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Learning disabilities are disorders of the central nervous system that affect basic learning functions. Learning disabilities interfere with a person's ability to collect information, sort it, and store it. Because of the process break-down in perceiving and storing information, retrieval is usually affected as well. Information that is imperfectly stored is difficult to translate into speech, writing, or physical actions.
Learning abilities affect the children of America. In response to the need to find alternate patterns of education for the children afflicted with learning disabilities, Public Law 101-476, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was passed by Congress. IDEA has determined that a learning disability is a "disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using spoken or written language, which may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations." IDEA further defines the term "learning disability" when it includes the examples of "perceptual handicaps, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia." Problems dealing with "visual, hearing, motor disabilities, mental retardation, emotional disturbance, or environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage" are not considered learning disabilities under the IDEA definition.
Learning disabilities do not necessarily relate to Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and often occur in children with at least average intelligence. They are characterized by a significant difference in achievement and overall intelligence. Learning disabilities may be so severe that they are noticeable in a child in grade school but may also only become apparent when a student reaches higher grades. A capable student may be able to compensate in early school years to make acceptable grades but become unable to manage when faced with note-taking, longer reading assignments, and the more difficult demands of secondary school.
Educational implications for the student with learning disabilities deal mostly with support services, modifications, and accommodations. Strategies that seem to be effective include providing high structure and clear expectations, using short sentences and simple vocabulary, allowing flexibility in classroom procedures such as tape recorders or oral test-taking, making use of self-correcting materials to provide immediate feedback, using computers for drill and practice, and providing opportunities for learning social skills at school and home.
Close collaboration among special education teachers, parents, resource room teacher, general classroom teachers, and professional staff must be coordinated to facilitate the overall support for the education of a child with learning disabilities. Unfortunately, students with learning disabilities are not always diagnosed or their problems addressed. Thirty-five percent of students identified with learning disabilities drop out of high school because their special needs are not met. (This figure does not include the students who drop out without ever having been identified as having learning disabilities.)
Researchers hope to find better ways of diagnosing learning disabilities than are used at the present time. Currently, the most commonly used tool is the "discrepancy diagnosis," which is based on measuring the discrepancy between a child's aptitude or IQ score and the child's actual performance in school or measurement on an achievement test. In many school systems, the child must fall behind in school before a diagnosis can be made. Researchers hope to improve the methods of diagnosis so that the child does not have to operate from a deficit or "catch up" position in his or her education once qualifying for services.
Research is ongoing into the appearance of more than one learning deficit in the same child. The role of genetics is being studied in that regard as well. In current research, children with early language disorders are being studied to determine what role language disorders may play in the development of learning disabilities, especially those in reading. Earlier identification could lead to earlier intervention. While IDEA has opened the door to the needs of those with learning disabilities, it is only the tip of a very large iceberg.
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