Specific Learning Disorder

By. Aliya Akram

Roll no. 05
MS(Regular
Learning Disability

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)

• Learning disabilities are disorders that affect the ability to understand
or use spoken or written language, do mathematical calculations,
coordinate movements, or direct attention. Although learning
disabilities occur in very young children, the disorders are usually not
recognized until the child reaches school age.
• Learning disabilities (LDs) refer to several
disorders that may affect the acquisition,
organization, retention, comprehension, or the
application of verbal and/or nonverbal
information (Mahrezi et al., 2016)
 Etiology
• Environmental factors, including socioeconomic conditions (e.g., low
socioeconomic status) and exposure to neurotoxicants. prenatal or early-life
exposure to any of the following: air pollution, nicotine, diphenyl ethers or
polychlorinated biphenyls flame retardants), lead, or manganese.
• Genetic: Specific learning disorder appears to aggregate in families,
particularly when affecting reading, mathematics, and spelling. The relative
risk of specific learning disorder in reading or mathematics is substantially
higher (e.g., 4–8 times and 5–10 times)
Brain Structure

• Variations in the brain structure called the planum temporale, a

language-related area found in both sides of the brain. In people with
dyslexia, the two structures were found to be equal in size. In people
without dyslexia, however, the left planum temporale was noticeably
larger. Some scientists believe reading problems may be related to
such differences (Leonard, 2001; Raskind, 2001).
• In LD person the nerve impulses travel to both hemispheres
simultaneously. Thus, the corpus callosum becomes
“jammed” with nerve impulses as the two language areas
refer the messages they receive from the visual cortices back
and forth for comparison and analysis. This confusion
caused by criss-crossing of the nerve impulses may be why a
child with learning disabilities often reads b as a d and vice
versa.
Brain Imaging

• CT scans of the occipital lobe for example, have shown asymmetry

of the occipital pole in subjects without LD and symmetry in subjects
with LD.
• Electroencephalograms (EEGs), research has shown that subjects
with dyslexia showed less electrical activity in the parietal lobe, in
comparison to subjects without dyslexia.
• MRI research has shown that individuals without LD
showed leftward asymmetry in the angular gyrus of the
parietal lobe, whereas people with LD did not show the
expected asymmetry. (Simos et al., 2000).
• SPECT scan results have indicated that subjects with LD
show under-functioning in the occipital lobe while
reading, in comparison to subjects without LD.
Assessment

Informal Assessment
• Case History
• Observation
• Curriculum Based Assessment
Formal Assessment

Intelligence Test
• Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children
• Slosson Intelligence test
Achievement Test
• Wide Range Achievement Test
• Woodcoke Johnson Battery
Learning Disability Checklist

• Lexercise.com/tests
• LD Checklist : Recognize and Respond (National
Centre for learning Disability. 2020)
• Checklist For Learning Disabilities (Smith & Strick)
Academic Skills

• Key academic skills include

• reading of single words accurately and fluently
• reading comprehension,
• written expression and spelling,
• arithmetic calculation, and
• mathematical reasoning (solving mathematical problems).
 A. Difficulties learning and using academic skills, as indicated by the
presence of at least one of the following symptoms that have persisted
for at least 6 months despite the provision of interventions that target
those difficulties

1. Inaccurate or slow and effortful word reading (e.g.,

reads single words aloud incorrectly or slowly and
DSM-V- hesitantly, frequently guesses words, has difficulty
sounding out words).
TR
2. Difficulty understanding the meaning of what is read
Criteria (e.g., may read text accurately but not understand the
sequence, relationships, inferences, or deeper meanings of
what is read).

