L9: Learning Disabilities

Learning Disabilities

Any various conditions with a neurological basis that are marked by substantial deficits in acquiring certain scholastic or academic skills.

• Perceptual disabilities

• Traumatic brain injury

• Minimal brain dysfunction

Learning disabilities include learning problems that result from:

• Visual impairment or hearing loss

• Intellectual developmental disorder

• Emotional disturbance

• Environmental, cultural, or economic factors.

Learning disabilities exclude learning problems that result from:

Sensation

Raw inputs for experience

Perception

Interpreted sensations

1. Inaccurate or slow effortful word reading

2. Difficulty understanding the meaning of what is read

3. Difficulties with spelling

4. Difficulties with written expression

5. Difficulties mastering number sense, number facts, or calculation

6. Difficulties with mathematical reasoning

. Difficulties learning and using academic skills, as indicated by the presence of at least one of the following symptoms that have persisted for at least 6 months, despite the provision of interventions that target those difficulties:

Substantially and quantifiably below

The affected academic skills are ____ those expected for the individual’s chronological age.

TRUE

T or F: LD cause significant interference with academic or occupational performance, or with activities of daily living, as confirmed by individually administered standardized achievement measures and comprehensive clinical assessment.

Documented history of impairing learning difficulties

For individuals age 17 years and older, a ___ may be substituted for the standardized assessment.

School-age years

The learning difficulties begin during ____ but may not become fully manifest until the demands for those affected academic skills exceed the individual’s limited capacities .

TRUE

T or F: The learning difficulties are not better accounted for by intellectual disabilities.

• With impairment in reading

• With impairment in written expression

• With impairment in mathematics

• Mild

• Moderate

• Severe

LD Specifiers

With impairment in reading

• Word reading accuracy

• Reading rate or fluency

• Reading comprehension

With impairment in written expression

• Spelling accuracy

• Grammar and punctuation accuracy

• Clarity or organization of written expression

With impairment in mathematics

• Number sense

• Memorization of arithmetic facts

• Accurate or fluent calculation

• Accurate math reasoning

Dyslexia

Pattern of learning difficulties characterized by problems with accurate or fluent word recognition, poor decoding, and poor spelling abilities (reading)

Dyscalculia

A pattern of difficulties characterized by problems processing numerical information, learning arithmetic facts, and performing accurate or fluent calculations. (numbers)

Dysgraphia

A learning disorder in which the individual's writing skills are below the level expected for his or her age and cognitive level. (writing)

• CNS dysfunction rather than brain injury

• Genetics factors

• Exposure to toxins (fetal alcohol syndrome)

• Preterm delivery or very low birthweight (DSM 5 TR)

Causes

• Cognitive Training

• Instructional Approaches for Academics

• Direct Instruction

• Peer Tutoring

• Service Delivery Models

Educational Considerations

Cognitive Training

Modifying unobservable thought processes, prompting observable changes in behavior.

Self-Instruction

• Problem definition: “What do I have to do?”

• Planning: “How can I solve this problem?”

• Strategy use: “The five-step strategy will help me look for important words.”

• Self-evaluation: “How am I doing?”

• Self-reinforcement: “Good job. I got it right.”

Self-monitoring

Students keep track of their own behavior

Scaffolded instruction

Teachers provide assistance to students when they are first learning tasks, and then gradually reduce assistance so that eventually students do the tasks independently.

Reciprocal teaching

An interactive dialogue between the teacher and students in which the teacher–student relationship is similar to that of an expert (teacher) and an apprentice (student).

Instructional Approaches for Academics for Reading

• Phonological awareness

• Phonemic awareness

• Phonics instruction

• Repeated readings (reading fluency)

Instructional Approaches for Academics for Writing

Self-regulated strategy development

Instructional Approaches for Academics for Math

Instruction needs to be explicit and sequence the instruction to minimize errors

Direct Instruction

Focuses on the details of the instructional process. Systematic analysis of the concept to be taught, rather than analysis of the characteristics of the student

Task analysis

Breaking down academic problems into their component parts so that teachers can teach the parts separately and then teach the students to put the parts together in order to demonstrate the larger skill.

Peer tutoring

Involves students teaching and learning from each other in a collaborative setting.

Service delivery models

Cooperative teaching arrangement

1. Curriculum-Based Measurement

2. Informal Assessment

3. Testing Accommodations

Assessment

Curriculum-Based Measurement

Calculating the number of correct words per minute (CWPM)

1. Informal reading inventory (IRI)

2. Mathematics dynamic assessment (MDA)

2 types of Informal Assessment

Informal reading inventory (IRI)

A series of reading passages or word lists graded in order of difficulty.

Mathematics dynamic assessment (MDA)

examining mathematical understanding at concrete semi-concrete, and abstract levels

Testing Accommodations

Extended time & small-group setting administration.

Risk for having learning disabilities

Even though prediction is not perfect, several developmental milestones are related to comprehension or expression of spoken language, emergent literacy skills, and perceptual skills that indicate ____

• Delay in comprehension and/or expression of spoken language

• Delay in emergent literacy skills

• Delay in perceptual-motor skills

Important developmental milestones