There are millions of children, across America, who are classified as learning disabled before they complete their secondary school education. The purpose of this study is to identify those resiliency factors that have enabled students of color, identified as learning disabled, to academically and socially succeed in life. These factors are self-concept, family support and access to community/cultural linkages. It is presumed that a Black or Latino, identified, as learning disabled, would experience academic success and excellence if the student had a positive self-concept, strong family support, and connection within a particular community or cultural group. It is anticipated that this conceptual model will provide an understanding of the association between resiliency and academic achievement. The dominant thought guiding this study is that academic excellence or achievement is a skill combining positive self-concept, perseverance and support from family and the community. The data, once compiled and analyzed, will have critical implications for social work practice with the learning disabled, and reveal multicultural issues concerning the Black and Latino learning disabled population, who can have greater vulnerability because of their minority status.  

Diann Cameron Kelly, PhD, LMSW is associate provost for student success and professor in social work, and former interim dean at Adelphi University School of Social Work. She served as an American Council on Education Fellow at Shenandoah University in Winchester, VA. She authored many articles on civic engagement and service learning, as well as child and adolescent development. In addition to these publications, she is also the editor and author of Treating Young Veterans, a book on ways to service the veteran community, as well as other books on child abuse and neglect, social activism and contemporary slavery. She is working on a book on civic engagement. She is a former Fahs Beck Fellow with the New York Community Trust, in which she explored the social components of the Civil Rights Era and the influence of these components on civic engagement.