About Learning Disabilities

• What is a Learning Disability?
  
• What is Dyslexia?
  
• What Causes a Learning Disability?
  
• What are some Typical Learning Disabilities?
  
• How does a Learning Disability Affect Life?
  
• How is a Learning Disability Diagnosed?
  
• How can Students with Learning Disabilities be Helped?
  
• Recommended Reading & Links

What is a Learning Disability?

People with learning disabilities have average to superior intelligence. Many are gifted in math, science, fine arts, journalism, and other creative fields. A list of such people would include Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Winston Churchill and many others who have changed the course of our world.  However, their tremendous strengths are offset by noticeable weaknesses - an inability to read or write, memory problems, and difficulty understanding what is heard or seen. These difficulties stem, not from a physical problem with the eyes or ears, but rather from the basic neurological functioning of the brain.  Every human brain is created with a unique pattern of strengths and weaknesses. We each have certain areas that make sense to us easily as well as areas of difficulty that require outside explanation and extra effort to understand. A learning disability is an area of weakness or inefficiency in brain function that significantly hinders our ability to learn or to function in life. It is a pattern of neurological dysfunction in the brain that causes a person to have difficulty correctly receiving information coming into the brain (perception), correctly processing that information once it is received (cognition/thinking), or satisfactorily responding to the information once it has been processed (written and verbal expression, visual-motor coordination, memory, etc).  Students with learning disabilities experience an imbalance in their own ability levels. They are very good at some things, very poor at others and feel the tension between what they can and cannot do. Frustration is a hallmark of a student with learning disabilities. Typically such students will either be failing in one or more academic areas or be expending excessive amounts of energy to succeed. Also, they are also highly inconsistent, able to do a task one day and unable the next.

What is Dyslexia?

"Dys" means lack of function and "lexia" means words - thus "lack of function with words". Originally the term "Dyslexia" referred to a specific learning deficit that hindered a person's ability to read. More recently, however, it has been used as a general term referring to the broad category of language deficits such as those listed above.

What Causes a Learning Disability?

Some learning disabilities appear to be passed down from generation to generation. Occasionally certain medical conditions such as neurological illnesses, or chronic childhood ear infections may also alter the neurological development or structure of the brain as well, creating a learning disability.  Environmental factors such as cultural deprivation or parenting and teaching styles may heighten the impact of a neurological deficit, but they are not the cause.

What are Some Typical Learning Disabilities?

Although learning deficits are as individual as thumbprints, most fall into basic categories such as those listed below:
Skill Areas	Academic Areas
Visual / Auditory Perception Visual / Auditory Memory Visual / Auditory Sequencing Visual-Motor Coordination Spatial Relations (Sense of space) Temporal Relations (Sense of time) Abstract / Logical Thinking	Spelling Reading (decoding/comprehension) Writing (handwriting/expression) Math Computation & Application

How does a Learning Disability Affect Life?

A learning disability involves the foundational perceptual and thinking skills that allow us to operate in life. Thus, just as a sore or injured muscle will cause difficulty wherever that muscle is required for physical movement, so a learning disability will affect a person's life wherever that skill is required.  For example, a person who has difficulty keeping things in a sequence may have trouble keeping in order words and letters in reading, spelling, and writing, keeping numbers in order in math, keeping track of a class schedule, completing long-range assignments such as a term paper and following directions,. A memory deficit can cause problems with taking notes in class, remembering homework assignments, spelling or vocabulary, recalling information studied for tests, remembering basic math facts, phone numbers, addresses, locker combinations, people's names, appointments, etc.

How is a Learning Disability Diagnosed?

A psycho-educational battery of formal and informal tests are used to determine patterns of strength and weakness as compared to intellectual ability.

How can Students with Learning Disabilities be Helped?

There are two basic approaches to dealing with learning disabilities.  COMPENSATION The first and most common is compensation - helping students work around their deficit areas by utilizing their strengths. In an academic setting, this usually takes the form of tutoring and classroom modifications such as untimed tests and reduced workload. Compensation allows students to succeed with outside help, but leaves them limited in what they can do on their own. DIRECT INTERVENTION The second approach is direct intervention - helping students strengthen their areas of deficit so they are no longer handicapped by them. Teaching students HOW to learn allows students the eventual freedom of succeeding on their own as independent learners. Both approaches are generally necessary in dealing effectively with a learning disability. Compensation allows students to succeed academically until the necessary skills are developed for independence. Direct intervention and the resulting competence and confidence allow students to gain the skills needed to become independent learners for a lifetime. NILD Educational TherapyÒ is a direct, language based intervention for students with learning difficulties similar to occupational and speech therapies.

