Learning disabilities, often known as learning disorders, is a collective term that encompasses a wide range of learning difficulties. It is a neurological condition
that has an impact on how a person perceives, processes, and reacts to new
knowledge. Reading, writing, communicating, listening, interpreting mathematical concepts, and basic comprehension can all be challenging for a person with a learning disability.
This topic is very close to my heart as I am an individual with learning disabilities.
I would narrate my experience but first , let us understand learning disabilities in-
depth. A learning disorder has nothing to with intelligence. According to different
studies occurrence of specific learning disabilities in India varies from 5% to 15%
(Singh et al, 2017).
Causes of Learning Disability
The reasons of learning disabilities are widely unclear. Several hypotheses have been established by scholars. The following are some of the potential causes of learning disabilities:
• Genetics: Genetics, or heredity, may play a role in an individual's learning disorder. These disabilities originate from family, so for example if a parent is diagnosed with learning disorder it is more likely that it will pass on the child.
• Environment: Contact to numerous toxins like lead, radiations and poor nutrition can be cause of these disorders.
• Issues with mother’s pregnancy: Drug or alcohol use during pregnancy, physical injuries, slow uterine development, low birth weight, and premature or extended labour are also potential causes. Learning disabilities may also be caused by infection or accident before or after birth.
• Comorbidities: Individuals with learning disabilities often have other
physical or sensory impairments.
Signs of Learning Disorders
Sometimes when an infant is very young, there might be symptoms of learning
problems. If a child has many developmental delays, where there is milestone gap such as being behind other children his or her age, that may be a sign of a learning disorder.
General Symptoms of Learning Disability :
• Poor recall
• Trouble in reading and writing
• Difficulty in paying attention, has short attention span.
• Struggle with eye-hand coordination
• Having issues in tasks which contains fine motor skills like: buttoning the
shirt, tying shoe laces
• Problems in following instructions
Along with these general symptoms, there are different types of disability which has
their own symptoms and signs.
There are individual variances so no person will have all the signs of learning disability.
Types of Learning Disabilities
There are 7 types of learning disabilities which are documented by the researchers.
1. Dyslexia: Learning disability in reading is called Dyslexia, which makes
difficult for an individual to read, learn and spelling. The person is unable to comprehend the relation between the alphabets and sound.
Signs of Dyslexia
• Trouble in recognizing letter and word
• Has issues with pronunciations of the words
• Faces issues in understanding ideas
• Worries in reading the words
2. Dyscalculia: This is a learning disability in arithmetic. It is not just only
about-facing difficulty in the concepts of mathematics but also overall like making mistakes while jotting down numbers and reversing it.
Signs of Dyscalculia
• Trouble in grasping mathematical concepts like multiplication, division, fraction, time, speed and distance.
• Struggles in conceptualizing steps or sequence in a math problem
• Has trouble in explaining order of a mathematical method
3. Dysgraphia: It is a learning disability categorized by issues in writing.
Signs of Dysgraphia
• Has a tight grip of the pencil or pen which can often lead to hand aches
• Wrong spellings
• Problem with grammar
• Disproportionate sizing between the words
4. Aphasia and Dysphasia: Both of these learning disorders comes under the
umbrella of language processing disorders. It includes facing issues in verbal
language skills like words, direction, telling a story.
5. Non- verbal learning disabilities: It affects the non-verbal skills like motor,
visual-spatial and social skills. It includes difficulty in comprehending body
language and has trouble in understanding social cues.
6. Visual Perceptual/ Visual Motor Deficit: Issues in understanding visual
information - absent in shapes, missing letters or words and having trouble in
eye-hand coordination.
7. Audio Processing Disorder: This learning disorder hinders a person’s ability
of distinguishing between sounds, which often leads to problems in blocking
background noises and mentioning the origin of sound.
Diagnosis and Treatment
Early diagnosis plays a vital role for any disorder. Factors like observation,
testing of intelligence and interviewing of family members are vital steps to
be taken. Parents especially have a lot to do with diagnosis. Parents should
pay attention to the small details of their child’s behavior and should do a
complete review of his/her educational history. The child’s behavior should also be noticed in different settings. After noticing the symptoms, the child should be taken through a learning disability evaluation which usually includes:
• A medical examination, to rule out other causes of symptoms that
mimic learning disability
• A complete assessment of child’s school and social history
• A meeting with parents or guardians to understand family history
• There are academics and IQ tests conducted by the practitioners
Treatment
After getting diagnosed, it is important to create a plan to make sure the person tries
to overcome the disorders in his/her life.
• First of all, dealing with the individual with patience and accepting who they
are is extremely important.
• Getting extra help from school, going for occupational therapy or even for
counselling.
• Early intervention does a play an important role as it’s a long-term condition.
• Regular work on these skills could help the individual to cope up with
disabilities.
Usually, kids with learning disorders do have some unpleasant experiences. I had
similar experiences. I was diagnosed with learning disabilities including: dyslexia,
dysgraphia and dyscalculia in my 8th grade. Among the other disabilities, the reports
stated that dyscalculia had the highest percentage and was prominent for me. I was detected early because of my mother’s careful observation.
My grades especially in Mathematics were quite low and it had started to decline from grade 6th. During the 8th grade I remember vividly, going for appointments in a hospital for long hours, attempting tests, answering questions etc. was quite taxing for me. Despite of performing well in my other subjects I had poor self-esteem since I used to often fail in math. I was bullied by my classmates and was also teased by them which in turn impacted me negatively. I recall having nightmares about people laughing and passing comments on me. This was a really hard time for me as I often cried myself to sleep and hoped this was a bad nightmare. However, I am fortunate enough to have a family who raised my spirits. My mother decided to spend more time with me and focused on enhancing my skills. She pushed me to do my best and has played huge role in who I am today. It was because of her I started to work on myself and learned to never give up. It is all my mother’s effort that I’m here writing this articleand overcoming all my obstacles. My family and friends have been my biggest cheerleaders and have always being there for. It is important for an individual to work tirelessly on their weaknesses and turn them into their strengths. It takes a lot of patience and hard work to work on these disorders but I have learnt to embrace it and walk with my head held high. If you’re a caregiver or an individual going through these disorders, I know it’s challenging but it gets better with time and resilience.
You’re going to be okay, just like me.
-Aashna Parikh