What is Learning Disability?
Learning disabilities, or LDs, are various disorders that can make it harder for a person to learn, understand, remember, and use information. This can impact both spoken and written information. An important thing to note is that these disabilities aren’t linked to a person’s intelligence. In fact, people with learning disabilities have average or even above-average intelligence. Moreover, these issues with learning aren’t caused by emotional issues, cultural differences, or disadvantages. What’s fundamental about learning disabilities is the gap between a child’s academic performance and what we would expect based on their intellectual capabilities.
What Causes Learning Disability?
The exact causes of learning disabilities (LDs) are still unclear to experts, but it’s commonly believed that they’re influenced by both genetics and environmental factors. This means that learning disabilities aren’t caused by things like poor eyesight or hearing – so they can’t be fixed with solutions like corrective glasses or hearing aids.
Risk Factors and Frequency for Learning Disability
Learning disabilities (LD) tend to be nearly twice as common in children with chronic illnesses compared to those who are healthy. Globally, about 5% of school-aged children have some kind of learning disability. In the United States, one in ten children is expected to have a learning disability during their lifetime.
- Several risk factors can increase the likelihood of developing an LD. These include having a family member with an LD, being born prematurely, being exposed to alcohol while in the womb, suffering a traumatic brain injury, or having another neurodevelopmental disorder.
- The most common type of learning disability is dyslexia, which makes up at least 80% of all learning disabilities.
- It’s not uncommon for a child with an LD to also have another disorder. These can include oppositional defiant disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety, or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
Signs and Symptoms of Learning Disability
Learning disabilities (LDs) manifest differently in each child, but there are common patterns that can help health providers identify these conditions. Usually, children with an LD have ongoing difficulties in school, extending to their overall functioning and not just restricted to academics. School issues could be due to struggling academically, low self-esteem, behavior problems, or difficulty making friends. It’s important to ask about the child’s previous school performance, diet, family history of LDs, and developmental progress, including social skills.
Common learning disabilities include:
- Reading disability (dyslexia): This is the most common LD, accounting for at least 80% of all LDs, and it’s due to problems processing sounds in words. Kids with dyslexia may have issues with reading decoding, phonics, making sounds, and hearing. Dyslexia commonly starts with decoding problems, which lead to slow reading, then difficulty understanding what they read. Eventually, these kids may avoid reading altogether.
- Dyscalculia: Kids with this LD struggle with math. They often have trouble organizing problems, finishing multi-step calculations, and understanding mathematical signs. Good math skills depend on a range of brain functions such as number sense, calculation and math fact retrieval, understanding math language, visual-spatial skills, and understanding word problems.
- Dysgraphia: This LD is marked by poor writing, despite good teaching and motor skills. Kids with dysgraphia might write badly and struggle to keep their writing within the margins. They may also have poor fine motor coordination, trouble with spelling, grammar and syntax, or trouble expressing ideas in writing.
- Nonverbal LDs: These conditions interfere with nonverbal tasks like problem-solving, visual-spatial tasks, reading body language, and understanding social cues. These disorders typically become noticeable in third grade when kids face more advanced reading comprehension. They share some traits with autism spectrum disorder, such as poor social communication.
Internal factors like mental health conditions and personality traits, along with external factors like home life, school, and programs can influence how an LD presents. LDs normally do not occur alone; they often co-exist with other LDs and mental health conditions. Common co-existing conditions include ADHD, autism, bipolar disorder, anxiety, depression, and oppositional defiant disorder. Some research suggests that 20-70% of children with mental health conditions also have LDs.
Testing for Learning Disability
The process of evaluating learning disorders begins by ruling out physical and psychological conditions that could have similar symptoms. After ruling out these other conditions, doctors can use established guidelines from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, also known as the DSM, to diagnose a learning disorder. This examination will consider the patient’s development, medical history, family history, and educational background.
According to the DSM-5, the latest version of this guidebook for mental health diagnoses, learning disorders are a type of mental disorder that makes it harder for a person to acquire and use academic skills. These disorders are divided into three main areas: reading, writing, and mathematics.
To identify a learning disorder, the DSM-5 advises looking out for certain characteristics, which are divided into four criteria:
- Criterion A: The individual is struggling with learning and applying skills in the classroom. This can be demonstrated by various problems that persist for at least 6 months, such as difficulties with reading, understanding text, spelling, writing, recognizing numbers or carrying out mathematical reasoning.
- Criterion B: The person’s academic ability is significantly below what is expected for their age and educational level, and this causes significant challenges in their daily life.
