Dyslaxia, Dysgraphia and Dyscalculia What is a learning disability?
A child with a learning disability cannot try harder, pay closer attention, or improve motivation on their own; they need help to learn how to do those things. A learning disability, or learning disorder, is not a problem with intelligence. Learning disorders are caused by a difference in the brain that affects how information is received, processed, or communicated. Children and adults with learning disabilities have trouble processing sensory information because they see, hear, and understand things differently.
Symptoms and types of learning disabilities and disorders Motor difficulties and learning disabilities:
Motor difficulty refers to problems with movement and coordination whether it is with fine motor skills (cutting, writing) or gross motor skills (running, jumping). A motor disability is sometimes referred to as an ―output‖ activity meaning that it relates to the output of information from the brain. In order to run, jump, write or cut something, the brain must be able to communicate with the necessary limbs to complete the action.
Signs that your child might have a motor coordination disability include problems with physical abilities that require hand–eye coordination, like holding a pencil or buttoning a shirt.
Math difficulties and learning disabilities:
Learning disabilities in math vary greatly depending on the child‘s other strengths and weaknesses. A child‘s ability to do math will be affected differently by a language learning disability, or a visual disorder or a difficulty with sequencing, memory or organization.
A child with a math–based learning disorder may struggle with memorization and organization of numbers, operation signs, and number ―facts‖.
Language difficulties and learning disabilities:
Language and communication learning disabilities involve the ability to understand or produce spoken language. Language is also considered an output activity because it requires organizing thoughts in the brain and calling upon the right words to verbally explain something or communicate with someone else.
Signs of a language–based learning disorder involve problems with verbal language skills, such as the ability to retell a story and the fluency of speech, as well as the ability to understand the meaning of words, parts of speech, directions, etc.
Reading difficulties and learning disabilities:
There are two types of learning disabilities in reading. Basic reading problems occur when there is difficulty understanding the relationship between sounds, letters and words. Reading comprehension problems occur when there is an inability to grasp the meaning of words, phrases, and paragraphs.
Signs of reading difficulty include problems with: letter and word recognition , understanding words and ideas . reading speed and fluency, general vocabulary skills.
Writing difficulties and learning disabilities:
Learning disabilities in writing can involve the physical act of writing or the mental activity of comprehending and synthesizing information. Basic writing disorder refers to physical difficulty forming words and letters. Expressive writing disability indicates a struggle to organize thoughts on paper.
Symptoms of a written language learning disability revolve around the act of writing and include. They include problems with:
neatness and consistency of writing , accurately copying letters and words , spelling consistency, writing organization and coherence.
Auditory and visual processing: the importance of the ears and the eyes.
The eyes and the ears are the primary means of delivering information to the brain, a process sometimes called ―input.‖ If either the eyes or the ears aren‘t working properly, learning can suffer and there is a greater likelihood of a learning disability or disorder.
Professionals may refer to the ability to hear well as
―auditory processing skills‖ or ―receptive language.‖ The ability to hear things correctly greatly impacts the ability to read, write and spell. An inability to distinguish subtle differences in sound, or hearing sounds at the wrong speed make it difficult to sound out words and understand the basic concepts of reading and writing.
Problems in visual perception include missing subtle differences in shapes, reversing letters or numbers, skipping words,
skipping lines, misperceiving depth or distance, or having problems with eye–hand coordination. Professionals may refer to the work of the eyes as ―visual processing.‖ Visual perception can affect gross and fine motor skills, reading comprehension, and math.
Common Types of Learning Disabilities Dyslexia Difficulty processing
language
Problems reading, writing, spelling , speaking
Dyscalculia Difficulty with math Problems doing math problems, understanding time, using money
Dysgraphia Difficulty with writing Problems with handwriting, spelling, organizing ideas Specialists trained to do psychological testing and result interpretation
Occupational therapist (tests sensory disorders that can lead to learning problems)
Speech and language therapist
Sometimes several professionals coordinate services as a team to obtain an accurate diagnosis, including input from your
child's teachers. Recommendations can then be made for special education services or speech–language therapy school system.
