Learning+Disabilities


 * Learning Disabilities**

Learning disabilities affect many individuals, both children and adults of both genders. They affect every individual differently because there are several specific types, as well as different degrees of severity. Being aware of learning disabilities is important for intervention. The Learning Disabilities Association of Canada indicates that learning disabilities persist throughout an individual’s life and refers to them as “lifelong”, but can be ameliorated [|(LDAC, 2005).] In this paper, we will address several specific learning disabilities in relation to their characteristics, how they affect an individual’s life, strategies teachers can use to support student learning, and discuss the supports they may require.

“Learning Disabilities refer to a number of disorders which may affect the acquisition, organization, retention, understanding or use of verbal or nonverbal information. These disorders affect learning in individuals who otherwise demonstrate at least average abilities essential for thinking and/or reasoning. As such, learning disabilities are distinct from global intellectual deficiency. Learning disabilities result from impairments in one or more processes related to perceiving, thinking, remembering or learning. These include, but are not limited to: language processing; phonological processing; visual spatial processing; processing speed; memory and attention; and executive functions (e.g. planning and decision-making). Learning disabilities range in severity and may interfere with the acquisition and use of one or more of the following:
 * The Learning Disabilities Association of Canada** defines learning disabilities as:

· oral language (e.g. listening, speaking, understanding); · reading (e.g. decoding, phonetic knowledge, word recognition, comprehension); · written language (e.g. spelling and written expression); and · mathematics (e.g. computation, problem solving).

Learning disabilities may also involve difficulties with organizational skills, social perception, social interaction and perspective taking.” [|(LDAC, LD defined, 2005).]

The important thing to pull from this definition is that individuals with learning disabilities are much like their peers in intelligence. What makes them different is the way their brain operates in a specific area and what it does with information it takes in. As a result, their ability to learn or function in that area is different. Individuals with learning disabilities often have areas of strengths that give the impression of a very intelligent child, but their ability to perform does not correspond with the prior. Several different areas of an individual’s life can be affected from academics to life skills [|(Helpguide.org, 2007).]

There are several specific learning disabilities that have been identified and impact an individual’s life in different areas. Dyslexia is a reading disability in which written text is the variable that individuals struggle to understand. Dysgraphia is a writing disorder where the difficulty falls in the ability to write legibly. Discalculia is a disorder that affects an individual’s ability to wrap their mind around the foundations of mathematics. These three disorders will typically affect an individual at all ages in life, but mostly in school as they are largely academic.

Other disabilities affect the areas of communication. Developmental articulation disorder is characterized by difficulties in the pronunciation of language. Individuals who experience Developmental expressive language disorder have difficulty in finding the words to say what they want. An auditory processing disorder complicates the ability of an individual to turn what people say int