Specific learning disabilities: Clarifying, not eliminating, a construct

Over the past decades, both researchers and practitioners in the field of specific learning disabilities (LD) have grappled over an appropriate definition as well as the subsequent operational diagnostic criteria. In their article, Dombrowski et al proposed a new set of suggested diagnostic criteria that challenges many of the traditional beliefs about these disorders. This article provides a critique of their proposed criteria as well as an alternative approach for LD identification that is more aligned with current understanding of the etiology and characteristics of these disorders.