- Criterion C: The problems consistently appear during the school years.
- Criterion D: The issues aren’t caused by any other neurological, developmental, or sensory issues, such as those affecting motor skills, hearing, or vision.
In addition to the DSM guidelines, comprehensive psychological and neurological tests can also help doctors make a diagnosis. These tests might include:
- Woodcock-Johnson-III and Wide Range Achievement Test to evaluate the level of academic achievement.
- Adaptive Behavior Assessment System-II and the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale-II to assess behavior in everyday life situations.
- Conners Rating Scale, ADHD Rating Scale, and NICHQ Vanderbilt Parent and Teacher Assessment Scales to evaluate for issues with attention and hyperactivity.
- Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children (WISC-IV) for testing general cognitive abilities.
- Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) for assessment of overall behavior.
- Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (4th Ed.) to assess the patient’s language skills.
By combining the guidelines from DSM and these tests, your doctor can make an accurate diagnosis and offer appropriate support.
Treatment Options for Learning Disability
When it comes to diagnosing and treating a child with learning disabilities, a team effort is essential. This team often includes educators, specialists in educational intervention, psychologists, special services, and doctors. Speech therapists can provide assessments and support for any language difficulties, which are often linked to a learning disability known as dyslexia. Occupational and physical therapists can help with issues relating to motor skills, balance, and sensory-processing, which can occur alongside learning disabilities in some children.
Clinical psychologists can provide help for children to better cope with the social challenges linked to their learning disabilities. Educational therapists or educators with special training in learning disabilities also play a key role in the team that supports children. Monitoring a child’s developmental progress is crucial, as is keeping an eye on their academic performance and behavior at school. For children who experience behavioral issues along with their learning disability, suitable treatment is also important.
Various therapeutic programs are available that can help children who struggle with reading and writing. When managing these learning disabilities, specific educational strategies can be of great help:
For example, children with dyslexia who have difficulties with decoding letters or words can benefit from activities designed to increase their awareness of phonemes (the individual sounds in words), like the ‘k’ in kite, or ‘b’ in bat. Repeated oral reading practice can also be beneficial for fluency improvement.
Children with dysgraphia, a disability affecting handwriting, can benefit from hand-eye exercises intended to enhance coordination. And for children with dyscalculia, a learning disability that affects arithmetic abilities, educational strategies include practicing number syntax, which is the set of rules that govern how numbers function.
What else can Learning Disability be?
Learning disabilities (LDs) can sometimes appear very similar to other disorders that affect learning or physical coordination. Therefore, it’s absolutely crucial to be able to tell the difference between learning disabilities and other conditions that might affect an individual’s ability to speak, listen, read, think, write, or do math. Some of these include, but are not limited to:
- Intellectual disability
- Hearing or vision impairment
- ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)
- Regularly skipping school
- Experiencing domestic violence
- Being a victim of physical or emotional abuse
- Living with caregivers who have behavioral health problems or substance abuse issues
- Poor academic performance
- Difficulties with friendships
- Limited future career opportunities
- Negative self-esteem
- Depression
- Behavioral issues
- Resistance to authority
- Negative attitude towards school
- Increased skiving
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Other factors in the person’s environment can also affect learning. These are important to consider and can include:
Also, it’s worth noting that different specific learning disabilities can sometimes look very similar to each other.
What to expect with Learning Disability
The outcome largely depends on how severe the learning disability is and how effectively it’s managed, including things like support, treatment and the person’s willingness to participate in the recommended interventions. While dealing with a learning disability can be tough, with the right help and adjustments in their education, children with these disabilities can still lead successful and functional lives.
Possible Complications When Diagnosed with Learning Disability
Children with learning disabilities are more likely to struggle with their schoolwork, which can impact their friendships and future career. Often, these kids may start to feel negatively about themselves due to regular academic frustration, causing them to have difficult personal relationships and feelings of sadness. Behavior problems might also occur. These kids may often exhibit resistance towards authority figures or demands. Because of these issues, they may dislike school, leading them to skip school more often.
Common Challenges faced:
Preventing Learning Disability
The process of preventing learning disabilities (LD) starts even before there’s any suspicion of a child having one. It’s very important to give children plenty of educational stimulation to help them develop properly. If a child is found to have a learning disability, stepping in early and giving extra help has been shown to greatly lessen the severity of the learning disability and its follow-up effects. One reason for the creation of the No Child Left Behind Act was to stress the importance of high-quality teaching before a learning disability appears. This Act guarantees all students will receive high-quality instruction and support services.
