Learning disabilities affect 10-40% of the population, with some being misdiagnosed as learning differences. Common disabilities include ADHD, dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia. These do not indicate a lack of intelligence, but can make standard education difficult. Early intervention and accommodations can help students succeed.
Learning disabilities or learning disabilities can affect approximately 10-40% of the population, depending on the particular study. At the high end, some of the children diagnosed with a learning disability may actually have learning “differences” that fall outside the “normal” standard of learning. The way these are considered learning disabilities is that standard education is more difficult for those affected. Both learning difficulties and differences change the way a person learns in the school environment and can have a negative effect on those students who are expected to conform to more common learning standards.
Also, when they go unnoticed, it can have a serious impact on academic performance for most of a student’s school career and can result in students being accused of not trying, being lazy or unmotivated. It is rare for a learning disability to mean a student is less motivated, especially at an early age. However, several years of struggling when learning difficulties go unrecognized means that the student becomes less motivated as they expect criticism and failure. He or she may never want to try again if academic experiences have been overtly negative.
Common learning difficulties can be divided into several groups. Perhaps the most common are attention disorders, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD or ADD). This condition is significantly misdiagnosed for some people and seems to affect the majority of guys. When it’s misdiagnosed, especially in elementary school, it can mean that children simply haven’t yet reached the developmental milestone that allows them to focus and concentrate in class. In most cases, it’s hard to tell before a child is eight or nine whether true ADHD exists. Persistent inability to stay focused on class work and no improvement in this area after several years of school is key to making a clear diagnosis of ADD or ADHD.
Other common learning disabilities can affect how a student performs in certain academic areas. For example, dyslexia is a common disorder which means that students see words and shapes differently than other students. This can make learning to read and write nearly impossible without intervention. By using various techniques, especially early in a child’s school career, dyslexia can be addressed and the child can become a wonderful student.
Another learning disability that can cause a very difficult time in the classroom is dysgraphia. This is the inability to write legibly, produce letters consistently, and remember how to make letters or keep letter sizes consistent. Dysgraphia is a challenge for many intelligent students, whose verbal performance is often well above that of other students. Since verbally they seem so intelligent, their inability to turn in work due to slow writing production is easily labeled lazy by uninformed teachers. Fortunately, with intervention, many of these students can also be helped, usually by using a keyboard rather than pen and pencil for answers. Teachers can also modify curricula so that students can give answers orally or in the form of multiple choice.
Dyscalculia tends to affect students in learning mathematics. Students may not be able to memorize multiplication tables or even master basic addition and subtraction. As your math work builds on these foundations, your dyscalculia can get progressively worse. It is important to realize that even with guidance and mentoring, some students may not fully overcome their dyscalculia, which makes life very difficult for these students. Standardized matriculation exams can prevent the use of a calculator, even if a student has this condition and even if a student knows how to apply mathematics, but not how to calculate it. This means that students with dyscalculia cannot graduate unless given permission by an administrator to do so.
None of these common learning disabilities, and there are many others, such as vision or perceptual conditions, mean a child isn’t intelligent. However, they may have to work much harder than their peers to produce the same amount of work, and without knowledge of their condition, they may face a difficult road within the standard public school setting. Fortunately, there is now greater knowledge of common learning disabilities and greater possibilities for discovering and diagnosing these conditions when children are young so they can get the best possible help from teachers and special education staff.
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