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Tidbits
- the first written case about an LD child was in 1896, 14 yr old boy "bright and intelligent...
quick at games and in no way inferior to others of his age [except for] his inability
to learn to read"
- the phrase "learning disability" was coined here in Chicago in 1963 by Kirk
- about 20% of children have reading difficulties, but only about 5% are LD
- only about 60% of LD children have a reading disability
- the overlap between ADHD and LD children is only about 20-25%
- attempted tests of LD have included the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Ability (ITPA by Kirk, not so good) and the Test of Phonological Awareness (TOPA by Torgenson and Bryant, much better)
Old Ideas
Children with Learning Disabilities used to be diagnosed with "minimal brain dysfunction." Testing could indicate that children showed some neurological difficulties, but they varied from child to child in unpredictable ways. Differences in the sizes of the two halves of the brain, in the patterns of blood flow to the brain, and in the nerve impulses to the brain were often seen.
Sometimes children were diagnosed as having "Perceptual Deficits". However, efforts to increase hand-eye coordination and visual scanning skills did not work.
New Ideas
the term Learning Disability actually was coined in 1963 here in Chicago by Dr. Samuel Kirk. He was a psychologist who had worked extensively with parents of children who had "minimal brain dysfunction," or "strephosymbolia" (they reversed and made other errors in their letters). He suggested to parents that they should throw out these unwieldy terms and start referring to their children as having a Learning Disability.
This term was very useful for a number of reasons:
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1) | it focused attention on the language, reading, and processing of information, and caused people to think about learning disabilities in new ways. | | |
2) | it implied that special education techniques were what was really needed. | | |
3) | it moved Learning Disabilities out of the exclusive domain of neurology and medicine, and made it a term parents, teachers, and educators could understand. |
In 1973, it was estimated that 1-3% of children were LD. In 1994, it was estimated that 4-5% were LD, and 60% of those children have a reading Disability.
We may be overdiagnosing LD, but it is also possible that we are simply more aware of it when we see it, better able to test and assess for it, and have better attitudes toward it, so that parents of LD children and the children themselves no longer have to try and hide it.
For children, Learning Disabilities today are seen as an information processing problem. They have difficulty processing the basic units of sound, syllables, and words. Copied from the web.
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What is a Learning Disability
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Definitions of LD
Definition of the National Advisory Committee of Handicapped Children, headed by S. A. Kirk (1968): |
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"Children with special learning disabilities exhibit a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using spoken or written language. These may be manifested in disorders of listening, thinking, talking, reading, writing, spelling, or arithmetic. They include conditions which have been referred to as perceptual handicaps, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, developmental aphasia, etc. they do not include learning problems which are due primarily to visual, hearing, or motor handicaps, to mental retardation, emotional disturbance or to environmental deprivation." | |
Definition of the National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities (1989): |
| | "Learning disabilities is a generic term that refers to a heterogenous group of disorders manifested by significant difficulties in the acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning, or mathematical abilities. These disorders are intrinsic to the individual, presumed to be due to central nervous system dysfunction, and may occur across the life span. Problems in self-regulatory behaviors, social perception, and social interaction may exist with learning disabilities but do not by themselves constitute a learning disability. Although a learning disability may occur concomitantly with other handicapping conditions (for example, sensory impairment, mental retardation, serious emotional disturbance) or with extrinsic factors (such as cultural differences, insufficient or inappropriate instruction), they are not the result of those conditions or influences." | |
As you can see, the definitions aren't that different. Typically, to diagnose and LD, the client must have average intelligence or better (sometimes on specified tests such as WISC III or SB4), and achievement scores (sometimes on specified tests such as WJ, KTEA, or WIAT) that are significantly (generally one standard deviation) lower. Interviewing with the parent(s) and teacher(s) is also very important, as is checking for issues like a need for glasses, hearing aids, and any medical issus that could complicate a child's learning.
It's worth noting that Sternberg strongly disagrees with these kinds of definitions. He offers that we assume an LD is an "internal" condition, when the reality is that it is socially constructed. He points out that there were no reading disabilities in preliterate societies, but any of us could show "hunting disabilities" which would make us disabled in those societies. Likewise, different languages use different ways of communicating - tones, words, gestures - with different kinds of irregularities - letters with multiple sounds, verbs that are conjugated in illogical ways - and so a child lacking in some skilled might be seriously disadvantaged in one place and not at all in another.
Not everyone agrees with the IQ and achievement discrepancy either. Sternberg points out that even if you do, it is rather useless as a standard because it varies from one state and one county to another. He reports that in Connecticut, LD rates range from 7.2% of children in one distric to 16.2% in another, and both are higher SES districts. In the lower SES ones, identification rates range from 12.9% to 23.8%.
Beyond this, there are several other isues:
- the issue of correlation between IQ and achievement scores (are they really measuring different things?)
- changing methods of constructing IQ scores (how has the FSIQ changed from the WISC III to the WISC IV for example?)
