What Is Learning Disability

Learning disabilities are problems that affect the ability of the brain to process, receive, process, store, and analyze information. These problems will make it more difficult for a child to learn quickly, unlike someone who isn’t affected by learning disabilities.

A person with learning disabilities usually first show up when they have difficulty speaking, reading, writing, figuring out a math problem, communicating with a parent, or paying attention in class. The disabilities can be diagnosed early in school when a parent or a teacher notices that the child cannot follow directions for a game or is struggling to do work he or she should be able to do easily.

There are many kinds of learning disabilities. Most students affected by them have more than one kind. There are certain kinds of disabilities that can interfere with the ability of a person to focus or concentrate. It can also cause someone’s mind to wander too much.

There are two categories of learning disabilities; verbal and nonverbal. Those with verbal learning disabilities have a hard time dealing with spoken and written words. Dyslexia is the most common and best-known verbal learning disability. People who have this disability have trouble recognizing or processing letters and the sounds associated with them. Some may be able to read or write just fine but struggle with other aspects of language. They may be able to sound out a sentence or paragraph perfectly but they cannot make sense or understand what they are reading.

Nonverbal learning disabilities make people have difficulty in processing what they see. Visual details like numbers or letters on a blackboard may be difficult for them to interpret. They may, for example, confuse the plus sign with the sign for multiplication. It is also difficult for them to master abstract concepts like fractions.

It is extremely difficult to explain how our brain process information. The act of simply looking at a picture, the brain not only have to form the lines into an image, they also have to recognize what the image stands for, relate that image to other facts stored in our memories, and then store this new information.

With speech, we have to recognize the words, interpret their meaning, and figure out the significance of the statement to us. Several of these activities take place in separate parts of the brain, and linking all these information is all up to our mind.

 

Treatment for Learning Disabilities

All children need love, encouragement, and support. For children with learning disabilities, they can emerge with a strong sense of self-worth, confidence, and the determination to keep going even when things are tough through positive reinforcement.

Keep in mind, that when searching for ways to help children with learning disabilities, remember that they should be able to learn to help themselves. Your child should be given the emotional and social tools that he/she needs to face any challenge. Facing and overcoming a challenge like this can help your child grow more resilient and stronger.

The way you behave and react to challenges has a huge impact on your child. Your child will gain confidence and learn to hope for better things and for success if you always show a good attitude on all challenges.

Special education is the most common treatment for learning disabilities. Educators who are specially trained may perform a diagnostic educational evaluation that can assess level of academic performance or the academic and intellectual potential of the child. The basic approach is to teach learning skills by building on the child’s strengths and abilities while compensating and correcting for disabilities and weaknesses. Speech and language therapists also may be involved. Medications may help the child learn by enhancing attention and concentration. Psychological therapies may also be used.

Your role in your child’s education is more important in this age of endless budget cuts and inadequately funded schools. You can and should take an active role in your child’s education. Don’t sit back and let someone else be responsible for providing your child with the tools they need to learn.

Learning disabilities can be lifelong conditions. In some people, several overlapping learning disabilities may be apparent. Other people may have a single, isolated learning problem that has little impact on their lives.

It’s never too late to get help and treatment for a learning disability. Adults who may not have known that a learning disability was behind their struggles with reading, writing or processing information may be greatly relieved to discover the reason for their difficulties.

The NINDS and other institutes of the National Institutes of Health including the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, and the National Institute of Mental Health support research on learning disabilities. There are current research that focus on creating techniques to diagnose and treat learning disabilities and increase an understanding of the biological basis of learning disabilities.

People with Learning Disabilities: Dyslexia

Dyslexia has been defined in various ways and has been around for a long time. Dyslexia is a learning disability that can hinder a person’s ability to read, write, spell, and sometimes speak, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health. It is the most common learning disability in children and may continue throughout life. Dyslexia’s severity can vary from mild to severe. There is a more favourable outcome if the dyslexia is treated sooner. People with this disability can always learn and to improve their language skills.

Despite traditional instruction, children with dyslexia have difficulty in learning to read. They have at least average intelligence, and an adequate opportunity to learn. The brains ability to translate images is impaired in this kind of disability. It does not result from problems with the vision and hearing. It is not due to brain damage, lack of intelligence or mental retardation.

It can go undetected in the early grades of schooling. Frustration can be experienced by the child when they have difficulty in learning to read. Problems can also appear that disguise dyslexia. The child may show signs of low self-esteem and depression. Problems with behaviour at school and at home can be seen frequently. The child may become unmotivated and dislike going to school. If the problem remains untreated, the child’s success in school may be jeopardized.

There are several types of dyslexia. Trauma dyslexia usually happens after some form of brain injury or trauma to the area of the brain that controls writing and reading. It is a rare occurrence in today’s school-age population.

Primary Dyslexia is a second type of dyslexia. This type of dyslexia is a dysfunction of the left side of the brain and does not change with age. Individuals with this type are rarely able to read above a fourth-grade level and may struggle with reading, spelling, and writing as adults. Primary dyslexia is hereditary and commonly found in boys than in girls.

It is assumed that secondary or developmental dyslexia is caused by hormonal development during the early stages of fetal development. Developmental dyslexia diminishes as the child matures. It is also more common in boys.

Several different functions can be affected by this disability. Number and letter reversals and the inability to write symbols in the correct sequence can be observed with people who have visual dyslexia. Difficulty with sounds of letters or groups of letters is involved in auditory dyslexia.  The sounds are not heard correctly or perceived as jumbled.