Recommended Reading & Links Teaching With the Brain In Mind by Eric Jensen Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development 1250 N. Pitt St. Alexandria, VA 22314-1453 A Mind at a Time (2002) by Mel Levine, MD Simon & Schuster, 1990 Rockefeller Center 1230 Ave. of the Americas New York, NY 10020 (800-331-6531) Endangered Minds by Jane M. Healy, Ph.D. Simon & Schuster, 1990 Rockefeller Center 1230 Ave. of the Americas New York, NY 10020 (800-331-6531) The Feuerstein’s Instrumental Enrichment Program (2006) By Reuven Feuerstein ICELP Publications 47 Narkiss Street POB 7755 91077 Jerusalem, Israel Learning Disabilities and Brain Function (1994) Gaddes & Edgell Reading, Writing and Speech Problems in Children- Selected Papers-(1989) By Samuel Orton PRO-ED 8700 Shoal Creek Blvd. Austin, TX 78758 Failure to Connect (1998) By Jane Healey Touchstone Rockefeller Center 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020 (800-456-6789) Your Child’s Growing Mind-Revised (1994) By Jane Healey Broadway Books- Random House 1540 Broadway New York, NY 10036 The Nature of Learning Disabilities Critical Elements of Diagnosis and Classification (1995) By K.A, Kavale and S.R. Forness Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc., Inc. 10 Industrial Aveneue Mahwah, NJ 07430 It’s So Much Work to be Your Friend (2005) By Richard Lavoie Touchstone –Simon & Schuster Rockefeller Center 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020 (800-456-6789) Brain Matters (2001) By Patricia Wolfe ASCD 1703 N. Beauregard St. Alexandria, VA 22311-1714 (800-933-2723) Disorders of Learning in Childhood Second Edition (2002) By Archie A. Silver and Rosa A. Hagin John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 605 Third Avenue New York, NY 10158-0012 Thought and Language-Revised (1986) By Lev Vygotsky MIT Press Cambridge MA Building the Reading Brain, PreK-3 (2004) By Patricia Wolfe and Pamela Nevells Corwin Press- A Sage Publications Co. 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, CA 91320 www.corwinpress.com Words Their Way- Word Studies for Phonics, Vocabulary & Spelling Instruction-(2000) By D.R. Bear, M Invernizzi, S. Templeton & F. Johnson Prentice-Hall, Inc. Pearson Education Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Raising Resilient Children (2001) By Robert Brooks and Sam Goldstein McGraw Hill Two Penn Plaza New York, NY 10121 The LD & ADHD Child: Ways Parents & Professionals Can Help By Suzanne H. Stevens John F. Blair, Publisher, 1984 1406 Plaza Dr. Winston-Salem, NC 27103 (800-222-9796) No Easy Answers by Sally L. Smith Bantam Books, 1979 Des Plaines, IL Taking Charge of ADHD by Russell A. Barkley, Ph.D. The Guilford Press 72 Spring Street New York, NY10012                 www.guilford.com Learning Disabilities: Theories, Diagnosis and Teaching Strategies (2003) By Janet Lerner Houghton Mifflin 222 Berkley Street Boston, MA 02116-3764                 Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children (1998) Edited by C.E. Snow, M.S Burns, and P. Griffin National Academy Press 2101 Constitution Av NW -Lockbox 285 Washington, DC 20005 (800-624-6242) Mediated Learning In and Out of the Classroom (1996) Editor- S. Vorkoeper IRI/Skylight Training and Publishing, Inc. 2626 S. Clearbrook Dr. Arlington Heights, IL 60005 Delivered from Distraction (2005) By Ned Hallowell, MD & John Ratey, MD Ballantine Books- Random House New York, NY When You Worry About the Child You Love (1996) By Ned Hallowell, MD Fireside Books-Simon & Schuster 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020 (800-456-6789) Multisensory Teaching of Basic Language Skills & Activity Book (2005)by Suzanne Carreker and Judith R. Birsh Paul H. Brooks Publishing Co PO Box 10624 Baltimore, MD 21285-0624 (800-638-3775) Quality Questioning (2005) By Jackie Acree Walsh and Beth Dankert Sattes Corwin Press 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, CA 91320 The Positive Side of Special Education Minimizing its Fads, Fancies and Follies (2004) By K.A, Kavale and M.P. Mostert ScarecrowEducation 4501 Forbes Bl., Suite 200 Lanham, MD 20706 The Myth of Laziness (2003) by Melvin D. Levine, M.D. Simon & Schuster-Rockefeller Center 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020 Learning Disabilities in Higher Education and Beyond Sue Vogel Classroom Instruction that Works-Research Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement (2001) By R.J. Marzano, D.J. Pickering & J.E. Pollock ASCD 1703 Beauregard St. Alexandria, VA 22311 www.ascd.org The Source for Reading Fluency (2003 By Nancy B. Swigert Lingui-Systems 3100 4th Avenue East Moline, IL 61244-9700  (800-577-4555) The Power of Resilience (2004) By Robert Brooks and Sam Goldstein McGraw Hill Two Penn Plaza New York, NY 10121   Other Helpful Resources & Links  LDOnline    National Institute of Mental Health (NIH)     Learning Disabilities Association of America National Center for Learning Disabilities The International Dyslexia Association Orton-Gillingham Department of Education (OSERS)             Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD)     Tax credit information for LD educational expenses Supplemental Educational Services funding information - tutorsforkids Supplemental Educational Services funding information - Afterschool Alliance

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