From another perspective: types of learning disabilities
Happy New Year! Over the past several months, among the various weekly disability articles that I write were a number of articles about learning disabilities). While I usually get between three and four emails each week inquiring about the disability article just read the previous week, I guess that, for any number of reasons, my articles on LD touched a number of chords. In fact, as I write this article today, I’ve received well over 50 different inquiries about various issues pertaining to LD.
According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, learning disabilities are disorders that affect the ability to understand or use spoken or written language, do mathematical calculations, coordinate movements, or direct attention. Although LDs occur in very young children, the disorders are usually not recognized until the child reaches school age. LDs are a lifelong condition; they are not outgrown or cured, though many people develop coping techniques through special education, tutoring, medication, therapy, personal development, or adaptation of learning skills. Approximately 15 million children, adolescents, and adults have learning disabilities in the United States.
What types of LDs are there? Learning disabilities can be divided into three broad categories: developmental speech and language disorders, academic skills disorders, and other (such as coordination disorders). Each category includes more specific disorders, which are described as follows:
n Specific Learning Disability: A disorder in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, write, spell or do mathematical calculations. Included in this category are expressive writing disorders and other expressive language disorders.
n Dyslexia: A person with dyslexia most usually has average to above average intelligence, but has deficits in visual, auditory, or motor processes, which interfere with reading and reading comprehension. The individual may also have difficulties with learning to translate printed words into spoken words with ease. Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein were dyslexic, for example.
n Dyscalculia: A person with dyscalculia also has usually average to above average intelligence, but has difficulty with numbers or remembering facts over a long period of time. Some persons have spatial problems and difficulty aligning numbers into proper columns. Some persons may reverse numbers, and have difficulty in mathematical operations.
n Dyspraxia: A person with dyspraxia has problems with messages from the brain being properly transmitted to the body. Though the muscles are not paralyzed or weak, they have problems working well together. Dyspraxia might also cause speech problems, poor posture, poor sense of directions, and/or difficulty with actions such as throwing and catching.
n Auditory Perceptual Deficit: A person with auditory perceptual deficit has difficulty receiving accurate information from the sense of hearing (there is no problem with the individual’s hearing, just in how the brain interprets what is heard) and might have problems understanding and remembering oral instructions, differentiating between similar sounds, or hearing one sound over a background noise.
n Visual Perceptual Deficit: The individual has difficulties receiving and/or processing accurate information from their sense of sight; might have a problem picking out an object from a background of other objects or seeing things in correct order.
I also need to make the point here that, unlike what too many parents think today, learning disabilities are not a mental problem, but are, instead, a purely physiological problem that can sometimes be handled with any number of factors from medications to behavior modification, etc. We’ll discuss some of these factors later.
Let’s discuss what causes learning disabilities? Experts have not yet been able to pinpoint specific medical causes for learning disabilities. Learning disabilities are not caused by economic disadvantage, environmental factors or cultural differences. In fact, according to the National Center for Learning Disabilities, there is frequently no apparent cause for learning disabilities. However, much research points to heredity, problems during the mother’s pregnancy, or incidents after birth such as head injuries, nutritional deprivation, and exposure to toxic substances. Only qualified professionals who have been trained to identify LDs can perform a formal evaluation to diagnose learning disabilities. Such professionals may be clinical or educational psychologists, school psychologists, neuro-psychologists, or LD specialists. Adults who suspect they have learning disabilities should seek out professionals who have training or direct experience working with and evaluating adults with learning disabilities. If you would like to find qualified professionals and other learning disabilities resources in your state, we would suggest that you visit: http://www.ncld.org/locator/Itemid,390/.
Is a learning disability a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act? The ADA does not contain a list of medical conditions that constitute disabilities. Instead, the ADA has a general definition of disability that each person must meet. Therefore, some people with learning disabilities will have a disability under the ADA and some may not.
A person has a disability if he/she has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a record of such impairment, or is regarded as having such impairment. To be a disability covered by the ADA, the impairment must substantially limit one or more major life activities. These are activities that an average person can perform with little or no difficulty. Examples are: walking, seeing, speaking, hearing, breathing, learning, performing manual tasks, caring for oneself, and working. These are examples only. Other activities such as sitting, standing, lifting, or reading are also major life activities.
Paul Rendine is Chair of the Disability Advocates of Delmarva, Inc. group. He can be contacted at quoteman3@aol.com with any comments or questions.