- the external validity of IQ tests (do IQ tests really measure intelligence in the real world?)
- developmental differences in children (since some develop more slowly and more quickly than others, can a high IQ child can be identified as LD?)
Finally, maybe identifying the children with the bigest problems, if that's what we do, helps them. However, Sternberg points out that we should be focused on helping all children learn to the best of their individual abilities. A more general approach to understanding intelligence, learning, and after that... education will be needed to teach all children, rather than just tools to identify those with problems. |
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Phonemes
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The smallest unit of speech sound we process is called a phoneme. The word "TALE" has three phonemes; T A and L so three sounds.
Reading the word "tale" requires two steps, and then four more:
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1) | Breaking up the word into syllables |
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2) |
Breaking up syllables into letters |
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THEN |
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1) | Previously learning the possible sounds that each of the letters makes and storing that information in memory | | |
2) | Being able to on-the-spot pull the sound from memory that goes with the presented letter and store it in the brain's "work space" | | |
3) | Rapidly reprocess, or make the links between letters and sound quickly and holding them in memory long enough to put them back together into a word |
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4) | Keep in mind that the correct sound for the A could be long A as in TABLE or a short A as in TALENT, or the altered A as in TALL. When you think about it, not knowing how the A is supposed to sound until you get to the end of the word makes it more difficult, as it means you have to go through several possibilities: TALE with a long A and E (rhymes with "Hailey"), TALE with a short A and silent E (rhymes with "Hal"), and then TALE long A and no sound from the E (the correct one). |
This also means there are three areas of phonemic processing that could be flawed too:
- phoneme awareness (knowing the letters and sounds)
- phoneme memory (accessing the sound and letter pairings)
- speed of phoneme access (doing all this work quickly)
This is a lot of work to be doing on-the-spot, especially if those around you do it faster and without even thinking about it. |
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IDEA and IEP
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IDEA Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
Children, teens, and young adults 3-21 are entitled to special educational considerations as needed. This is determined through an Individualized Education Program of IEP. It is an individualized educational plan that takes into account their own unique strengths, weaknesses, and educational needs.
Section 614(d) of IDEA defines "Individualized Education Program" as "a written statement for each child with a disability that is developed, reviewed, and revised in accordance with this section" which includes the following:
- present levels of education performance (current test results)
- annual goals (benchmarks or short objectives addressing where they need improvement and what they can reasonably be expected to achieve in the next year)
- special education and related services needed (specified in writing as to where, when, how much, and how long they last, ranging from regular classroom placement, additional tutoring or resource room time, special class placement, special school placement, or institutional placement)
- explanation of nonparticipation in regular classes (least restrictive environment)
- participation of the child and the parent too in the IEP meeting
- transition services (at age 14 the child should be slated for vocational or college track)
- clear measurement of progress and report regularly to the parents
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Signs of an LD
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Signs of Learning Disabilities
Keep in mind that these are only indicators of a possible LD, not diagnostic criteria for LD:
WISC Points |
In general, look for average IQ scores or better, and higher IQ and Index scores than achievement scores. However, do not rule out LD because a child scores in the low average range. You might see a Verbal Comprehension Index score 6 to 15 points higher than the Processing Speed Index score, and a "bumpy" profile of subtest scores. You may also see PS is lower in children with LD, reflecting problems in attention, writing, rate of learning, and fatigue, often with Cd falling below SS because of the motor problems. Children with reading problems perform at a 10-15% slower rate than good readers, and PS is separate from phonological awareness (the idea is that PS relates to automated recognition of letters and words, and quickly making a decision based on their meaning). Copied from the web.
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Personality Tests |
LD children do not show the behavioral and adjustment extremes that Emotionally Disturbed children do, and likely learn more and improve after educational interventions. This is not to say therapy is not helpful, only that LD children benefit from both, while ED children show no benefit until therapy is underway and has made an impact |
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- difficulty reading --breaking down and reassembling words, correctly assigning sound to the letter, find reading tiring
- writing --reversals, substitutions, or inability to spell or check spelling
- speaking --word finding difficulty, close substitutions
- motor problems --clumsiness, awkward pencil grip, and poor fine motor coordination
- math problems --calculating problems, mistaking math signs, and severe problems memorizing times tables
- speed of responding --slower to answer questions, less likely to give complete answers
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- memory problems --recalling, organizing, understanding implications of facts, forgets or loses things
- time problems --telling time, underestimates how long it will take to do something, how long since or until something
- social problems --impulsiveness, seems immature for age, difficulty adapting to change, can't "read" friends and explain their emotional reactions, harder time reading body language, breaks into conversations, asks fewer questions and the ones they ask are more closed-ended, less interesting to peers, loose focus of topic more, less monitoring of others' understanding of them, less flexibility in the developmental levels of their speech, more likely to read in aggression, less persuasive, but able to behave as other children would if cued to the expected behavior
- self-esteem issues --anxiety when asked to perform, low self-efficacy, classic internal/global/stable attributions for failure (like "I'm stupid"), external/specific/unstable attributions for success (like "the Teacher likes me") which often leads to a more passive and less assertive style
- problem-solving --less competent solutions (despite understanding more competent ones), less information used to form them, greater inaccurate expectations of success, jump to task before realizing instructions are incomplete
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Interventions
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Interventions for LD children
This is a complex area, full of false starts and revolutionary interventions that failed miserably. Social deficits are of course sometimes present, sometimes not, sometimes pervasive, sometimes not. Parents can make a big difference.
