominence in the last decade. Many researchers and practitioners working in the field of learning disabilities have questioned the appropriateness of whole language for students considered to be learning disabled. In this article a rationale is presented for how the whole language approach provides the type of environment that is particularly suitable for these students. This is developed by analyzing the documented characteristics of these learners and the implications of those characteristics within a whole language curriculum.