Editor's Comment:Thefield of learning disabilities-as well as all of special services-has recently begun to focus on the transition needs of persons with learning problems. Specifically, skills and abilities that individuals need at the next stage of their life cycle are noted and training is begun at an earlier stage. For example, the skills and abilities a person needs to succeed in a secondary school are focused upon in elementary education training efforts. What has been almost totally ignored in research efforts to date are the skills and abilities an adult with learning disabilities needs to succeed in life. The following two articles significantly add to our efforts in transition education. Readers' comments are welcome.-JLW The results of a needs assessment of learning disabled adults based on surveys of the perceptions of learning disabled adults, providers of services to learning disabled adults, and consumers or advocates for learning disabilities are presented. The results of the survey of the learning disabled adults, service providers, and consumers indicate that learning disabled adults have major academic, social, personal, and vocational needs that must be addressed if they are to attain adult competence. A comparison across all need areas indicated that service providers and consumers identified vocational needs involving securing an appropriate job and vocational rehabilitation services as the most critical need area of learning disabled adults, with a second need area involving learning disabled adults'poor self-concept, lack of self-understanding, and lack of self-acceptance. Recommendations are made for services in academics, secondary and post-secondary vocational training, social skills, and counseling and psychotherapy.

This 3-year Model Demonstration Project involved the development and field testing of an individualized course-specific strategy instruction model with college students with learning disabilities and AttentionDeficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The 46 participants received individualized semester-long strategy instruction by graduate students in special education. A variety of data sources were used to evaluate the implementation of the model as well as the academic success of students who received individualized strategy instruction. Quantitative analyses indicated that the group as a whole as well as the subset of students on probation and suspension significantly improved their grades and sustained this improvement over time. Qualitative analysis identified two factors related to improvement: independent use of strategies and the supportive nature of the strategy instructor-student relationship. Qualitative analysis also identified two factors related to nonimprovement: academic/cognitive skill deficits and emotional/medication-related issues. Implications of the model for postsecondary education and suggestions for future research are discussed.The increase in students with learning disabilities and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) enrolled in postsecondary education is well documented Requests for reprint should be sent to

To determine attitudes about employing workers with learning disabilities, 326 employers from six states were surveyed about their attitudes toward hiring the handicapped in general and the learning disabled in particular. The employers expressed positive attitudes toward making special allowances for handicapped workers as long as such allowances did not involve reduced workloads or involvement in the workers personal life. Less positive attitudes were expressed toward hiring the learning disabled. Only one-half of the employers stated that they would hire workers with learning disabilities. These negative attitudes did not seem to be related to lack of knowledge about learning disabilities, but rather seemed to relate to prejudice against workers with learning disabilities or lack of experience in supervising such workers.

Social perception deficits are viewed as.the most serious of all types of learning disabilities and yet little attention has been given to remediating such deficits. I n Part 1 of this two-part article an approach for ameliorating such disabilities based on task analysis and diagnosis and prescription is described. Nonverbal communication skills are task analyzed into step-by-step sequences with a four-stage teaching approach: discrimination of spec12c so&l cuiq understanding of the social meanings of such cues, appropriate usage of such cues, and application of such cues to actual social problems.In Part 1, teaching activities based on this four-stage approach are given for the nonverbal communication areas of kinesics, or body language. In Part 2, teaching activities for these educationally less familiar nonverbal communication areas will be described: proxemics, or the use of space; vocalics, or !he use of prosodic, paralinguistic, and nonlinguistic features; and artlfactual cues such as cosmetics and clothing. 0th parents and professionals have recognized B that of the many different types of learning disabilities perhaps the most debilitating of all is a disability in social perception (Bader 1975). Such a disability has been defined as an inability to identify and recognize the