Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Definition & Overview

• Learning Disability (LD):
  • Neurologically-based difficulties in mastering academic skills such as:
    • Reading
    • Writing
    • Math
  • Not due to:
    • Visual or auditory impairments
    • Intellectual disability
    • Emotional disturbances
    • Environmental disadvantage
  • Requires diagnosis for educational accommodations.

Identification of SLD

• Four criteria:
  1. Normative academic skill deficit
  2. Cognitive processing problem
  3. Normal general intelligence
  4. Rule out other explanations

RTI (Response to Intervention)

• Tier I: Universal screening
• Tier II: Targeted small group instruction
• Tier III: Intensive individualized instruction

IDEA & DSM-5 Definitions

• IDEA (IDEIA):
  • Defines Specific Learning Disability for educational settings.
• DSM-5:
  • Defines Specific Learning Disorder as a neurodevelopmental condition affecting information processing.

SLD: Impairment in Reading

Key Components

• Phonological Awareness
• Orthographic Awareness
• Reading Comprehension
• Fluency
• Processing Speed

Cognitive Contributors

• Working memory
• RAN (Rapid Automatized Naming)
• Double-deficit model

Neurological Basis

• Inferior frontal gyrus (Broca's area)
• Parietotemporal (word analysis)
• Occipitotemporal (word form recognition)

Treatments

• RAVE-O
• Digitally Assisted Reading
• Explicit Phoneme Training
• Phonics
• Guided Oral Reading
• Systematic Instruction
• Text Enhancements

SLD: Impairment in Written Expression

Difficulties

• Spelling, grammar, punctuation errors
• Poor clarity and organization

Writing Process

1. Planning
2. Translating
3. Reviewing

Six Key Differences

1. Productivity
2. Lexical diversity
3. Sentence complexity
4. Grammar
5. Spelling
6. Story content

Intervention

• SRSD (Self-Regulated Strategy Development)

SLD: Impairment in Mathematics

Number Sense

• Understanding and mentally representing quantity
• Foundation for all math skills

Common Predictors & Errors

• One-to-one correspondence
• Stable order
• Cardinality
• Abstraction
• Order irrelevance

Calculation Challenges

• Slow calculation, errors
• Poor direct retrieval and decomposition
• Working memory deficits

Treatments

• Direct Instruction:
  • Step-by-step, scripted
• Self-Instruction:
  • Verbal prompts faded over time
• Mediated Instruction:
  • Scaffolding with hints