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Learning Disabilities (LDs): What are they?

INTRODUCTION

When children have learning difficulties, parents are most often the first to detect that something is not correct. And once noticed, parents want answers, information, and reliable advice and resources.

A collaborative and exploratory effort amongst parents, schools, educators, and governmental agencies is important for the success of students with learning disabilities.

Important key factors to understanding learning disabilities (LDs) includes understanding the in-depth breakdown of what learning disabilities encompasses and learning the definition that has been adopted.

Learning disabilities are defined differently by various agencies: the concept of learning disability has one meaning for the general public, and a different meaning for professionals.

The definition used within the body of this article is based upon the US federal government's laws and regulations and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

For school purposes, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act defines learning disability in the following way: students with learning disabilities have difficulty acquiring basic skills or academic content. Learning disabilities are characterized by individual differences, usually in the form of a discrepancy between a student's ability and his/her achievement in the areas of reading, writing, mathematics, or speaking.

Even though the achievements are not the primary problem, some students with a learning disability also have difficulties with social relations. Individual differences are distinctions within a student's ability across academic areas. For instance, a student with a learning disability may be quite successful in math computation and listening comprehension but may not be good at reading.

Other children with learning disabilities may read and speak well; however, they may have difficulty expressing their thoughts in writing.

"Building the Legacy: IDEA 2004," emphasized that children with learning disabilities are as smart as, or smarter than, peers; however children who have learning disabilities and who have to learn by themselves or have to learn in traditional methods, may have difficulty with learning basic skills of reading, spelling, writing, and with higher level skills such as abstract reasoning, recalling, planning, and/or organizing facts.

DEFINING LEARNING DISABILITIES

Every individual with a learning disability has their own unique pattern of a learning difficulty.

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