All About Learning Disabilities :
According to the National Center for Learning Disabilities, A learning disability (LD) is a neurological disorder that affects the brain's ability to receive process, store and respond to information. LD is not a single disorder. It is a term that refers to a group of disorders.
LD Terminology
| Disability |
Area of Difficulty |
Symptoms with trouble |
Examples |
| Dyslexia |
Processing language |
Reading, writing & spelling |
Letters and words may be written or pronounced backwards |
| Dyscalculia |
Math skills |
Computation, remembering math facts, concepts of time & money |
Difficulty learning to count by 2s, 3s, 4s |
| Dysgraphia |
Written expression |
Handwriting, spelling, composition |
Illegible handwriting, difficulty organizing ide |
| Dyspraxia |
Fine motor skills |
Coordination, manual dexterity |
Trouble with scissors, buttons, drawing |
Information Processing Disorders
| Auditory Processing Disorder |
Interpreting auditory information |
Language development, reading |
Difficulty anticipating how a speaker will end a sentence |
| Visual Processing Disorder |
Interpreting visual information |
Reading, writing & math |
Difficulty distinguishing letters like "h" and "n" |
Other Related Disorders
| Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD) |
Concentration & focus |
Over-activity, distractibility & impulsivity |
Can't sit still, loses interest quickly |
According to the National Institutes of Health, 13 to 14 percent of the school population is learning disabled... Though learning disabilities are common, they are not well understood.
Learning Disabilities can effect a person's ability in the areas of :
- Listening
- Speaking
- Reading
- Writing
- Mathematics
Some common signs of learning disabilities or a checklist :
- A child with LD will exhibit more than 50% of these signs.
- A child having one or two signs does not have LD.
Preschool
- Speaks later than most children do
- Pronunciation problems
- Slow vocabulary growth, often unable to find the right word
- Difficult rhyming words
- Trouble learning numbers, alphabet, days of the week, colors, shapes
- Extremely restless and easily distracted
- Trouble interacting with peers
- Difficulty following directions or routines
- Fine motor skills slow to develop
Grades Kg-4
- Slow to learn the connection between letters and sounds
- Confuses basic words (run, eat, want)
- Makes consistent reading and spelling errors including letter reversals (b/d), inversions (m/w), transpositions (felt/left), and substitutions (house/home)
- Transposes number sequences and confuses arithmetic signs (+, -, x,/, =)
- Slow to remember facts
- Slow to learn new skills, relies heavily on memorization
- Unstable pencil grip
- Trouble learning about time
- Poor coordination, unaware of physical surroundings, prone to accidents
Grades 5-8
- Reverses letter sequences (soiled/solid, left/felt)
- Slow to learn prefixes, suffixes, root words, and other spelling strategies
- Avoids reading aloud
- Trouble with word problems
- Difficulty with handwriting
- Awkward, fist-like, or tight pencil grip
- Avoids writing compositions
- Slow or poor recall of facts
- Difficulty making friends
- Trouble understanding body language and facial expressions
High School Students & Adults
- Continues to spell incorrectly, frequently spell the same word differently in a single piece of writing
- Avoids reading and writing tasks
- Trouble summarizing
- Trouble with open-ended questions on tests
- Weak memory skills
- Difficulty adjusting to new settings
- Works slowly
- Poor grasp of abstract concepts
- Either pays too little attention to details or focuses on them too much
- Misreads information
