Learning Disorders

From National Institute for Learning Development of Canada

“A learning disability is an area of weakness or inefficiency in brain function that significantly hinders our ability to learn. It is a pattern of neurological dysfunction in the brain that causes a person to have difficulty correctly receiving information (perception), correctly processing information (cognition/thinking), or satisfactorily responding to information (written and verbal expression, visual-motor coordination, memory, etc.).”

Learning disorders usually impact the following areas or skills:

• Reading
• Writing
• Mathematics
• Non-verbal communication

Common learning disorders include:

• ADHD is a condition that makes it very difficult, if not seemingly impossible for an individual to hold their attention for a typical length of time and may also include an individual’s inability to be still and involve constant moving or fidgeting.
• Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) includes autism, Aspergers Disorder (no longer a formal diagnosis), childhood disintegrative disorder (CDD), and pervasive development disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS). All of these disorders share some of the same symptoms, such as developmental language delays, although they can vary quite a bit otherwise. Studies have been done that show autism spectrum disorders are linked to brain development, more specifically, a combination of brain reductions and brain enlargements in different areas.
• Dyslexia (this disorder causes problems with word comprehension, reading, spelling, and following instructions)
• Dysgraphia (inability to handwrite due to fine motor skills issues)
• Dyscalculia (inability to learn math or understand numbers)
• Aphasia or Dysphasia (inability to speak or understand spoken communication)
• Dyspraxia (trouble with motor skills and motor-learning difficulties)

Note: there are other types of learning disabilities and disorders in addition to those listed here.

Learning disorders tend to affect people of average or above average intelligence and are not a sign of laziness.

Symptoms & signs of learning disorders

• Difficulty reading or reading below grade level
• Reading comprehension below grade level
• Consistent spelling mistakes
• Illegible handwriting
• Handwriting that’s hard to understand due to words being out of order
• Difficulty calculating even simple math equations
• Not remembering common equations
• Not understanding or using mathematic symbols
• Lack of fine motor skills
• Inability to understand non-verbal body language such as facial expressions
• Not using language appropriately
• Slow to learn new skills
• Difficulty learning new rules or routines