View clinical trials related to Learning Disability.
Filter by:Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1) is a common genetic disorder that is associated with a four times greater risk of learning disabilities, including reading disabilities, and a deficiency of neurofibromin - a protein important in a signaling pathway that regulates learning and memory. Our previous work (NS49096) demonstrated that school-age children with NF+RD can respond to standard phonologically-based reading tutoring originally developed to treat reading disability in the general population. Combining our work with that by other researchers suggesting that a medication (Lovastatin) may counteract the effects of the deficient neurofibromin, and possibly ameliorate learning disabilities in NF1, the investigator propose to examine the synergistic effects of medication plus reading tutoring.
Research and intervention programs for students with learning disabilities (LD) typically address child and family characteristics without examining the school context and conditions that affect adjustment. Focusing on the student with LD can highlight the child and family’s deficits. An ecological theoretical framework guides this research project, a collaboration of the University of Toronto, Faculty of Social Work and Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT), Integra and the Toronto Catholic District School Board. This framework is based on the assumption that people are very much part of and affected by social and environmental settings. Accordingly, it is important not to see the adjustment problems of children with LD as being caused only by their LD. Instead, their academic and social problems are seen as unfolding in larger circumstances that include other children, the classroom, the school, the family and the community. These many factors act together to influence the child with LD and must be taken into account along with individual characteristics of the child.