Barriers to Identifying Learning Disabilities: A Qualitative Study of Clinicians and Educators.

OBJECTIVE: The estimated prevalence of learning disabilities (LDs) is nearly 8% of all children. Fewer than 5% of all children are diagnosed in public schools, jeopardizing remediation. We aimed to identify barriers affecting front-line childfacing professionals in detecting LDs in school-aged child...

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Publicado en:Academic Pediatrics Vol. 23; no. 6; pp. 1166 - 1175
Autores principales: Stone, Lauren A., Benoit, Laelia, Martin, Andrés, Hafler, Janet
Formato: research tables/charts Journal Article
Publicado: Elsevier B.V. Aug2023
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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      dt: Aug2023
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      pub: Elsevier B.V.
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        atl: Barriers to Identifying Learning Disabilities: A Qualitative Study of Clinicians and Educators.
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          Stone, Lauren A.
          Benoit, Laelia
          Martin, Andrés
          Hafler, Janet
        affil: Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn
      sug:
        subj:
          Intellectual Disability Diagnosis
          Attitude of Health Personnel United States
          Faculty Attitudes United States
          Human
          Qualitative Studies
          Interviews
          Theoretical Sample
          United States
          Mental Health Personnel Psychosocial Factors
          Pediatricians Psychosocial Factors
          Grounded Theory
          Thematic Analysis
          Reflection
          Health Education
          Quality Improvement
          Parental Role
          Caregivers
          Time Factors
          Emotions
          Health Screening
          Descriptive Statistics
          Accountability
          Funding Source
          Child
          Child: 6-12 years
      ab: OBJECTIVE: The estimated prevalence of learning disabilities (LDs) is nearly 8% of all children. Fewer than 5% of all children are diagnosed in public schools, jeopardizing remediation. We aimed to identify barriers affecting front-line childfacing professionals in detecting LDs in school-aged children. METHODS: We conducted a qualitative study with individual interviews of 40 professionals from different areas of the United States identified through theoretical sampling (20 educators, 10 pediatricians, and 10 child mental health clinicians). Clinicians represented academic and community settings, and educators represented public, private, and charter schools. Twenty had expertise in assessing LDs; 20 were generalists without specific training. We also endeavored to maximize representation across age, gender, race and ethnicity, and location. We analyzed transcripts utilizing grounded theory and identified themes reflecting barriers to detection. RESULTS: Themes and sub-themes included: 1) areas requiring improved professional education (misconceptions that may hinder detection, confounding factors that may mask LDs, and need for increasing engagement of parents or guardians in identifying LDs) and 2) systemic barriers (time constraints that limited professionals' ability to advocate for children and to delve into their emotional experiences, inconsistent guidelines across institutions and inconsistent perceptions of professional responsibility for detection, and confusion surrounding screening tools and lack of screening by some professionals in the absence of overt problems). CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians and other child-facing professionals may benefit from augmented training in screening and identification and enhanced evidence-based and institutional guidance. These efforts could increase efficiency and perceived responsibility for recognition and improve earlier detection.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype:
        research
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      ougenre: Article
    language: English
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