About Disabilities

SLD Terminology

Disability: Dyslexia

Area of Difficulty: Processing language

Symptoms with trouble: Reading and spelling

Examples: Inability to decode, or break down, words into phonemes

Disability: Dyscalculia

Area of Difficulty: Math skills

Symptoms with trouble: Computation, remembering math facts, concepts of time & money

Examples: Difficulty learning to count by 2s, 3s, 4s

Disability: Dyspraxia

Area of Difficulty: Fine motor skills

Symptoms with trouble: Coordination, manual dexterity

Examples: Trouble with scissors, buttons, drawing

Disability: Developmental aphasia

Area of Difficulty: Expressive and receptive language

Symptoms with trouble: N/A

Examples: N/A

Other Related Disorders

Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD)

The DSM- 5 lists 3 types of ADHD

1. Predominantly inattentive type ADHD
2. Predominantly hyperactive/impulsive type ADHD
3. Combined type ADHD

Symptoms

1. Concentration & focus
2. Over-activity, distractibility & impulsivity
3. Can't sit still, loses interest quickly

According to the National Institutes of Health, 13 to 14 percent of the school population is learning disabled. Though learning disabilities are common, they are not well understood.

Learning Disabilities can effect a person's ability in the areas of:

• Listening
• Speaking
• Reading
• Writing
• Mathematics

Some common signs of learning disabilities or a checklist:

• A child with LD will exhibit more than 50% of these signs.
• A child having one or two signs does not have LD.

Preschool

• Speaks later than most children do
• Pronunciation problems
• Slow vocabulary growth, often unable to find the right word
• Difficult rhyming words
• Trouble learning numbers, alphabet, days of the week, colors, shapes
• Extremely restless and easily distracted
• Trouble interacting with peers
• Difficulty following directions or routines
• Fine motor skills slow to develop

Grades Kg-4

• Slow to learn the connection between letters and sounds
• Confuses basic words (run, eat, want)
• Makes consistent reading and spelling errors including letter reversals (b/d), inversions
• (m/w), transpositions (felt/left), and substitutions (house/home)
• Transposes number sequences and confuses arithmetic signs (+, -, x,/, =)
• Slow to remember facts
• Slow to learn new skills, relies heavily on memorization
• Unstable pencil grip
• Trouble learning about time
• Poor coordination, unaware of physical surroundings, prone to accidents

Grades 5-8

• Reverses letter sequences (soiled/solid, left/felt)
• Slow to learn prefixes, suffixes, root words, and other spelling strategies
• Avoids reading aloud
• Trouble with word problems
• Difficulty with handwriting
• Awkward, fist-like, or tight pencil grip
• Avoids writing compositions
• Slow or poor recall of facts
• Difficulty making friends
• Trouble understanding body language and facial expressions

High School Students & Adults

• Continues to spell incorrectly, frequently spell the same word differently in a single piece of writing
• Avoids reading and writing tasks
• Trouble summarizing
• Trouble with open-ended questions on tests
• Weak memory skills
• Difficulty adjusting to new settings
• Works slowly
• Poor grasp of abstract concepts
• Either pays too little attention to details or focuses on them too much
• Misreads information