A history of Learning Difficulties Australia: part two – a national identity

Josephine C. Jenkinson

Abstract
Part Two in this series of articles on the history of Learning Difficulties Australia traces efforts by the Australian Remedial Education Association (AREA) to establish a national identity, from the early 1970s to the early 1980s when significant changes in special education policy were beginning to take effect. For AREA it was a very active time, as membership grew rapidly and the association sought to provide a variety of services and support for its members through workshops, seminars, conferences and publications, established a successful referral service for qualified remedial consultants, and through lobbying and government submissions achieved recognition as the peak professional body concerned with learning difficulties.