Specific Learning Disability

Legal Definition:

As defined by IDEA “The term 'specific learning disability' means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which disorder may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations.

Such term includes such conditions as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia.

Such term does not include a learning problem that is primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, of mental retardation, of emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage."

Own Definition:

A student who has a basic psychological process disorder, which involves the understanding of language- spoken or written. This may affect abilities to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell or do mathematical calculations.

Prevalence:

School-Aged population accounts for 5% of all students identified with a SLD, individuals between the ages 6-21 account for 52.4 % of all students with a SLD, and boys outnumber girls 4:1. About 1 out of every 5 people in the United States have a learning diasability

Etiology:

The causes of a SLD have not been identified but chromosomal abnormalities have been considered, with genetic and hereditary influences.

Scientists have learned that causes may be the result of abnormal brain structure and functions.
Most learning disabilities are not caused from a single specific part of the brain, but from the connection of bringing together information from various brain regions. This is one reason why there are many different causes, as well as many different types of disabilities.

Characteristics and Identification

Major Characteristics:

May include complications in the following areas:
· Oral expression (spoken language to communicate ideas as opposed to speech disorders)
· Listening comprehension
· Written expression
· Basic reading skills
· Reading comprehension
· Mathematic calculations
· Mathematic reasonings

Children with learning disabilities may:
· have trouble learning the alphabet, rhyming words, or connecting letters to sounds
· make mistakes when reading aloud, and repeat or pause often
· not understand what they read
· have trouble spelling
· have very messy handwriting or hold a pencil awkwardly
· struggle to express ideas in writing or have limited vocabulary
· have trouble remembering the sounds that letters make
· have trouble understanding jokes, comic strips, and sarcasm
· may mispronounce words or use a wrong word that sounds similar
· have trouble with directions, organization, or social conversation rules
· confuse math symbols and misread numbers
· not be able to retell a story in order

How the Disability is Identified:

The disorder is identified through a multi-step process, beginning with teacher or parent concern based on the above characteristics. Teachers and others work to develop strategies for help in the classroom and with positive results there is no need to take further action. If problems continue, a teacher, a parent, or the student could refer the case for special education evaluation, following the guidelines of IDEA. There would then be a formal evaluation of the student including assessments of intellectual potential, academic achievement, emotional functioning, hearing and vision, social functioning, and performance in the classroom.

When the assessments are completed, a “group of qualified professionals and the parent of the child” examines the results (IDEA, Section 300.534 of 34 CFR Parts 300 and 303). Both the specific strengths and the specific weaknesses of the student are identified. If the results reveal learning difficulties that meet the local criteria, the team will identify the student as having a learning disability.

Tips, Strategies, or Instructional Techniques:

1) Direct Instruction- Teacher based instruction tends to work the best, since students are focused on what they are learning and able to concentrate on one person at a time, instead of having complete freedom.

2) Learning strategy instruction:
· learning into small steps
· administered probes
· supplied regular quality feedback
· diagrams, graphics and pictures
· provide independent, well-designed, intensive practice
· modeled instructional practices
· prompts of strategies to use
· engaged students in process type questions like “How is that strategy working?"

3) Develop Phonemic Awareness (Reading Instruction Strategy)

Phonemic awareness refers to an understanding that words and syllables are comprised of a sequence of elementary speech sounds. This understanding is essential to learning to read an alphabetic language. The teahcing focus of all activities should be on the sounds of words, not on letters or spellings. Phonemes need to be in children's attention and perception.

4) Multisensory approach

Children will learn best when content is presented in several modalities. Multisensory approaches that employ tracing, hearing, writing, and seeing are often referred to as VAKT (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactile) methods. Multisensory techniques can be used with both phonics and linguistic approaches.

5) Reading comprehension support

Children with learning disabilities who need work on reading comprehension often respond to strategies which aid comprehension such as skimming, scanning and studying techniques. These techniques aid in acquiring the main idea, where details can be learned later on. The cloze procedure builds upon a student's impulse to fill in missing elements and is based upon the Gestalt principle of closure. Approximately every fifth to eighth word in a passage is randomly eliminated. The student is then required to fill in the missing words. This technique develops reading skills and an understanding of word meaning and language structure.