Types Of Learning Disabilities

At the age of twelve, the inventor Thomas Edison was kicked out of his school because his teachers thought he was too dumb. He couldn't do his math well, and felt miserable while speaking and writing. To make matters worse, he turned deaf at the age of fourteen. Who could have ever imagined that one day Edison would go on to patent more than a thousand inventions, including that for the electric light bulb? So, if you are clueless as to what is hindering your child's progress in academics and other comprehension skills, do not assume that your child is abnormal or less intelligent. He may just be suffering from a learning disability, even though he may be as intelligent and creative as other kids. An undetected learning disability may affect his capacity and ability to pick up concepts and communicate. Such disabilities are usually noticed in the way s/he speaks, listens, writes and reasons. It is estimated that almost ten percent of the world’s population suffers from such disabilities. Problems in learning are not influenced by the child's environment or any emotional disturbance or retardation. If your child's speaking, listening, reading, writing, or mathematical skills are severely inhibited, it may be because he has difficulties in receiving, processing and communicating certain types of information which happens when there is a difference in the neural connections in the brain affecting these processes. Learning disabilities are not an index of the child's intelligence. In fact, most people with learning disabilities possess an average or above average IQ. Learning disabilities can be of various types. Each type of disability requires a specific kind of treatment. Coping with a learning disability can give both the parents and the child suffering from it a hard time. An understanding of the types of learning disabilities can help in an early diagnosis of the problem. Read on to know more on different types of learning disabilities.

 

Dyslexia is the difficulty in recognizing words and confusion with alphabets and spellings. As a result the child can neither read nor speak easily. 

Dyscalculia occurs when a child is unable to perform basic mathematical calculations. 

This disorder causes the information to jumble up in the child's brain. Even though the child can hear clearly, s/he fails to respond in a desired manner. 

This disability hampers the visual, spatial and organizational abilities of a child’s brain. 

Visual Processing Disorders confuse the child visually. The visual, and not verbal, information gets mixed-up while being processed in the child's brain. 

A child who has difficulty in forming letters in a specified space is said to suffer from dysgraphia. Not only is her/his handwriting bad, but s/he even struggles to remember the alphabet. 

This learning difficulty is characterized by a difficulty with fine motor skills. It is an impairment or immaturity of hand–eye coordination, balance and manual agility, causing children affected by dyspraxia to be clumsy in their coordination. It can either be "true dyspraxia" – usually lasting for life and helped only to a small extent by treatment, or “developmental dyspraxia” - a delayed neurological maturity that can be gradually rectified. However, the type can be confirmed only over time. 

Written language disability impairs a child's ability to articulate her/his thoughts. S/he has difficulty in understanding the structures of sentences even though the spoken language may be fine.