Specific Learning Disability

Definition:  disorder in 1 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, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury , minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia.  If the student does not achieve at the proper age and ability levels in one or more of several specific areas when provided with appropriate learning experiences age-appropriate instruction in one of more of the following areas:

·         Oral expression

·         Listening comprehension

·         Written expression

·         Basic reading skill

·         Reading fluency skills

·         Reading comprehension

·         Mathematics calculations

·         Mathematics reasoning

Does not make adequate progress to meet age or grade-level standards in one or more of the prior areas identified when utilizing the process of the child’s response to empirically based interventions; or a pattern of weaknesses and strengths that have been determined to exist in performance, achievement or both, relative to age, state-approved grade-level standards, or intellectual development, as determined by certified assessment professionals. Specific learning disabilities are considered a high-incidence disability.  The U.S. Department of Education reports that there are over 2.8 million students being served for specific learning disabilities and that’s approximately 47.4% of all children receiving special education.

Characteristics:

—  Intellectual

—  Academic

—  Reading

—  Writing and drawing

—  Arithmetic

—  Behavior

—  Communicative abilities

—  Physical

Teaching Strategies

Perceptual Difficulties

—  Do not present two pieces of information together that may be perceptually confusing.

—  Highlight important characteristics of new material

Students with Attention Difficulties

—  Maintain attention by breaking long tasks and presenting limited amounts of information.

—  Use prompts and cues to draw attention to important information. (like highlighting instructions)

Students with Memory Difficulties

—  Chunking- grouping of large strings of information into smaller or more manageable “chunks”.

—  Rehearsal or repetition, either oral or silent

—  Elaboration weaving of the material to be remembered into a meaningful content.

—  Categorization- being able to memorize information in categories. Ex. Animals

RESOURCES

—  www.interdys.org

Gives information about dyslexia, October is national dyslexia awareness month.

—  http://www.projectidealonline.org/specificLearningDisabilities.php

Gives helpful information, not for just one disability, but for several disabilities.

—  http://www.ldaamerica.org
Want to create opportunities for success for all children with learning disabilities.

—  http://www.ncld.org

Gives basic information and resources for schools.