Learning Disabilities

What is a learning disability?
-A learning disability is a neurological disorder.
-A Learning disability affects the brain's ability to receive, process, store, respond to, and communicate information.
-LDs are actually a group of disorders, not a single disorder.
-A Learning disability is any one of a heterogeneous set of learning problems that can affect the acquisition and the use of listening, speaking, writing, reading, mathematical and reasoning skills.
-Learning disabilities are common, affecting between 4% to 6% of school age children.

What causes a learning disability?
--The exact cause of a learning disability is unknown. However it is thought it could be caused by heredity, problems during pregnancy and/or birth, and incidents after birth.

Heredity factors:
--Thought to be caused by family environment

Problems during pregnancy and delivery:
--Umbilical cord being wrapped around the neck cutting off oxygen
--Mother's immune system attacking the fetus as if it were an infection
--Mother smoking can cause low birth weight which is linked to learning disabilities
--Mother's alcohol consumptions mutates developing neurons
--Mother's drug consumption can cause problems in neuron receptors

Incidents after birth
--Serious illness
--Head injuries
--Poor nutrition
--Exposure to toxins can affect the growth of new brain cells and neurons

Signs that may indicate a learning disability
--Preschool

• Speaks later than most children
• Pronunciation problems
• Slow vocabulary growth, often unable to find the right word
• Difficulty 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 K-4

www.buzzle.com

• 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
• Impulsive, difficulty planning
• 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 assignments
• Slow or poor recall of facts
• Difficulty making friends
• Trouble understanding body language and facial expressions

--High School Students and Adults

• Continues to spell incorrectly, frequently spells 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

Types of Learning disabilities
--Spoken language-listening and speaking
--Written language-reading, writing, and spelling
--Arithmetic-calculation and concepts
--Reasoning-organization and integration of ideas and thoughts

Signs that do not indicate a learning disability:

• Although the following may contribute to an already present disability, or facilitate a new difficulty, they are not the cause of a learning disability.
• A learning disability does not include problems that result primarily from mental retardation, or emotional disturbance
• A learning disability does not include problems primarily due to auditory, visual or motor disabilities
• A learning disability does not include problems that result from economic, cultural or environmental difficulties

Resources:
http://www.ldonline.org/ldbasics/signs
http://www.ncld.org/types-learning-disabilities/what-is-ld/what-are-learning-disabilities
http://www.ldav.ca/brain_development.shtml