The thinking that began this book arose out of some dissatisfaction with the rela tively simplified, unidimensional model of development, which seems to have come to dominate the fields that address the needs of atypically developing chil dren. It seemed impossible to us that developmental differences could explain the range of learning and coping styles we have seen and read about in children iden tified as mentally retarded, slow learning, learning disabled, nonhandicapped, and gifted. If a typical model of development did not account for what children with handicaps to learning could do,...