Learners with Disabilities

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1. Specific learning disability (SLD)

The umbrella term “SLD” covers a specific group of learning challenges. These conditions affect a child’s ability to read, write, listen, speak, reason, or do math. Here’s what could fall in this category:

Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a learning disorder that involves difficulty reading due to problems identifying speech sounds and learning how they relate to letters and words (decoding). Also called reading disability, dyslexia affects areas of the brain that process language.

People with dyslexia have normal intelligence and usually have normal vision. Most children with dyslexia can succeed in school with tutoring or a specialized education program. Emotional support also plays an important role.

Though there's no cure for dyslexia, early assessment and intervention result in the best outcome. Sometimes dyslexia goes undiagnosed for years and isn't recognized until adulthood, but it's never too late to seek help.

Dysgraphia

Many experts view dysgraphia as an issue with a set of skills known as transcription. These skills include handwriting, typing, and spelling.

Trouble expressing yourself in writing isn’t part of dysgraphia. But when kids have to focus so much on transcription, it can get in the way of thinking about ideas and how to convey them.

One of the main signs of dysgraphia is messy handwriting. These are some of the key handwriting skills kids may struggle with:

• Forming letters

• Spacing letters correctly on the page

• Writing in a straight line

• Making letters the correct size

• Holding paper with one hand while writing with the other

• Holding and controlling a pencil or other writing tool

• Putting the right amount of pressure on the paper with a writing tool

• Maintaining the right arm position and posture for writing

Trouble forming letters can make it hard to learn spelling. That’s why many kids with dysgraphia are poor spellers. They may also write very slowly, which can affect how well they can express themselves in writing.

Having dysgraphia doesn’t mean a child isn’t smart. And when kids with dysgraphia struggle with writing, they’re not being lazy. But they do need extra help and support to improve.

Dyscalculia

Dyscalculia is a learning disability in math. People with dyscalculia have trouble with math at many levels. They often struggle with key concepts like bigger vs. smaller. And they can have a hard time doing basic math problems and more abstract math.

Auditory processing disorder

APD refers to challenges in how the brain understands speech. The sounds may be loud and clear. But people with APD don’t pick up on the subtle differences between them.

For example, people with APD may not recognize the difference between cat, that, and bat. The words seventy and seventeen may sound the same. Words can also get scrambled, so the question “how are the chair and couch alike” might sound like “how a cow and hair are like.”

There are four auditory processing skills that people with APD may struggle with:

• Auditory discrimination: noticing, comparing, and distinguishing between separate sounds

• Auditory figure-ground discrimination: focusing on the important sounds in a noisy setting

• Auditory memory: recalling what you’ve heard, either immediately or in the future

• Auditory sequencing: understanding and recalling the order of sounds and words

Nonverbal learning disability

Nonverbal learning disorder (NLD or NVLD), otherwise known as nonverbal learning disability, may be the most overlooked, misunderstood, and under-diagnosed learning disability. The brain-based condition is characterized by poor visual, spatial, and organizational skills; difficulty recognizing and processing nonverbal cues; and poor motor performance.

The name “non-verbal learning disorder” is confusing; it suggests that those with NLD do not speak, but quite the opposite is true. Approximately 93 percent of communication is non-verbal — body language, facial expressions, tone of voice. Those with NLD have trouble interpreting this non-verbal language, relying on the seven percent of communication that is verbal to understand what others mean.

Because individuals with NLD rely so much on verbal expression, given their difficulties with body language, facial expressions, tone of voice and other cues, they often talk excessively to compensate for their difficulties — a child or adult with NLD will hold you to every word you say. Most children with NLD, as a result, also have large vocabularies and outstanding memory and auditory retention.