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Learning Disabilities

Learning Disabilities

A child with a learning disability is a child who has difficulty in some facet of academic or behavioral functioning that is not related to any other handicapping condition. Often these students perform well, in certain academic areas, while in others their performance is very low. This type of problem is very frustrating for the students, particularly at the middle-school grades and upper grades as the peer group assumes more importance. Learning disabilities in children are often complicated by problems with adjustment, poor peer interactions, volatile family relationships and sometimes juvenile delinquency.


The U.S. Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services says that a specific learning disability means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell or to do mathematical calculations. The term includes such conditions as perceptual handicaps, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia.


 

Characteristics

Students with learning disabilities have an average IQ of 93 to 95. While most definitions specify "average or above-average intelligence", these scores indicate a mean somewhat below the population average of 100. Further, there are some students with learning disabilities who display a level of intelligence in the "gifted" range. These students are known as gifted learning disabled.


The primary characteristic of a learning disability is a significant difference between a child's achievement in some areas and his or her overall intelligence. Learning disabilities typically affect five general areas:

  • Spoken language: delays, disorders, and deviations in listening and speaking.
  • Written language: difficulties with reading, writing and spelling.
  • Arithmetic: difficulty in performing arithmetic operations or in understanding basic concepts.
  • Reasoning: difficulty in organizing and integrating thoughts.
  • Memory: difficulty in remembering information and instructions.


The following points summarize, in a very broad sense, the typical characteristics exhibited by learning disabled children.

  • Problems in all three areas of attention, time-on-task, focus of attention and selective attention.
  • Demonstration of certain memory problems which involve encoding information for memory storage.
  • More impulsive than children in the mainstream
  • More field-dependent than other children
  • Difficulties with academic achievement and progress. Discrepancies exist between a person's potential for learning and what he actually learns.
  • Uneven pattern of development (language development, physical development, academic development and/or perceptual development).
  • Learning problems are not due to environmental disadvantage.
  • Learning problems are not due to mental retardation or emotional disturbance.


Symptoms

Symptoms commonly related to learning disabilities can be broadly classified into 4 categories:

  • Academic Symptoms
    • poor performance on group tests
    • reversals in writing and reading
    • difficulty in copying accurately from a model
    • slowness in completing work
    • easily confused by instructions
    • difficulty with tasks requiring sequencing
  • Cognitive Symptoms
    • difficulty discriminating size, shape, color
    • difficulty with temporal (time) concepts
    • distorted concept of body image
    • poor organizational skills
    • difficulty with abstract reasoning and/or problem solving
    • disorganized thinking
    • often obsesses on one topic or idea
    • poor short-term or long-term memory
    • lags in developmental milestones (e.g. motor, language)
  • Physical Symptoms
    • general awkwardness
    • poor visual-motor coordination
    • hyperactivity
    • overly distractible; difficulty concentrating
    • lack of hand preference or mixed dominance
  • Behavioral/Social Symtpoms
    • impulsive behavior; lack of reflective thought prior to action
    • low tolerance for frustration
    • excessive movement during sleep
    • poor peer relationships
    • overly excitable during group play
    • poor social judgment
    • inappropriate, unselective, and often excessive display of affection
    • behavior often inappropriate for situation
    • failure to see consequences for his actions
    • overly gullible; easily led by peers
    • excessive variation in mood and responsiveness
    • poor adjustment to environmental changes
    • difficulty making decisions
When considering these symptoms, it is important to remain mindful of the following:
  • No one will have all these symptoms.
  • Among LD populations, some symptoms are more common than others.
  • All people have at least two or three of these problems to some degree.
  • The number of symptoms seen in a particular child does not give an indication as whether the disability is mild or severe. It is important to consider if the behaviors are chronic and appear in clusters.



Causes of Learning Disabilities

Scientists and researchers have confirmed in a number of research studies that children with learning disabilities and attention deficit disorder exhibit at least one of several types of damage to the brain structure. This can appear as either one or more of the following:

  • Fewer numbers of brain cells in important areas of the brain
  • Smaller size of brain cells
  • Brain cells that moved into the wrong part of the brain (called dysplasia)
  • Lower than normal blood flow to specific areas of the brain
  • Brain cells that metabolize glucose (the brain's primary fuel) at lower than normal levels
Recent information has shown the unborn child is far more vulnerable to developing neurological damage during pregnancy than previously thought - the human brain is growing at over 4,000 cells per second beginning in the fourth week of pregnancy. An increasing number of neurotoxic compounds are being identified in today's modern society (not present 30-50 years ago) which can weaken or damage this brain development process. The effects of these chemical exposures can then become evident in later years as learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders, mental retardation or personality and behavior difficulties such as shyness, hyperactivity, aggression or even violent tendencies and lack of conscience.


The categories below detail the primary exposure sources which medical research has found can damage the delicate brain cell growth process occurring in the unborn child during pregnancy.

  • Smoking: Numerous studies have deminstrated a link between maternal smoking during pregnancy and birth- related problems in infants, and some of the research has indicated some relationship between heavy smoking on the part of the mother and later reading problems and lower IQs among children.
  • Alcohol: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is a term given to describe the specific pattern of neonatal birth defects that occurred in children whose mothers consumed large amounts of alcohol during pregnancy. FAS is characterized by a group of congenital birth defects that include the following: (a) prenatal and postnatal growth deficiency, (b) small head circumference, (c) flattened midface, (d) sunken nasal bridge, (e) flattened and elongated philtrum (the groove between the nose and upper lip), (f) central nervous system dysfunction, and (g) varying degrees of major organ system malformations.
  • Pesticides
  • Perfumes
  • MSG
  • Coffee
  • Fluoride
  • Cosmetics
  • Anesthesia
  • Mercury
  • Artificial Food Additives
  • Marijuana
  • Aspirin
  • Damaged Sperm
  • Ultrasound
  • Prescription Drugs

LD - Subtypes

  • Perceptual Motor Disabilities:
    Perceptual motor disability refers to a person's inability to move quickly or to maneuver certain tasks with ease. Individuals with perceptual motor disability may have difficulty holding a pencil. Their handwriting may be hard to read. They may even be clumsy. Compensation skills can be learned such as printing instead of writing in cursive. They may find success through the use of a computer. Physical therapy or an individualized sport is sometimes suggested to build coordination.
    • Auditory Processing Disabilities
    • Spatio-Motor Disabilities: These disabilities can make it difficult for students to orient themselves to a printed page, to copy a sequence of actions (as in a lab procedure), to write legibly, and to handle lab equipment.

  • Academic Disabilities:

  • Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

LD - Assessments

Psychometric Assessment Instruments :
The following list of psychometric assessment instruments identifies the instruments most commonly used to identify a Learning Disability. The assessment instruments are split into three main categories: