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Dyslexia

Dyslexia is perhaps the best known learning disability. It is a learning disorder that impedes the student’s ability to read and comprehend a text. There are a variety of ways in which this disability can be manifested. Some people struggle with phonemic awareness, which means they fail to recognize the way words break down according to sound. Similar problems can occur with phonological processing, wherein students cannot distinguish between similar word sounds. Other issues relate generally to fluency, spelling, comprehension and more. Students may experience one reading issue or multiple issues when struggling with dyslexia.

ADHD

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder has affected more than 6.4 million children at some point. While there is some debate as to whether or not ADHD is a learning disability in the most technical sense, there is no doubt that it is a common learning impediment. Students who have ADHD have difficulty paying attention and staying on task. These students can be easily distracted and often have difficulty in traditional school settings. Experts link ADHD with the structure of the brain, and there is evidence that ADHD may have a genetic component as well. Unlike typical learning disabilities, which need instructional interventions, ADHD can be successfully treated with medications and behavioral therapies.

Dyscalculia

Math is another major area of concern when it comes to learning disabilities. While difficulty with reading can affect a student’s ability in math, some students also suffer from dyscalculia, which is a disorder that specifically affects one’s math capabilities. Dyscalculia can range from an inability to order numbers correctly and extend to limited strategies for problem solving. Students with math disorders may have trouble performing basic math calculations, or they may have difficulty with concepts like time, measurement or estimation.

Dysgraphia

While reading disabilities receive the most attention, writing disabilities can be equally difficult to overcome. These disabilities are known as dysgraphia. Dysgraphia can be related to the physical act of writing. These students often cannot hold a pencil correctly, and their posture may be tense while trying to write. This leads them to tire easily, causing discouragement that further inhibits progress. Dysgraphia can also refer to difficulty with written expression. With this type of disability, students have trouble organizing their thoughts coherently. Their writing may be redundant or have obvious omissions that affect the quality and readability of the text. Dysgraphia may also cause students to struggle with basic sentence structure and grammatical awareness.

Processing Deficits

Learning disabilities are also connected to processing deficits. When students have a processing deficit, they have trouble making sense of sensory data. This makes it hard for students to perform in a traditional classroom without instructional supports. These deficits are most often auditory or visual, and they can make it hard for students to distinguish and remember important information that is needed to succeed.

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder that affects communication and behavior. Although autism can be diagnosed at any age, it is said to be a “developmental disorder” because symptoms generally appear in the first two years of life. Students with ASD typically have

 people with ASD have:

• Difficulty with communication and interaction with other people

• Restricted interests and repetitive behaviors

• Symptoms that hurt the person’s ability to function properly in school, work, and other areas of life

Autism is known as a “spectrum” disorder because there is wide variation in the type and severity of symptoms people experience. ASD occurs in all ethnic, racial, and economic groups. Although ASD can be a lifelong disorder, treatments and services can improve a person’s symptoms and ability to function.  

Social communication / interaction behaviors may include:

• Making little or inconsistent eye contact

• Tending not to look at or listen to people

• Rarely sharing enjoyment of objects or activities by pointing or showing things to others

• Failing to, or being slow to, respond to someone calling their name or to other verbal attempts to gain attention

• Having difficulties with the back and forth of conversation

• Often talking at length about a favorite subject without noticing that others are not interested or without giving others a chance to respond

• Having facial expressions, movements, and gestures that do not match what is being said

• Having an unusual tone of voice that may sound sing-song or flat and robot-like

• Having trouble understanding another person’s point of view or being unable to predict or understand other people’s actions

Restrictive / repetitive behaviors may include:

• Repeating certain behaviors or having unusual behaviors. For example, repeating words or phrases, a behavior called echolalia

• Having a lasting intense interest in certain topics, such as numbers, details, or facts

• Having overly focused interests, such as with moving objects or parts of objects

• Getting upset by slight changes in a routine

• Being more or less sensitive than other people to sensory input, such as light, noise, clothing, or temperature

People with ASD may also experience sleep problems and irritability. Although people with ASD experience many challenges, they may also have many strengths, including:

• Being able to learn things in detail and remember information for long periods of time

