Types Of Learning Disability

Types of Learning Disability

About one in every seven people in the United States has a learning disability. Although for a fact, learning disabilities can be due to anomalies in brain structure or function which may be inherited, toxins in utero or in an individual's early environment can also cause learning disabilities.

A learning disability whether in a child or an adult, can result in lowered self-esteem and increased chance of dropping out of school; it can even sometimes cause depression or criminal behavior. The earlier a learning disability is diagnosed and is developed successful strategies, the greater the chance of a fulfilling life for these individuals.

However, sometimes normal childhood behavior can be misinterpreted as a learning disability, so it is important to distinguish the difference between the two to be able to take appropriate actions. A person with a learning disability has difficulty in organizing, colleting, and acting on verbal and nonverbal information. Generally, the person has a problem understanding or using spoken and written English. This difficulty is due to a neurological difference in brain structure or functioning.

Oftentimes, the setting where a child's learning disability becomes obvious is in school, where the discrepancy between the child's intelligence and the child's school performance emphasizes the learning difficulties. People with learning disabilities however, do not have low intelligence, in fact they have above average or average intelligence, but their academic performance is below what one can expect of someone of their intelligence, grade level, or age. They may score poorly on tests but not because of low intelligence but due to a problem with learning.

The different types of learning disability will be diagnosed with a learning disorder, and the types of learning disability falls under two major types plus an assorted category:

Speech and Language Disorders is one of the major types of learning disability where the person is delayed by years in the growth of one of these skills:
ü Developmental articulation disorder or the difficulty of a person to produce sounds. The person may mispronounce certain letters or combinations of the letter.
ü Developmental expressive language disorder or the person's difficulty in using spoken language to communicate, as well as difficulty with verbal expression.
ü Developmental receptive language disorder or the difficulty of a person to understand what other people are saying. They hear the words but they are unable to process the words correctly.

Academic Skills Disorders is also one of the major types of learning disability where the person is delayed by years in the advancement of these skills:
ü Dyslexia or developmental reading disorder where the person has reading problems and cannot identify different word sounds.
ü Dysgraphia or developmental writing disorder where a person has writing problems such as problems with handwriting or with making sentences that make sense to others.
ü Dyscalculia or developmental arithmetic disorder where a person has arithmetic skills problem specifically calculations or abstract mathematical concepts.

Other types of learning disability fall under the miscellaneous category such as Fine Motor Skills problems or Dyspraxia, Nonverbal Learning Disorder, and others.