The Learning Disabilities Association of America, the organization that provided the foundation for recognition of LD in the US in the early 1960s, announced that the program for its 64th annual conference is available and registration for the meeting is open. Prospective attendees—parents, teachers, researchers, administrators, and advocates (among others)—may find the meeting agenda and registration information at ldacon.org.
The meetings are slated for 17-19 February 2027 and will be held in Las Vegas (NV, US). On the ldacon Website one can peruse the program and discover that multiple members of the Special Education Today community are on the program.
It was at a meeting in 1963—a meeting that reasonable people might consider the origin of the Association for Children with Learning Disabilities (now known as LDA)—that a group of the most influential special educators at that time came together to propose that learning disabilities become a category of special education. Samuel Kirk proposed the group use the behavioral term of “LD,” as documented by Dan Hallahan and Bill Cruikshank (1973) in the book, Psychological Foundations of Learning Disabilities. See, also, the LDA history. So, Dear Readers, one can see that the 64th meeting has a history!
Just a personal note about my own history: I attended an ACLD conference in (I think) 1976 in Seattle Washington. The parents of a child with LD gave Doug Carnine and me a ride from Eugene (OR) to Seattle so that we all could attend the meeting. LD was a very hot topic in special education at that time…there were literally 100s of speakers attending the meeting.
Based on my quick review of the program, the 2027 meeting promises to be worth attending, too. SET will provide additional detail in future stories.
Reference
Hallahan, D. P., & Cruickshank, W. (1973). Psychological foundations of learning disabilities. Prentice-Hall. (Translated into German, 1979, Padagogisch - psychologische grundlagen. E. Reinhard.)
I received my Illinois LD teacher certification in 1973 after my masters program at Illinois State University.