Learning disabilities is a relatively new field, and a complicated one as well, spanning educational, medical and psychological study. In response, the agency launched a large-scale program sponsoring quality research on reading failure causes and remediation. What complicates this issue, from a consumer's viewpoint, is not only that so few LD therapies are based on research, but that even the ones that are research-based don't necessarily work for every child. There are standard treatments, or protocols, for many medical or psychiatric conditions. This is not true for learning differences.
Learning differences are widely misunderstood and vary from child to child.
It's completely reasonable for parents to be confused and frustrated by the lack of answers, and many choose to exit the traditional system, putting their faith in unproven methods promising cures and rapid improvement in learning. Some of these programs are extremely well-funded and attract wide visibility in the media, in advertising, and on the Internet. Others are quite small. It's easy to think that if these unproven therapies or programs are not physically harming the struggling learner, then there's no risk to trying them. Children with LD have lots of experience with struggle and failure.