With the passage of Public Law 94-142 in 1975 the learning disability construct gained
national legitimacy. Feeding that political achievement behind the very idea of a learning
disability was the development of a science that blended neurology psychology and education.
This book tracks the historical creation of the science of learning disabilities beginning
with the clinical research with brain-injured World War I soldiers conducted by German
physician Kurt Goldstein. It traces the growth of the two primary research traditions the
psycholinguistic theory of Samuel Kirk and the movement education of Newell Kephart exploring
how specific scientific orientations theories and practices led to the birth of the learning
disability in the United States.
