Learning disabilities: Individual needs or categorical concerns?

Despite the fact that the field of learning disabilities has grown dramatically in recent years, many questions remain unanswered or disputed. In the absence of a clear definition of learning disabilities, the authors suggest that it has become an educational simile with children described as "like a learning disabled child." It is postulated that the learning disabled label has become reflective of a problem related more to social structure than to children. It is time that the optimism orginally connected with the term should lead to greater attention to individual needs and less emphasis on categorical concerns