“A disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations. The term includes such conditions as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. The term does not include learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities; of intellectual disability; of emotional disturbance; or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.”

What is a Specific Learning Disability?

Specific Learning Disability

Causes

Prevention

Characteristics

Instructional Strategies

Effects on Adolescents

Effects on Adults

Current Trends

What’s Inside?

The causes of learning disabilities may be as diverse as the types of learning disabilities. Students may have problems with early-, intermediate-, or advanced reading; early- intermediate-, or advanced-computation; early-, intermediate-, or advanced-written expression; recall of simple or related concepts; attending to relevant versus irrelevant aspects of lessons or activities. Those problems may be the result of many different causes.

Recent research has discovered differences in the brain structure and functioning of readers with learning disabilities but this is only a beginning.

Causes of Specific Learning Disabilities

Learning disabilities may be caused by hereditary, teratogenic (ex., alcohol, lead, cocaine), medical (ex., premature birth, diabetes, meningitis), and environmental (ex., malnutrition, poor prenatal healthcare) factors.

Research seeking to base instruction on the cause of an individual’s learning disability has not been successful. Rather than determining the cause of a student’s problems, it is more important to determine the individual’s unique educational needs and design instruction that has the best chance of helping him or her to meet those needs.

Students with learning disabilities do not possess the same characteristics of strengths and weaknesses. One student may have a deficit in just one area while another may exhibit deficits in numerous areas, yet both may be labeled as learning disabled.

Over time, parents, educators, and other professionals have identified a wide variety of characteristics associated with learning disabilities. These include:

-Academic problems -Disorders of attention -Poor motor abilities -Psychological process deficits and information-processing problems -Lack of cognitive strategies needed for efficient learning -Oral language difficulties -Reading difficulties -Written language problems

Characteristics

-Mathematical disorders -Social skill deficits Not all students will exhibit these characteristics, and many children who demonstrate these same behaviors are successful in the classroom.

For students with a learning disability, it is the quantity, intensity, and duration of these behaviors that lead to problems in school and elsewhere.

It should also be noted that boys are four times more likely to be labeled with a learning disability than girls. The reason for this has not yet been determined by researchers.

Preventive measures to reduce the incidence of learning disorders are not known at this time. However, early detection and intervention can reduce the severity of academic difficulties and improve the quality of life experienced by children with learning disorders. One method of treatment is Response To Intervention.

Prevention

Students with learning disabilities are often served in regular classes by general education teachers with the support of a special educator. As with the education of any student with a disability, it is important that the general and special educators collaborate effectively in order to develop a set of teaching strategies for the student.

Teaching Strategies for Students with Perceptual Difficulties: -Do not present two pieces of information together that may be perceptually confusing. -Highlight the important characteristics of new material. Teaching Strategies for Students with Attention Difficulties: -Maintain attention by: Breaking long tasks or assignments into smaller segments (administer the smaller segments throughout the day) Presenting limited amounts of information on a page Gradually increasing the amount of time a student must attend to a task or lecture -Use prompts and cues to draw attention to important information. Types of cues include: Written cues, such as highlighting directions on tests or activity sheets Verbal cues, such as using signal words to let students know they are about to hear important information Instructional cues, such as having a student paraphrase directions or other information to you -Teach students a plan for identifying and highlighting important information for themselves

Instructional Strategies

Teaching Strategies for Students with Memory Difficulties: -Teachers may need to teach the following memory strategies to students with learning disabilities: Chunking is the grouping of large strings of information into smaller, more manageable "chunks". Rehearsal is the repetition, either oral or silent, of the information to be remembered. Elaboration is the weaving of the material to be remembered into a meaningful context. Categorization is when the information to be remembered is organized by the category to which it belongs.

Teaching Word-Analysis Skills: -Phonics -Sight words -Context clues: Teaching Reading Comprehension: -Predictions can be based on pictures, headings, subtitles, and graphs. -Questions can be asked before reading to help students attend to important information. -Teachers may prepare an advanced organizer on the text to help focus students' attention on key material in the text. -Self-monitoring or self-evaluation techniques can be used when reading longer passages. Teaching Writing: -Provide effective writing instruction that includes daily practice on a range of writing tasks, teacher modeling, cooperative learning opportunities, follow-up instruction and feedback, and integrating writing activities across the curriculum. -Tailor writing instruction to meet the needs of individual children. -Intervene early on writing assignments. Expect that each child will learn to write. -Identify and address academic and non-academic stumbling blocks such as behavior or social problems in the classroom. -Take advantage of technological tools for writing. Direct Instruction: -The identification and instruction of specific academic skills -The use of teaching techniques that have been empirically demonstrated to be effective with students with learning disabilities -Direction instruction teaching methods address the organization and presentation of instruction.

Instructional Strategies

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There is a rising accountability for educational outcomes from students with Specific Learning Difficulties, and Response To Intervention is addressing this accountability. Students with a Specific Learning Difficulty are more frequently completing high school and going to college where there are a number of services put into place for them.

Current Trends

Effects of Disability on Adolescents: Adolescents who may have a specific learning disability will display one or more of these features that could affect their everyday functioning: -difficulty understanding and following instructions. -trouble remembering what someone just told him or her. -fails to master reading, spelling, writing, and/or math skills, and thus fails -difficulty distinguishing right from left; difficulty identifying words or a tendency to reverse letters, words, or numbers -lacks coordination in walking, sports, or small activities such as holding a pencil or tying a shoelace. -easily loses or misplaces homework, schoolbooks, or other items. -difficulty understanding the concept of time; is confused by "yesterday, today, tomorrow. If an adolescent is facing these difficulties, it may cause them to withdraw socially for fear of rejection or ridicule by peers. Effects of Disability on Adults: Adults facing a specific learning disability may function just fine outside of the school setting but may find certain activities difficult, to include: -Remembering newly learned information -Staying organized -Understanding what he or she reads -Getting along with peers or coworkers -Finding or keeping a job -Understanding jokes that are subtle or sarcastic -Making appropriate remarks -Expressing thoughts verbally or in writing -Following directions -Using basic skills (such as reading, writing, spelling, and math) -Using proper grammar in spoken or written communication -Remembering and sticking to deadlines

http://projectidealonline.org/specificLearningDisabilities.php http://teachingld.org/understanding-ld http://www.yalemedicalgroup.org/stw/Page.asp?PageID=STW026926 http://aacap.org/page.ww?name=Children+with+Learning+Disabilities&section=Facts+for+Families

Online Resources

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