S pecific learning disability (SLD) has been a recognized type of disability for which students can be eligible for special education services since the passage of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act 89 Stat. 773, codified at 20 U.S.C. § 1400), the first federal special education law in 1975. The number of students classified with SLD grew steadily from 1975 until 2000 when they began to decline; they have dropped 14% since 2000 (Cortiella, 2011). Although it is beyond the scope of our study to provide a comprehensive literature review here, it is worth noting that the nature and diagnosis of SLD has been extensively researched and discussed for many years ( Johnson, Humphrey, Mellard, Woods, & Swanson, 2010). Recently the National Research Center on Learning Disabilities (NRCLD) issued a report (Cortiella, 2011) which summarized current trends and initiatives related to supporting students with SLD. In addressing the decline in the numbers of students with SLD, the report identified three probable key factors: (a) improved understanding and application of effective beginning reading

In this paper I begin by discussing the reinforcement offered to ontological dualism by biomedicine. It then describes some parallels between the development of feminist health activism and that of professional, non-medically qualified homoeopathy, going on to ask whether alternative medicine can offer a 'political' challenge to ontological dualism. Three aspects of the feminist critique of biomedicine are discussed in relation to contemporary, feminist, homoeopathy. They include the power dynamics within the clinical encounter, the degree to which social and environmental issues are incorporated within medical diagnosis and treatment, and the manner in which the patient's subjective experience is used during case-taking. I conclude that contemporary feminist homoeopathy does address the concerns relating to dualism and power raised by the health activists of second wave feminism; it therefore must be considered a 'feminist' form of medicine. However, its very success in this regard raises a new set of difficulties and tensions. Although holistic forms of medicine do have the potential to address the ontological dualism which is inherent to biomedicine, they may also increase the capacity practitioners have to construct and enforce normative forms of behaviour through their clinical practice. In addressing one set of feminist concerns relating to biomedicine, homoeopathic practice may actually intensify the dangers relating to a second set of feminist concerns.

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This study investigated the feasibility of a teacher implemented intervention to accelerate phonological awareness, letter, and vocabulary knowledge in 141 children (mean age 5 years, 4 months) who entered school with lower levels of oral language ability. The children attended schools in low socioeconomic communities where additional stress was still evident 6 years after the devastating earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2011. The teachers implemented the intervention at the class or large group level for 20 h (four 30-min sessions per week for 10 weeks). A stepped wedge research design was used to evaluate intervention effects. Children with lower oral language ability made significantly more progress in both their phonological awareness and targeted vocabulary knowledge when the teachers implemented the intervention compared to progress made when teachers implemented their usual literacy curriculum. Importantly, the intervention accelerated children's ability to use improved phonological awareness skills when decoding novel words (treatment effect size d = 0.88). Boys responded to the intervention as well as girls and the skills of children who identified as Māori or Pacific Islands (45.5% of the cohort) improved in similar ways to children who identified as New Zealand European. The findings have important implications for designing successful teacherimplemented interventions, within a multi-tier approach, to support children who enter school with known challenges for their literacy learning.

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