This text focuses on four high-prevalence disabilities: mild mental retardation, learning disabilities, ADHD, and behavioral disorders. It begins with the conventional categorical perspective, and then moves to the perspective of alternative, non-categorical frameworks.

Learners with Mild Disabilities focuses on students with disabilities with respect to their individual strengths and needs, considering their cognitive, perceptual, language, academic learning, and social/emotional characteristics. The reader is encouraged to apply these conceptual frameworks through analysis of the numerous vignettes and extended case studies — stories which are drawn from the experiences of real children and teachers. The approach of this book emphasizes the complex nature of mild disabilities and provides an alternative to the notion that these are discrete disabilities.