Teens can benefit from strategies and metacognitive approaches to help them organize their work and studying, play to their strengths, and specific ways to overcome weaknesses. Integrative learning strategies help learning, as well as self-regulation and control.
Adults are more difficult to help. They tend to have found many ways to overcome their weaknesses often, and so finding them is sometime shard. Wong notes that some studies show LD people are more likely to be let go in a recession. Of course, others are not successful and have many problems, meaning that their LD may be in plain sight but you don't see it because they are depressed, unemployed now, and their spouse is mad at them.
Below are some examples of accommodations for students, but they can be applied to work settings for adults in many ways:
- Timing/Scheduling Accommodations
multiple testing sessions with breaks, extra time on or untimed tests
- Setting Accommodations
small groups study, individual tutoring, seated in front of class, with things like extra lighting, magnifiers, laptops, or tape records as needed
- Presentation Accommodations
large print texts and tests, verbal and written instructions, check for student comprehension, reminder prompts, underlining and highlighting to stress key points of questions, practice tests, examiner notes, additional spacing between test items, bigger answer bubbles, cues (e.g., arrows and stop signs) provided on answer form, and quiet and non-distracting place to test, bigger illustrations for tests, graph paper or colored pencils as needed
- Response Accommodations
test booklets, computerized tests, larger lined or more paper, big pencils, dictation, use of things like an abacus or dictionary, typewriter, grammar and spell checking by another student, review of notes by another student
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How to help an LD child get ahead
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Research on Success
the research is also pretty clear on outcomes for LD children. LD children who were successful showed four qualities in their families:
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1) | Their parents were educated and encouraged learning in the children |
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2) | Their parents advocated for the children, and demanded special assessment and tutoring for their children |
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3) | Their parents got private tutoring for the children |
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4) | Their parents had "connections" and were able to help them obtain employment |
Put this way, some of what parents do for their successful LD children has nothing to do with education, and more to do with advocating for the child.
Successful LD children also show several other characteristics:
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1) | They had a positive temperament, a good outlook on life |
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2) | They had talents and skills in non-academic areas and used them and enjoyed them |
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3) | They had stable homes and effective parents who helped them grow and mature like their peers |
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4) | They had a mentor, someone other than the parents, who encouraged them to assume that they could be successful and pushed them to be their best Copied from the web.
For more information, see Resilience Elements in Students with Learning Disabilities 2002, by Miller, published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, volume 58, issue 3, pages 291-298
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Social Problems and Self-Esteem
Previous research has shown children with LD were more likely to report depression. Stevenson and Romney (1984) found that 14% of LD children age 8 to 13 showed signs of clinical depression. Wright-Strawderman and Watson (1992) obtained a higher estimate of 35.8% of LD children age 8 to 11.
There has been a lot written about LD children and their social and self-esteem problems. Basically the research has been confused in that some LD children do poorly in school, and thus are LD and underachieving, while others do well in school, and thus are only LD. The issue of poor achievement confuses the research results.
Basically, more modern research shows that LD children who have a strength or skill in a non-academic area develop "non-academic self-esteem." they feel a sense of pride and accomplishment, and receive the respect of their peers. These children do not show self-esteem and social problems even if they are LD.
Other children show very few strengths, and don't have a non-academic area in which to excel. They show the social problems much of the research has shown. They may cut off peers in conversations, miss turn-taking cues, and have little ability to engage other children in peer-appropriate discussion and play.
Often they make poor choices. While they may be able to say which choice is better when the sit and think with you about it, when in the real situation, they act without thinking and only later see they made a mistake. There is some research to indicate that teaching specific problem-solving strategies can help them, as well as articulating social rules for them to follow. In other words, their can develop good social skills, but may need extra time to do so.
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 | Much of this information was taken from
The ABC's of Learning Disabilities -- by Bernice Y. L. Wong
published by Academic Press, Inc: CA 1996 ISBN 0-12-762543-3 Dr. Wong is a psychologist who has conducted her own research about Learning Disorders. She traces their history and presents a clear and concise review of the research. Of course there's quite a bit more that's been discovered in the field in the last eight years... but this book is a good starter.
She discusses different types of learning disabilities, memory and social skills, and assessment. She offers a whole chapter at the end of the book on remediation and tips for parents and teachers on working with LD children. The book makes an excellent text for both undergraduate and graduate coursework, as well as a solid reference for the teacher or parent.
Grade: A/A+
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