2.3.1 Dyslexia Definition:
The term "Dyslexia" is used to cover a wide range of learning problems. It refers to a specific difficulty in learning, either inborn or acquired, in reading, spelling and written language. This may also be accompanied by difficulty in number work. It is a neurological condition in which the child has tremendous difficulty acquiring language skills, even though she may be intellectually bright, with oral skills so good that she is able to bluff her way through the early classes.
Dyslexia is a broad term defining a learning disability that impairs a person's fluency or accuracy in being able to read, write, and spell, and which can manifest itself as a difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, and/or rapid naming. Dyslexia is separate and distinct from reading difficulties resulting from other causes, such as a non-neurological deficiency with vision or hearing, or from poor or inadequate reading instruction. There are three proposed cognitive subtypes of dyslexia: auditory, visual and attentional. Although dyslexia is not an intellectual disability, it is considered both a learning disability and a reading disability.
Dyslexia and IQ are not interrelated, since reading and cognition develop independently in individuals who have dyslexia.
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke gives the following definition for dyslexia:
"Dyslexia is a brain-based type of learning disability that specifically impairs a person's ability to read. These individuals typically read at levels significantly lower than expected despite having normal intelligence. Although the disorder varies from person to person, common characteristics among people with dyslexia are difficulty with spelling, phonological processing (the manipulation of sounds), and/or rapid visual-verbal responding. In adults, dyslexia usually occurs after a brain injury or in the context of dementia. It can also be inherited in some families, and recent studies have identified a number of genes that may predispose an individual to developing dyslexia".[
Signs and symptoms:
The symptoms of dyslexia vary according to the severity of the disorder as well as the age of the individual.
The chronological sequence of events:
1. In the first year the child may be a bit slow in acquiring the alphabet and some aspects of sight vocabulary.
2. By about 7 years of age, the child may begin to have difficulty in reading and spelling and may therefore become demotivated.
3. As the child grows older and is not given appropriate help in reading, writing and spelling, these will further lag behind the chronological age.
4. The child, faced with his own failure, will show a low self esteem.
5. Another feature therefore, is a secondary anxiety problem which manifests itself in many ways. The child may be withdrawn, anxious, aggressive or 'playful '.
Preschool-aged children:
It is difficult to obtain a certain diagnosis of dyslexia before a child begins school, but many dyslexic individuals have a history of difficulties that began well before kindergarten. Children who exhibit these symptoms early in life have a higher likelihood of being diagnosed as dyslexic than other children. These symptoms include:
delays in speech
slow learning of new words not crawling
difficulty in rhyming words, as in nursery rhymes low letter knowledge
letter reversal or mirror writing (for example, "Я" instead of "R") Early primary school children:
Difficulty learning the alphabet or letters order
Difficulty with associating sounds with the letters that represent them (sound-symbol correspondence)
Difficulty identifying or generating rhyming words, or counting syllables in words[33] (phonological awareness)
Difficulty segmenting words into individual sounds, or blending sounds to make words[34] (phonemic awareness)
Difficulty with word retrieval or naming problems[35][36][37]
Difficulty learning to decode written words
Difficulty distinguishing between similar sounds in words; mixing up sounds in polysyllabic words (auditory discrimination) (for example, "aminal" for animal, "bisghetti" for spaghetti)
Older primary school children:
Slow or inaccurate reading (although these individuals can read to an extent).
Very poor spelling[38] which has been called dysorthographia (orthographic coding)
Difficulty reading out loud, reading words in the wrong order, skipping words and sometimes saying a word similar to another word (auditory processing disorder)
Difficulty associating individual words with their correct meanings
Difficulty with time keeping and concept of time when doing a certain task
Difficulty with organization skills (working memory)
Children with dyslexia may fail to see (and occasionally to hear) similarities and differences in letters and words, may not recognize the spacing that organizes letters into separate words, and may be unable to sound out the pronunciation of an unfamiliar word (auditory processing disorder).