• Being strong visual and auditory learners

• Excelling in math, science, music, or art

Down Syndrome

Down syndrome is a condition in which a person has an extra chromosome. Chromosomes are small “packages” of genes in the body. They determine how a baby’s body forms during pregnancy and how the baby’s body functions as it grows in the womb and after birth. Typically, a baby is born with 46 chromosomes. Babies with Down syndrome have an extra copy of one of these chromosomes, chromosome 21. A medical term for having an extra copy of a chromosome is ‘trisomy.’ Down syndrome is also referred to as Trisomy 21. This extra copy changes how the baby’s body and brain develop, which can cause both mental and physical challenges for the baby.

Even though people with Down syndrome might act and look similar, each person has different abilities. People with Down syndrome usually have an IQ (a measure of intelligence) in the mildly-to-moderately low range and are slower to speak than other children.  Down syndrome remains the most common chromosomal condition diagnosed in the United States. Each year, about 6,000 babies born in the United States have Down syndrome. This means that Down syndrome occurs in about 1 out of every 700 babies.

Some common physical features of Down syndrome include:

• A flattened face, especially the bridge of the nose

• Almond-shaped eyes that slant up

• A short neck

• Small ears

• A tongue that tends to stick out of the mouth

• Tiny white spots on the iris (colored part) of the eye

• Small hands and feet

• A single line across the palm of the hand (palmar crease)

• Small pinky fingers that sometimes curve toward the thumb

• Poor muscle tone or loose joints

• Shorter in height as children and adults

Auditory Processing Disorder

Auditory processing disorder (APD) is a hearing problem that affects about 5% of school-aged children.  Kids with this condition, also known as central auditory processing disorder (CAPD), can't process what they hear in the same way other kids do. This is because their ears and brain don't fully coordinate. Something interferes with the way the brain recognizes and interprets sounds, especially speech.

 With the right therapy, kids with APD can be successful in school and life. Early diagnosis is important. If the condition isn't caught and treated early, a child can have speech and language delays or problems learning in school.

 Kids with APD are thought to hear normally because they can usually hear sounds that are delivered one at a time in a very quiet environment (such as a sound-treated room). The problem is that they usually don't recognize slight differences between sounds in words, even when the sounds are loud and clear enough to be heard.

 These kinds of problems usually happen when there is background noise, which is often the case in social situations. So kids with APD can have trouble understanding what is being said to them when they're in noisy places like a playground, sports events, the school cafeteria, and parties.

 Symptoms of APD can range from mild to severe and can take many different forms. If you think your child might have a problem processing sounds, ask yourself:

·       Is my child easily distracted or unusually bothered by loud or sudden noises?

·       Are noisy environments upsetting to my child?

·       Does my child's behavior and performance improve in quieter settings?

·       Does my child have trouble following directions, whether simple or complicated?

·       Does my child have reading, spelling, writing, or other speech-language difficulties?

·       Are verbal (word) math problems hard for my child?

·       Is my child disorganized and forgetful?

·       Are conversations hard for my child to follow?

 APD is often misunderstood because many of its symptoms can happen with other problems, like learning disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and even depression.

Audiologists look for five main problem areas in kids with APD:

1.     Auditory figure-ground problems: This is when a child can't pay attention if there's noise in the background. Noisy, loosely structured classrooms could be very frustrating.

2.     Auditory memory problems: This is when a child has trouble remembering information such as directions, lists, or study materials. It can be immediate ("I can't remember it now") and/or delayed ("I can't remember it when I need it for later").

3.     Auditory discrimination problems: This is when a child has trouble hearing the difference between similar words or sounds (COAT/BOAT or CH/SH). This can affect following directions and reading, spelling, and writing skills, among others.

4.     Auditory attention problems: This is when a child can't stay focused on listening long enough to complete a task (such as listening to a lecture in school). Kids with CAPD often have trouble maintaining attention, although health, motivation, and attitude also can play a role.

5.     Auditory cohesion problems: This is when higher-level listening tasks are difficult. Auditory cohesion skills — drawing inferences from conversations, understanding riddles, or comprehending verbal math problems — need heightened auditory processing and language levels.