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Critiques pseudoscientific additions and diagnostic broadening, then examines a parallel “disability” claim in foreign language learning, where studies report no meaningful cognitive, language, or achievement differences from low-achieving non-LD peers.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-invention-of-foreign-language-learning-disability/588244/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/the-invention-of-foreign-language-learning-disability/588244.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Aditya","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-30","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",7,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"How did the concept of learning disabilities (LD) originate and change over time?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"The article notes that LD terminology was coined in 1963 and initially referred to varied labels, then later incorporated a federal definition and the IQ-achievement discrepancy criterion for diagnosis. By the mid-1990s, that discrepancy criterion had been falsified.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"Why do researchers criticize the LD definition and diagnostic procedures?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"It describes that the LD definition became too broad and lacked scientific consensus, and that falsified criteria led researchers to characterize the field as inherently political. It also argues that diagnostic practices can function like pseudoscience due to flexible, expansive criteria.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"What does the article report about foreign language (FL) “learning disability”?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"A colleague and the author tested whether FL learning disability exists, reporting that by 1993 their studies found no cognitive, language, or academic achievement differences between LD and low-achieving non-LD students in FL courses. It also describes postsecondary assumptions that led to course substitutions or waivers.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},588244,1792192100,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,101,106,110,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":97,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":102,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":111,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":115,"language":139,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144,"preview_page_count":4},962085564549,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_085a072bc5b1113ac321206ff7593b45","Acad. Quest . (2022) 35.3 DOI 10.51845.35.3.4  \nThe Invention of Foreign Language “Learning Disability”  \nRichard L. Sparks  \nThe concept of learning disabilities (LD) was coined in 1963. Earlier, the term referred to an assortment of labels such as neurologically handicapped, perceptually handicapped, minimal brain dysfunction, brain injured, and other terms. In 1978, the federal government published its definition of LD, and around the same time, the LD field adopted the notion of aptitude (IQ)-achievement discrepancy as the diagnostic criterion for LD. Early on, researchers questioned the utility of the LD concept and speculated whether LD was another category for low achievement.1 By the mid-80s, the definition proved much too broad, leading an editor of the flagship LD journal to write that there could not be consensus on the definition of LD because the concept emerged from social and political pressure, not scientific evidence.2  \nBy the mid-1990s, the diagnostic criterion for LD, IQ-achievement discrepancy, had been falsified and leading researchers maintained that the term LD made little sense for scientific, clinical, and school policy purposes. Nevertheless, despite the absence of an empirically-based definition and valid diagnostic criterion, LD became part of the cultural landscape and the number of students diagnosed as LD and served by public schools expanded. In the 1990s, students classified as LD were enrolling in colleges and universities where they were provided with instructional and testing accommodations.3  \n1 Bob Algozzine, James Ysseldyke.“Learning Disabilities as a Subset of School Failure: The Over-sophistication of a Concept.” Exceptional Children 50, no. 3 (1983): 242-246.  \n2 Gerald M. Senf,“Learning Disabilities as Sociologic Sponge: Wiping up Life’s Spills,” Research in Learning Disabilities: Issues and Future Directions (1987): 87-101.  \n3 P.G. Aaron,“The Impending Demise of the Discrepancy Formula,” Review of Educational Research 67, no. 4 (1997): 461-502; Reid G. Lyon,“Learning Disabilities,” The Future of Children 6, no. 1 (1996): 54-76; National Center for Educational Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics (2021), [https://nces.ed.gov/](https://nces.ed.gov/)[ ](https://nces.ed.gov/)[programs/digest/d21/tables/dt21_204.30.asp](programs/digest/d21/tables/dt21_204.30.asp); Susan Vogel, Pamela B. Adelman. Success for College Students with Learning Disabilities (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1993) .  \nRichard L. Sparks is a professor emeritus of Mount St. Joseph’s Department of Graduate Education. He earned his [Ph. D. at](Ph. D. at) the University of Cincinnati and he has published extensively in both foreign language and learning disability journals .  \nSince its inception, the LD field has been home to a number of pseudoscientific creations. For example,“stealth dyslexia,” a term describing students with above average reading ability that inverts the definition of dyslexia, i.e. , severe deficits in reading, has emerged.4 Indeed, the Journal of Learning Disabilities recently published a paper titled “High reading skills mask dyslexia in gifted children.”5 (The title prompted a colleague to quip that 20/20 vision might mask blindness in visually impaired children.) The hallmark of a learning disability is supposed to be academic deficits in reading, writing, and math, i.e. , substantial impairments of 1.5 standard deviations (SD) below the population mean forage, i.e., below average achievement (≤ 7th percentile) on standardized achievement tests of reading, math, or writing without regard to IQ. But the notion that LD is an academic deficit is routinely undermined by information that conflates LD with nonacademic problems such as aphasia, visual processing disorder, ADHD, auditory processing disorder, dyspraxia, and other problems and by clinicians who use flexible and expansive diagnostic criteria and diagnose individuals with normal behaviors and average achievement as disabled.6  \nThe LD ","cbCaimqwCuMvMSBN","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaimqwCuMvMSBN","pdf",278188,"English","# The invention of foreign language “learning disability”\n## Origins and evolving definitions of LD\n## Scientific critiques and diagnostic broadening\n## A new learning “disability” in foreign language education","[{\"question\":\"How did the concept of learning disabilities (LD) originate and change over time?\",\"answer\":\"The article notes that LD terminology was coined in 1963 and initially referred to varied labels, then later incorporated a federal definition and the IQ-achievement discrepancy criterion for diagnosis. By the mid-1990s, that discrepancy criterion had been falsified.\"},{\"question\":\"Why do researchers criticize the LD definition and diagnostic procedures?\",\"answer\":\"It describes that the LD definition became too broad and lacked scientific consensus, and that falsified criteria led researchers to characterize the field as inherently political. It also argues that diagnostic practices can function like pseudoscience due to flexible, expansive criteria.\"},{\"question\":\"What does the article report about foreign language (FL) “learning disability”?\",\"answer\":\"A colleague and the author tested whether FL learning disability exists, reporting that by 1993 their studies found no cognitive, language, or academic achievement differences between LD and low-achieving non-LD students in FL courses. It also describes postsecondary assumptions that led to course substitutions or waivers.\"}]","The Invention of Foreign Language “Learning Disability” | PDF",1792064831,23]