Many children/adult are not sufficiently prepared or healthy to handle the

challenges of education either physically or mentally

Learning relies on the computation of a prediction error, which corresponds to the difference between an outcome and some previously-established expectation

Some try and push themselves hard and passed grades in all the classes, but their health– both physical and mental– may

suffer as a result

Many children with LD appear bright, highly intelligent, and articulate, but unable to:

read, write, or spell or/and show mathematics achievement at grade level.

Often chronic state of failure or anxious anticipation of failure deepens their behavioral and/or cognitive deficiencies and triggers the

development of behavior problems (e.g. school shootings, drug abuse, etc.).

LD Manifestation (DSM-IV):

• Reading Disorder • Mathematics Disorder

• Disorder of Written Expression • Learning Disorder NOS

LD Domains:

• Input (auditory, visual, sensory ) • Integration (thinking) • Memory • Output (executive)

Many students often have more than one disorder:

Children with a reading disorder may also show poor mathematics achievement, attention deficits, impulsivity and lack of self-monitoring.

LD often goes unrecognized/neglected until the child begins schooling.

Behavior problems, secondary to LD: • Social indifference • Aggression • Error checking and self-monitoring Focus on the anterior cingulate cortex and rule-breaking & substance use associated with ineffective dorsally mediated inhibitory control of this region.

Disorientation: False sensory perceptions mistakes and emotional reactions may be produced. Consequently emotional reactions bring about condition of frustration. Nervous system : Medial temporal lobe (para-hippocampal gyrus), crucial for specifically storing and/or retrieving visual information (declarative memory formation), necessary to achieve orientation in the locomotor environment.

Attention Focus Shifts of attention caused by disorientation can reverse or alter the senses of motion, balance and time. This person may be easily distracted, impulsive (ADHD) or a daydreamer (ADD).

Nervous system : Brainstem: incoming sensory information and active attention Reticular formation and locus coeruleus (arousal and ignoring irrelevant stimuli).

Nervous system : Attention Focus (Cont.) Limbic System: Emotional overtones and motivation for attention. Amygdala and Hippocampus: selection & emotional classification of incoming information for long-term memory storage and retrieval Neocortex: Sensory lobes: (Sensory Information-processing) Frontal lobes: control (fixation & shifting attention (foreground vs background & current situation vs previous experience).

Nervous system : Math and Time Management Processing disorders (understanding numerical concepts and arithmetical information) can influence potential and acquisition of several academic/language skills.

Accurate sense of time (orientation) & sequence order can compromise both Dyscalculia (and Dyslexia).

Nervous system : Math and Time Management (Continued) Functions apparent and/or impaired: • Parietal areas (number functions), • Frontal regions (executive working memory

and attention)

Nervous system : Coordination/Handwriting Deficient handwriting as result of under-developed fine and gross motor skills may result in: • Taking longer completing writing tasks,

which can result in difficulty of schoolwork, oppositional attitudes toward writing assignments, problems both at school/home

Nervous system : Coordination/Handwriting Functions: Expressive handwriting is influenced by senso-motor development and neurological organization (not necessarily associated to brain damage). • Right/left confusion: angular gyrus • Balance and disorientation: Cerebellum • Understanding, decoding, phonological

processing, and internal speech: Right and left inferior frontal gyrus

Handwriting performance is also linked with other language-related skills.

Nervous system: Self-Esteem Maturation consists of achievement and failures. Students with LD are often mislabeled as slow, lazy/stupid. This leads to feelings of failure, inferiority, depression, problems in social interactions and/or behavior (frustration, stuttering, aggression, dropouts, drug abuse, etc.)

Nervous system : Self-Esteem (Continued) Functions:

Cognitive and emotional aspects of self-reflection of errors: Ventral limbic systems, regions of the prefrontal cortex. Risk of developing anxious/depressed symptoms.

Interpretation of others' intentions and social learning: anterior cingulate gyrus, dorso-medial prefrontal and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex regions.

Conclusion Solving math problems, reading, writing, oral speech and its understanding are complex functional systems: Components each of which is supported by a particular brain-area, with very specific contributions to the functioning of the system as a whole. The same component can belong to several different functional systems.

Conclusion (Continued) Maladaptive self-regulation and brain dysfunctions may lead to behavioral problems beyond adulthood. (Early)identification–with focus on brain-behavior relationship- with targeted inter-vention could prevent LD from derailing a child’s education.

Conclusion (Continued) Identification is crucial for implementation of health-preserving learning techniques so to break the cycle. Once a person learn to utilize his/her special talents to succeed in life (schoolwork, relationships, etc.) a dramatic shift in self-esteem is shown.

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