Learning Disabilities Association of America (LDA)
I chose to include the Learning Disabilities Association of America (LDA) in my resource collection. "Learning disabilities (LD; referred to as specific learning disabilities, or SLD, in IDEA) is a general term describing a group of learning problems. Students with LD are highly represented in general education classes, as LD is the largest single disability area. . . Learning disabilites is used as an umbrella term to classify those individuals with average or above-average intelligence who nontheless have difficulties with academic tasks." (Mastropieri & Scruggs, 2018) The Learning Disabilities Association of America website backs this information up and has an abundance of additional information on what a learning disability is under their education tab. An example of the kind of information given is, "Children grow up to be adults and unfortunately learning disabilities cannot be cured or fixed; it’s a life long issue. And some individuals don’t realize they have learning disabilities until they are adults. With the right support and interventions, however, children and adults with learning disabilities can succeed in school and life. Recognizing, accepting and understanding your learning disability are the first steps to success." (LDA)
Additionally, according to our book, "Many students with learning disabilities have deficits in both long- and short-term memory, memory for verbal information (semantic memory), and working memory, which provides the ability to hold information while simultaneously processing the same or other information." the Learning Disabilities Association of America website has a link to an article on how to assist students with memory issues called "How to Help Kids with Memory Issues, Child Mind Institute." The article goes through gettting to know the child's limits, breaking memory down, creating routines, outsourcing, medication, and gaming. This would be a great resource to visit if a student of mine who has a learning disability struggles with memory.
The Learning Disabilities Association of America website also contains links to specific learning disabilities including dyscalculia, dysgraphia, dyslexia, non-verbal learning disabilities, and oral/written language disorder and specific reading comprehension deficit. In each link they describe what it is and give important information. For example under dyslexia they wrote, "Dyslexia is characterized by deficits in accurate and fluent word recognition. Individuals with dyslexia struggle with word recognition, decoding, and spelling. Reading comprehension is sometimes impaired due to very poor word reading skills. Individuals with dyslexia often have deficits in phonemic and phonological awareness, which refer to the ability to hear, identify and manipulate the sound structure of a spoken word, including its phonemes, syllables, onsets and rhymes. Individuals with dyslexia may also have impaired orthographic processing, which interferes with connecting letters and letter combinations with sounds accurately and fluently." (LDA)
Resources
If you are a parent or teacher of a child with a learning disability – or have learning disabilities yourself... you are not alone. Learning Disabilities Association of America. (n.d.). Retrieved December 7, 2022, from https://ldaamerica.org/
Mastropieri, M. A., & Scruggs, T. E. (2018). The inclusive classroom: Strategies for effective differentiated instruction (6th ed.). Pearson.