LEARNING DISABILITY (LD)
Learning disabilities are a group of neurodevelopmental disorders that can significantly hamper a person’s ability to learn new things. As a result, the person may have trouble with tasks such as speaking, reading, writing, paying attention, understanding information, remembering things, performing mathematical calculations, or coordinating movements.
Types of Learning Disabilities
“Learning disability” is an umbrella term that encompasses many types of specific learning disorders:
- Dyslexia: Dyslexia, the most common learning disability, is a language processing disorder characterized by difficulty with speaking, reading, writing, or understanding words. This can cause the person’s vocabulary to develop at a slower pace and lead to issues with grammar, reading comprehension, and other language skills.
- Dysgraphia: People with dysgraphia may have difficulty putting their thoughts into writing due to issues with vocabulary, spelling, grammar, memory, and critical thinking. This condition is characterized by poor handwriting, as the person may struggle with letter spacing, spatial awareness, and motor planning. Dysgraphia can make it hard for the person to think and write simultaneously
- Dyscalculia: Sometimes known as “math dyslexia,” this condition includes learning disorders related to mathematics, such as difficulty with numbers, concepts, and reasoning. People with dyscalculia may struggle to count money, read clocks and tell time, perform mental math calculations, identify number patterns, and apply mathematical formulae.
- Auditory processing disorder (APD): People with APD may have difficulty processing sounds because their brain misinterprets auditory information received by the ear. As a result, they may confuse the order of sounds in certain words, or they may not be able to distinguish between sounds such as the teacher’s voice and the background noise in the classroom.
- Language processing disorder (LPD): This is a subset of APD, characterized by difficulties with processing spoken language. The person may have difficulty attaching meaning to sound groups representing words, sentences, and stories.
- Nonverbal learning disabilities (NVLD): NVLD is characterized by difficulty interpreting nonverbal cues such as facial expressions, body language, tone of voice, and other nonverbal signals.
- Visual perceptual/visual motor deficit: People with this condition may have difficulty with hand-eye coordination and motor activities. They may frequently lose their spot while reading, demonstrate unusual eye movements while reading or writing, confuse similar-looking letters, have difficulty navigating their environment, and struggle to manage items like pens, pencils, crayons, glue, and scissors.
What are some of the symptoms?
- Poor memory
- Difficulty focusing
- Short attention span
- Difficulty with reading or writing
- Inability to distinguish between sounds, letters, or numbers
- Difficulty sounding out words
- Tendency to put numbers or letters in the wrong sequence
- Difficulty telling time
- Confusion between right and left
- Tendency to reverse letters
- Difficulty grasping certain words and concepts
- Disconnect between words and meaning (i.e.. saying one thing but meaning another)
- Difficulty expressing thoughts and emotions
- Poor hand-eye coordination
- Delayed speech development
- Disorganization
- Trouble with listening and following instructions
- Inappropriate responses
- Restlessness and impulsiveness
- Tendency to act out
- Difficulty with discipline
- Resistance to change
- Inconsistent performance on a daily or weekly basis
While all children struggle with some of these things from time to time during their school years, people with learning disabilities tend to have a cluster of these symptoms that persist even as they get older.
Management:
Occupational therapy, remedial education, psychological counselling and medications can be used to manage learning disability. Occupational therapy can help address pre-writing skills, fine motor coordination and visual perceptual skills required for reading, writing and calculations. Remedial teaching strategies can help specific subject matter understanding and improved reading/writing skills. Psychological therapy addressed behaviors, improves self-esteem, and helps manage behaviors. If these don’t work or to assist with improving outcomes medications can also be prescribed by the physician/ pediatrician.