Learning Disorders/Intellectual Disabilities Flashcards
IDEA, U.S. Public Law 101-476
Renamed the legislation as the individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and added traumatic brain injury (TBI) and autism to the category of disabilities
DSM diagnostic categories for learning disabilities
- SLD (specific learning disability) w/ impairment in reading
- SLD w/ impairment in written expression
- SLD w/ impairment in mathematics
Dyslexia
oral reading is characterized by distortions, substitutions, or omissions; both oral and silent reading (60-80% of those affected are males)
Decoding
sight words, phonemic awareness, reading rate and accuracy; breaking words down by sounding out was words
Learning Disability
diagnosed when an individual’s achievement on individually administered, standardized tests in reading, math, or written expression is substantially below that expected for age, schooling, and level of intelligence
Executive Functioning
set of processes that all have to do with managing oneself and one’s resources in order to achieve a goal. Umbrella term for neurologically-based skills involving mental control and self-regulation (organizationa skills and memory)
Factors that influence reading development
- Development of phonemic awareness + alphabetic principles (what does this letter sound like?)
-Ability to decode words
-Automatically with words
-Acquisition of vocabulary
-Application of reading comprehension strategies
-Extensive reading of narrative and expository texts
Left hemisphere & Learning
- Dominant for speech in most people
-Linear, sequential, serial, time-oriented processing
-Analysis and processing of details
-Reading, writing, understanding and speaking, verbal thinking, verbal memory.
-Damage can cause speech and language problems, verbal memory loss, concrete thinking, reading/writing/math disorders, poor complex motor movements
Right hemisphere and learning
- Mediates complex nonverbal material
- Processing and storage of visual, tactile, spatial, music info
- Gestalt thinking, holistic, simultaneous processing
- Synthesis and closure
- Damage can cause poor judgment, organization, processing of complex information, inferential thinking, spatial organization, math, construction, insight
- Right brain learning problems: social difficulties (social engagements), spatial learning difficulties, reading a clock, understanding greater than and less than
Broca’s area
Speech production
Wernicke’s area
Language comprehension
When someone has a learning disability, what should their IQ be?
Most people with a learning disability have a higher than average IQ. If your IQ is high but you’re not performing well on achievement tests, that’s a disability
Diagnostic criteria for intellectual disability
- Mild (IQ 50-55) to 70
- Moderate (IQ 35-40 to 50-55)
- Severe (IQ 20-25 to 35-40)
- Profound (<20-25)
Most common causes of intellectual disability
Down syndrome (trisomy 21), Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (a little too much alcohol while in the womb), Fragile X Syndrome (gets worse as generations go on) {females can be less impaired by fragile x because they have two x’s and the other x can help compensate, while males only have one}
Etiological theories of possible role of mirror neurons
- Theory of Mind
- It is thought that these mirror neurons are important for understanding the actions of others and for learning by imitation
- fMRI show decreased mirror neuron activity in autistic children; HOWEVER, it offers little evidence that MN are responsible for ASD
theory of mind
the idea that others have thoughts, interests, emotions of their own
Etiological theories of possible role of amygdala
Adults with high-functioning autism and asperger syndrome showed impairments in recognizing emotions from just eyes; The autism group in this study (not high-functioning) did not activate the amygdala at all. Autism group had more activity in the temporal lobe, which is involved in verbal labeling of complex visual stimuli and processing faces and eyes → may suggest compensation
Amygdala
- structure important for fear conditioning, memory consolidation, and the generation of important emotional response
- Smaller amygdala → slower to recognize facial expressions, look at other people’s eyes less
- Autistic people tend to have hyperactive or large amygdala at a young age, then it shrinks
Etiological theories for possible role of fusiform area
- Autistic individuals tend to lack the facial inversion effect, meaning, they recognize faces equally well or poor
- The fusiform activation is absent in people with autism
- In autistic children, the fusiform activation occur when they see a picture of their mom, but less activation them they see strangers
fusiform gyrus
part of the brain that’s active when people see faces (normally), and also when they see something they enjoy or like
Etiological theories for possible role of basal ganglia
- thought to contribute to the obsessive behavior (wanting things to be a certain way every time, repetitive motor behaviors, difficulties with environmental changes)
- The obsessiveness is similar to OCD and tourette’s
Caudate is active when
people engage in repetitive behavior
