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Students with Learning Disabilities (LDs) can experience classroom challenges that may negatively impact their social and emotional development, and these struggles can put them at risk for mental health issues and lower quality of life. Programs designed to support students with LDs need to consider not only academic skills and accommodations, but also the broader well-being of these students. Among interventions that address holistic student development are mentoring programs that utilize peer mentors (older students who also have LDs). The purpose of this article was to review key literature on the potential benefits of peer mentoring for students with LDs. According to reviewed articles, peer mentoring programs have been implemented in both school and university settings. In addition to conferring academic benefits to mentees, participation in these programs is associated with increased emotional well-being, higher self-esteem, and better communication skills among mentees. These programs may also benefit mentors, but these benefits have been understudied. More research is needed to determine the positive benefits of mentoring for mentors and mentees with similar learning characteristics, above and beyond positive benefits of mentorship in general. 

The idea of a bilingual advantage in aspects of cognitive control—including cognitive flexibility, inhibition, working memory, and attention—is disputed. Using a sample of kindergarten children, the present study investigated associations between bilingualism and cognitive flexibility—a relationship that has shown mixed findings in prior literature. We also extend prior work by exploring relationships between bilingualism and attentional fluctuations, which represent consistency in attentional control and contribute to cognitive performance. To our knowledge, no previous study has explored this association. Theoretically, attentional fluctuations might mediate or moderate the relationship between bilingualism and cognitive flexibility. However, given evidence of null findings from extant literature when confounding variables are adequately controlled and tasks are standardized, we did not expect to find a bilingual advantage in either cognitive flexibility or attentional fluctuations. Our results supported this hypothesis when considering bilingualism both continuously and categorically. The importance of expanding upon mechanistic accounts connecting bilingualism to cognitive improvements is discussed.