Deborah L. Speece Professor Department of Special Education 1308 Benjamin Building College Park, MD 20742 Voice:(301) 405-6482 dlspeece@umd.edu Specialty Area: Learning Disabilities

Deborah Speece's research interests include early literacy, early identification of children at risk for learning disabilities, contextual influences and individual differences that place children at risk, and classification and identification issues that surround the construct of learning disabilities. She is currently the principal investigator for two NICHD grants investigating response to reading intervention of elementary school children. One project is part of a Learning Disabilities Research Center in collaborations with Dr. Martha Denckla and Dr. Laurie Cutting, Kennedy Krieger  Institute/Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Speece is the former editor of Learning Disabilities Research & Practice and currently directs the Doctoral Leadership Training Program in Learning Disabilities.

In addition to her current research and teaching endeavors, Dr. Speece maintains active membership in a number of professional organizations such as CEC, DLD, AERA, and is a fellow of the International Academy for Research in LD. She is on the editorial boards of seven journals including Journal of Learning Disabilities, Exceptional Children, and Contemporary Educational Psychology.