3. Difficulties with spelling (e.g., may add, omit, or

substitute vowels or consonants).
 5. Difficulties mastering number
sense, number facts, or calculation
4. Difficulties with written expression (e.g., has poor understanding of
(e.g., makes multiple grammatical or numbers, their magnitude, and
punctuation errors within sentences; relationships; counts on fingers to
employs poor paragraph add single-digit numbers instead of
organization; written expression of recalling the math fact as peers do;
ideas lacks clarity). gets lost in the midst of arithmetic
computation and may switch
procedures).
 6. Difficulties with
mathematical reasoning (e.g.,
has severe difficulty applying
mathematical concepts, facts,
or procedures to solve
quantitative problems
• B. The affected academic skills are substantially and quantifiably
below those expected for the individual’s chronological age, and
cause significant interference with academic or occupational
performance, or with activities of daily living, as confirmed by
individually administered standardized achievement measures
and comprehensive clinical assessment. For individuals age 17
years and older, a documented history of impairing learning
difficulties may be substituted for the standardized assessment
• Low achievement scores on one or more standardized tests or subtests
within an academic domain (i.e., at least 1.5 standard deviations [SD]
below the population mean for age, which translates to a standard
score of 78 or less, which is below the 7th percentile) are needed for
the greatest diagnostic certainty.
C. The learning difficulties begin during school-age years but may not
become fully manifest until the demands for those affected academic
skills exceed the individual’s limited capacities (e.g., as in timed tests,
reading or writing lengthy complex reports for a tight deadline,
excessively heavy academic loads).
D. The learning difficulties are not better accounted for by intellectual
disabilities, uncorrected visual or auditory acuity, other mental or
neurological disorders, psychosocial adversity, lack of proficiency in the
language of academic instruction, or inadequate educational instruction.
 With Age Group
Preschool Children include
• A lack of interest in playing games with language sounds (e.g., repetition,
rhyming),
• trouble learning nursery rhymes.
• Frequently use baby talk,
• mispronounce words
• trouble remembering names of letters, numbers, or days of the week.
• Fail to recognize letters in their own names
• trouble learning to count.
 Kindergarten-age Children
• unable to recognize and write letters
• unable to write their own names
• persistent use of invented spelling beyond developmentally typical time frames.
• They may have trouble breaking down spoken words into syllables (e.g.,
“cowboy” into“cow” and “boy”)
• trouble recognizing words that rhyme (e.g., cat, bat, hat).
• trouble connecting letters with their sounds (e.g., letter b makes the sound /b/)
Primary Grades (grades 1–3)

• problems recognizing and manipulating phonemes, be unable to read

common one-syllable words (such as mat or top),
• unable recognize common irregularly spelled words (e.g., said, two).
• They may commit reading errors that indicate problems in connecting
sounds and letters (e.g., “big” for “got”)
• Difficulty remembering number facts or arithmetic procedures for
adding, subtracting, and so forth,
• may complain that reading or arithmetic is hard and avoid doing it.
 Middle Grades (grades 4–6)
• mispronounce or skip parts of long, multisyllable words (e.g., say “conible” for “convertible,”
“aminal” for “animal”)
• Confuse words that sound alike (e.g., “tornado” for “volcano”).
• trouble remembering dates, names, and telephone numbers and may have trouble completing
homework or tests on time.
• poor comprehension with or without slow, effortful, and inaccurate reading, and they may have
trouble reading small function words (e.g., that, the, an, in).
• poor spelling and poor written work.
• They may get the first part of a word correctly, then guess wildly (e.g., read “clover” as
“clock”),
• may express fear of reading aloud or refuse to read aloud.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLWBqz_GrRQ
• https://youtu.be/KwIsGtF8CdU
F81.0 With Impairment in Reading:

• Word reading accuracy

• Reading rate or fluency
• Reading comprehension

• Dyslexia is an alternative term used to refer to a pattern of learning

difficulties characterized by problems with accurate or fluent word
recognition, poor decoding, and poor spelling abilities.
Assessment Of Impairment in Reading

• Woodcock Reading Mastery Test- Revised

• WRAT-R
• Gates McGinite Reading Test
• Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test
• Durrell Analysis of Reading Difficulty
Guidelines

• Create a calm space to read.

• Consider the distance between you and child.
• Select reading material your child enjoy
• Make the book relevant to your child
• Keep reading-together time fun
• Consider pointing out words.
https://youtu.be/-CpZAH6elIc
 Strategies for Teaching Reading
Phonics Method
• Small letters and big
letters
• Isolated letters and their
Sound
• Blend the sound in whole
words
Videos

https://youtu.be/NzHVmX1pnc8

https://youtu.be/-LVabbIvDcc
Linguistic Method

• When learned phonemes

• Generalization of written letter symbols that
represent sounds
• Consistent and Regular spelling pattern words
CVC pattern
Repeated Reading

• Repeated practice in oral reading

• Who identify most of the words accurately
• 50-200 words passage
• Reads 3-4 times
• Enjoys reading
• Computer screen can be used
KWL Technique

Ogle (1986) suggested KWL technique to study content

area of text book
• K: what I know
• W: What I Want to Find out
• L: What I Learned
Cloze Procedure

• Passage is selected from material to evaluate

• Every 5th word is deleted
• No time limit to complete test
• Instructed to write each blank
• Responses are Scored
Thanks