Learning Disabilities (LD)

Presented by Illana Parker and Erin Baskin

What is a learning disability?
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) defines a
specific learning disability as “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.” This disability category includes conditions such as
perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction,
dyslexia and developmental aphasia (a type of language disorder).
IDEA’s definition notes, “Specific Learning Disability 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.”

This clause helps to distinguish learning disabilities from the other

disability categories specified by IDEA. Specific Learning Disabilities
(SLD) is by far the largest category of disability within the
Individuals for Disabilities Education Act. Nearly half of all
disabled children are labeled in the category of SLD.
Possible Causes of Learning Disabilities
● Researchers believe there may be a genetic connection for reading (dyslexia), writing
(dysgraphia), and math (dyscalculia) disabilities.

Dyscalculia

○ Brain differences - surface area, thickness, and volume of certain areas of the brain
○ Brain Activation differences - certain areas of memory and planning
○ Fetal alcohol syndrome
○ Brain injury can also lead to Acquired Dyscalculia

Dysgraphia/agraphia

• Dysfunction in interaction between 2 main brain systems, or motor memory issue

• Often lesions found in left parietal lobe (decoding and matching phonemes)

•More commonly occurs with dyslexia, ADD, and/or other LD

Auditory Processing Disorder (APD)
❖ ADP is a neurological defect that affects how the brain
processes spoken language. This makes it challenging for
the child to process verbal instructions or even filter out
background noise in the classroom.
❖ No clear or agreed upon definition, however, agreed
upon characteristics:
➢ Breakdown in receiving, remembering, understanding, and using
auditory information
➢ Hearing ability is inadequate
➢ There is a neurological basis
➢ The child’s ability to listen is impaired
APD Presents in Different Ages
Preschool: Middle School:
Doesn’t like being read to, hates loud
Child has weak reading comprehension, has
noises, seems to hear but not listen, and
trouble following multiple step instructions,
gets tripped up by words.
and child needs lots of repetition to
Grade School: understand new concepts.

Doesn’t want to work in groups bc too

High School:
many kids are talking in the classroom,
Teen doesn’t seem to notice that they speak
dreads reading and sounding out unfamiliar
at a louder level, has trouble locating right
words, keeps forgetting things, has
words and organizing thoughts, struggles to
trouble answering and questions and
grasp abstract concepts, and can’t seem to
discussing ideas.
remember the necessary steps need to
complete the science lab project.
Characteristics of Dyscalculia
Key Differences btwn Dyscalculia & Math Anxiety
Key Characteristics of Dyscalculia

Math Anxiety
•problem with ‘number sense’ - big vs smaller, not
understanding that ‘5’ and ‘five’ is the same, no
•an emotional issue, ANXIETY gets in the way
intuitive understanding of how numbers work and
how to estimate or compare numbers and
•makes students question their abilities
amounts
•worry will do poorly even with understanding
•problems with:
•often successful homework but not on tests
Estimating, time, visual-spatial processing,
Dyscalculia
basic adding, remembering sequences,
•a learning issue, will do poorly because of
gauging speed and distance, measuring,
lack of understanding

word problems
•often unsuccessful homework and tests
How Math LD Presents in Different Ages
Preschoolers:
Can’t remember phone number or 911, skips
numbers when counting (long after others
have mastered this,) doesn’t recognize
patterns, cannot create groupings
Grade School:
Has a hard time with basic number facts such
as 3+3=6, hard time identifying +/- symbols,
still counts with fingers, doesn’t understand
greater than or lesser than, visual-spatial
difficulty such as number lines, doesn’t want
to play board games, very bad handwriting
Middle School:
Doesn’t understand place value, fractions,
measuring; difficulty following scores in sports,
can’t recognize if a crowd at a game was smaller
or larger than the last game; afraid of getting
lost; often running late
High School:
Loses track of time, budgeting problems,
difficulty making change or estimating; hard
time with graphs and measuring; avoids and
hides homework; trouble with basic household
tasks like feeding a pet the correct amount;
overspends, moves too fast or too slowly; has
difficulty and frustration watching sports game
 Dyslexia What are the consequences?
➔ Slow and inaccurate text
reading
What is the primary deficit associated with dyslexia?
➔ Poor reading comprehension
Phonological awareness - awareness that words, ➔ Variable difficulty with the
both written and spoken, can be broken down into smaller symbol code for reading
units of sound and that the letters constituting the and writing, including:
printed word represent the sounds heard in the spoken ◆ Alphabet letter
word. names
◆ Letter-sound
What symptoms are the direct result of this deficit associations
in phonological awareness? ◆ Letter forms and
● Inaccurate and inefficient single word direction in writing
recognition ➔ Difficulty with written
● Difficulty sounding out (decoding) unfamiliar expression
words ➔ Limited time spent in
● Inaccurate spelling reading activities
How Dyslexia Presents in Different Ages
Preschool/Kindergarten Grades 1-3
At this stage, children are developing basic word recognition skills
At this stage, children are developing the
both through the use of word attack strategies and contextual cues.
underlying oral language base necessary for
Students with dyslexia will show some of the following
learning to read. Signs that indicate possible
characteristics:
difficulties with reading acquisition include:

