Linda S. Siegel (born 1942) is an American-born psychologist and academic known for her research into the cognitive aspects of learning disabilities. She is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

in Vancouver, Canada where she held the Dorothy C. Lam Chair in Special Education.

Life and career

Siegel was born in Washington, D.C., but grew up in New York City where her family moved when she was six years old. She received her B.A. in 1963 from

Queens College, City University of New York Queens College (QC) is a public college in the Queens Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City. It is part of the City University of New York system. Its 80-acre campus is primarily located in Flushing, Queens. It has a student body ...

and went on to post-graduate work at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

where she received her M.S.in 1964 and Ph.D. in 1966. Her doctoral dissertation was on information processing in children.Stanovich, Keith (1993)
SCRD Oral History Interview: Linda Siegel

Society for Research in Child Development The Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) is a professional society for the field of human development, focusing specifically on child development. It is a multidisciplinary, not-for-profit, professional association with a membership of ...

. Retrieved 28 May 2015.

Linda Siegel: ''Curriculum Vitae''
Retrieved 28 May 2015 Before her appointment to the Dorothy C. Lam Chair in Special Education at the University of British Columbia in 1996, Siegel held posts at the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...

in Columbia; Department of Psychiatry

McMaster University Medical Centre The McMaster University Medical Centre (MUMC) is a major Ontario hospital with three key services: McMaster Children's Hospital, Women's Health Centre and Adult Outpatient Services. It is a teaching hospital in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It is a p ...

, in Hamilton, Ontario; and

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT) is Canada's only all-graduate institute of teaching, learning and research, located in Toronto, Ontario. It is located directly above the St. George subway sta ...

in Toronto. In 2004 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the

University of Gothenburg The University of Gothenburg ( sv, Göteborgs universitet) is a university in Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg. Founded in 1891, the university is the third-oldest of the current Swedish universities and with 37,000 students and 6000 st ...

in Sweden and held the university's

Kerstin Hesselgren Kerstin Hesselgren (14 January 1872 – 19 August 1962) was a Swedish politician. Hesselgren became the first woman to be elected into the Upper House of the Swedish Parliament after female suffrage was introduced in 1921. She was elected by sug ...

Visiting Professorship for the academic year 2004/2005. Siegel was awarded the 2010

Canadian Psychological Association The Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) is the primary organization representing psychologists throughout Canada. It was organized in 1939 and incorporated under the Canada Corporations Act, Part II, in May 1950. Its objectives are to imp ...

Gold Medal for Distinguished Lifetime Contributions to Canadian Psychology, and in 2012 she became the first recipient of the ''Australian Journal of Learning Difficulties'' Eminent Researcher Award. Her most recent book, ''Understanding dyslexia and other learning disabilities'', was published by Pacific Educational Press in 2013.

Research

Siegel's earliest research was on human information processing which in the 1980s became increasingly focused on developmental disabilities, especially reading disability. Many of her most well-known papers are on the relationship between IQ and reading disability classification. Her research on that relationship has at times proved controversial. In her 2012 paper "Confessions and Reflections of the Black Sheep of the Learning Disabilities Field", Siegel presented evidence from her long-term research to support her contention "that the IQ score is unnecessary in the diagnosis of whether or not there is a learning disability". She also criticized as "very regressive", trends to demand testing for "'processing deficits', even though there is no evidence that processing deficits are useful for either diagnosis or remediation" of learning disabilities. Siegel has been one of several academics who have criticized studies supportive of "brain training" programs and especially the Arrowsmith program founded by Barbara Arrowsmith Young in 1978. Siegel appeared in ''Fixing My Brain'', a 2008 CBC documentary, about the Arrowsmith program, although a portion of her highly critical commentary was removed prior to broadcast after Arrowsmith Young's lawyers threatened the CBC with a lawsuit. Works with overviews of Siegel's research include Brueggemann Taylor's 2014 book ''Diagnostic Assessment of Learning Disabilities in Childhood'' and the 2003 article by Hayman-Abello ''et al.'', "Human neuropsychology in Canada: The 1990s".Hayman-Abello, Brent ''et al.'' (May 2003). "Human neuropsychology in Canada: The 1990s". ''Canadian Psychology'', Vol. 44, No. 2, pp. 100-138.

References

External links

Linda Siegel profile
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Siegel, Linda American women psychologists American developmental psychologists Psychology educators Academic staff of the University of British Columbia University of Missouri faculty Yale University alumni Queens College, City University of New York alumni 1942 births Living people American women academics 21st-century American women American educational psychologists 21st-century American psychologists