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Reports that Sam Kirk "coined the term, 'learning disabilities," and first used it in a speech in Chicago are, at best, misleading. He is justly credited with promoting the concept of LD in the 1960s, but he was not the first to use it nor was his speech in Chicago in 1963 his first use of it.
The term 'learning disabilities' appeared in the literature at least as early as 1958 when it was used in Journal of Pediatrics: Thelander, H. E., Phelps, J. K., & Kirk, E. W. (1958). Learning disabilities associated with lesser brain damage. Journal of Pediatrics, 53, 405-409. (To the best of my knowledge, E. W. Kirk was no relation to S. J. Kirk.)
Kirk had used the term "learning disabilities" in print over a year earlier than the referenced speech: Kirk, S. A., & Bateman, B. (1962). Diagnosis and remediation of learning disabilities. Exceptional Children, 29(2), 73-78. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/001440296202900204