★ difficulties with learning sound/symbol correspondences

★ delay in talking
★ confusion of visually similar letters (b/d/p, w/m, h/n, f/t)
★ difficulty with recognizing and producing
★ confusion of auditorily similar letters (d/t, b/p, f/v)
rhymes (ex: Jack and Jill)
★ difficulties remembering basic sight vocabulary
★ difficulty remembering rote information
★ problems with segmenting words into individual sounds and
such as letter names (also phone number
blending sounds to form words
and address)
★ reading and spelling errors that involve difficulties with
★ difficulty remembering and following
sequencing and monitoring sound/symbol correspondence such
directions
as reversals of letters (past/pats), omissions (tip/trip),
★ complains about how hard reading is and
additions (slip/sip), substitutions (rip/rib), and transpositions
“disappears” during reading time
(stop/pots)
★ difficulty sounding out simple words like
★ omission of grammatical endings in reading and/or writing (-s,
cat, nap, map
-ed, -ing, etc.)
★ difficulty remembering spelling words over time and applying
spelling rules
How Dyslexia Presents in Different Ages
Grades 4-8
This stage, children progressing normally have mastered High School, College, and Adult
basic reading skills and are now expected to learn new Students at this stage are expected to analyze and
information form reading.
synthesize information in written form as well as
★ significant difficulty reading and spelling
acquire factual information.
multisyllabic words, often omitting entire
syllables as well as making single sound errors
★ continued difficulties with word recognition
★ lack of awareness of word structure (prefixes, which significantly affect acquisition of
roots, suffixes) knowledge and ability to analyze written
★ frequent misreading of common sight words material
(where, there, what, then, when, etc.) ★ slow rate of reading
★ difficulties with reading comprehension and ★ continued difficulties with spelling and
learning new information from text because of written composition
underlying word recognition difficulties ★ difficulty with note taking in class
★ if underlying oral language problems exist, ★ trouble learning a foreign language
affecting vocabulary knowledge and grammar,
difficulties in comprehension of text will occur
★ significant difficulties in writing related to
problems in spelling as well as organizing ideas
Language Based Learning Disabilities (LBLD)
● Language-based learning disabilities (LBLD) are very different from
speech impairments. LBLD refers to a whole spectrum of difficulties
associated with young children’s understanding and use of spoken and
written language.
● LBLD can affect a wide variety of communication and academic skills.
These include listening, speaking, reading, writing and doing math
calculations.
○ Some children with LBLD can’t learn the alphabet in the correct order or can’t “sound
out” a spelling word.
○ They may be able to read through a story but can’t tell you what it was about.
○ Children with LBLD find it hard to express ideas well even though most kids with this
diagnosis have average to superior intelligence.
Dysgraphia
Dyslexic Dysgraphia - spontaneous writing is illegible, copying may be normal, oral spelling is poor

Motor Dysgraphia - spontaneous and copying are illegible, oral spelling normal, drawing difficulty

Spatial Dysgraphia - all illegible, oral-cued writing is normal, drawing is a large problem

Characteristics of Dysgraphia:

● illegible handwriting, malformed letters, uneven letters and spacing; or slow writing and very small,
mixture of upper/lower
● Procrastinating, denying, distracting, destroying work, unfinished work
● Leads to frustration, forgetting writing concepts while struggling
● Trouble with working memory and rules of writing
Dysgraphia presenting in age groups
Preschool Middle School

Child complains of tired hand after writing, slow, Incomplete work

asked to stay in at recess to finish writing.
Entire words missing from sentences
Internalizing laziness or carelessness
Leaves out important facts, problems comparing
Grade School
High School
Poor spelling, even 2 different ways of same word
on one page Leaves out entire words

Lots of erasing and cross-outs Much erasing and cross-outs

Using vague words in writing Does satisfactory work on oral tests

 Sources
❏ https://www.understood.org/en/learning-attention-issues/child-learning-disabilities/issues-involving-spoken-language/
difference-between-speech-disorders-and-language-based-learning-disabilities
❏ https://www.understood.org/en/learning-attention-issues/child-learning-disabilities/auditory-processing-disorder/audit
ory-processing-disorder-what-youre-seeing
❏ http://dyslexia.yale.edu/dyslexia/signs-of-dyslexia/

❏ https://www.hsutx.edu/offices/literacy-learning/dyslexia-characteristics/

❏ http://www.pbs.org/parents/education/learning-disabilities/basics/causes/

❏ https://www.msjc.edu/LearningSkillsProgram/Pages/Learning-Disabilities-Characteristics.aspx