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Lecture Information:  Learning Disabilities

                                                        i.      A learning disability is a neurological disorder. In simple terms, a learning disability results from a difference in the way a person's brain is "wired." Children with learning disabilities are as smart as or smarter than their peers. But they may have difficulty reading, writing, spelling, reasoning, recalling and/or organizing information if left to figure things out by themselves or if taught in conventional ways.

                                                   ii.      A learning disability can't be cured or fixed; it is a lifelong issue. With the right support and intervention, however, children with learning disabilities can succeed in school and go on to successful, often distinguished careers later in life.

                                              iii.      Parents can help children with learning disabilities achieve such success by encouraging their strengths, knowing their weaknesses, understanding the educational system, working with professionals and learning about strategies for dealing with specific difficulties.

                                                   iv.      In the United States and Canada, the term learning disability is used to refer to psychological and neurological conditions that affect a person's communicative capacities and potential to be taught effectively. The term includes such conditions as:

dysgraphia - writing disorder
dyslexia - reading disorder
mathematics disorder
developmental aphasia.

In the United Kingdom, the term learning disability is used more generally to refer to developmental disability.

                                                        v.      Someone with a learning disability does not necessarily have low or high intelligence, nor any innate inability to learn. It just means this individual has an impairment to their ability due to a processing disorder, such as auditory processing or visual processing, that is detrimental to normal teaching methods. Learning disabilities are usually identified by school psychologists through testing of intelligence, academics and processes of learning.