Two-Year Group Treatment for Children with Learning Difficulties: Assessing Effects of Treatment Duration and

The results of a 2-year treatment study of children with learning problems are reported. During the first treatment year, half of the children participated in a multifaceted neurocognitive treatment and the other half in a treatment that provided supervision of school tasks and peer group support. During the second treatment year, all children participated in the neurocognitive treatment. The participants were 74 Chilean children 6 to 11 years old. The issues under investigation were the effect of treatment duration, and the relationship between pretreatment neurocognitive and behavioral characteristics and academic treatment outcome. The results indicated that significant gains occurred during both the first and the second treatment year. No major differences were found between the treatment groups. Pretreatment negative behavioral traits were associated with lesser academic growth in the group participating in the homework supervision treatment but not in the neurocognitive treatment group. Learning disabilities (LD) have been extensively studied dur-ing recent decades, but, at the same time, researchers have paid little attention to the implications of the growing diagnostic knowledge for treatment planning or for the efficacy of treatment methods. The need fo