Specific Learning Disorders Flashcards
what is sld
SLD affects a person’s ability to take in, process, and/or communicate information
SLD criteria A
Difficulties learning and using academic skills as
indicated by the presence of at least one of the
following symptoms that have persisted for at least 6 months
- Inaccurate or slow and effortful word reading
- Difficulty understanding the meaning of what is read
- Difficulties with spelling
- Difficulties with written expression
- Difficulties mastering number sense, number facts, or calculation
- Difficulties with mathematical reasoning
SLD criteria B
The affected academic skills are substantially and quantifiably below those expected for the individual’s chronological age, and cause significant interference with
academic or occupational performance, or with activities of daily living, as confirmed by individually administered standardized achievement measures and comprehensive
clinical assessment. For individuals aged 17 years and older, a documented history of impaired learning difficulties may be substituted for the standardized assessment
SLD criteria C
The learning difficulties begin during school-age years but may not become fully manifest until the demands for those affected academic skills exceed the individual’s limited
capacities
SLD Criterion D
The learning difficulties are not be better accounted for by
another disorder (e.g. intellectual disabilities, uncorrected visual or auditory acuity, other mental or neurological
disorders, psychosocial adversity, lack of proficiency in the
language of academic instruction, or inadequate educational instruction, etc).
How are the 4 sld diagnostic criteria met
Note: the 4 diagnostic criteria are to be met based on a clinical synthesis of the
individual’s history (developmental, medical, family, educational), school reports,
and psychoeducational assessment.
SLD comorbidities
ADHD
Depression
Anxiety
Conduct disorder
Risk factors for SLDs
Genetics
Prenatal factors
* Exposure to alcohol
* Smoking during pregnancy
* Low birth weight
* Premature birth
SLD categories - 3
Reading
Written Expression
Mathematics
Specific Learning Disorders
Reading Subtype
Visual perceptual deficits:
Phonological processing:
phonological awareness
phonological decoding
irregular word forms
syntax
semantic components and WM
Involves deficits in the ability to discern meaning from words in running lines of text
Numerous processes involved:
* Visual perceptual deficits: reversals – either of letters or whole words
- Phonological processing: sound-symbol relationships; using sound structures to process written material
o Phonological awareness: spoken words must be segmented into sounds
o Phonological decoding: letters (graphemes) correspond to sounds (phonemes) - Irregular word forms: don’t fit regular phoneme/grapheme rules (e.g. yacht, chihuahua)
- Syntax: understanding sentence structure
- Semantic components & working memory: understanding meaning of words; promotes
comprehension
sld reading prevalence
Estimated prevalence 4-10% of school aged children
sld reading ratio to boys and girls
Approximate 3 or 4: 1 ratio of boys to girls
when do sld deficits tend to emerge
Deficits tend to emerge around 4th grade, and persist into adolescence and adulthood
The Matthew Effect:
A widening gap between stronger and weaker readers over time
Specific Learning Disorders
Written Expression
Involves difficulties with text generation / composition, or transcription
Text generation (or composition)
* understanding of sentence structure
* memory for words
* higher-order executive functions
* metacognitive skills
Transcription
* Putting ideas into written form
o Handwriting
o Spelling
o Punctuation
o Capitalization
o Word placement
- spacing issues, inconsistent case, trouble writing on line
Specific Learning Disorders
Mathematics
Involves difficulties with understanding of numbers & the learning, representation, and retrieval of basic arithmetic facts
- Has poor understanding of numbers, their magnitude, and relationships
- Gets lost in the midst of arithmetic computation (following through on multistep
calculations) - Recognizing numbers and symbols
- Mental math
- Estimating or approximating
- Number patterns
artithmetic in younger children
Arithmetic abilities in younger children: build on skills in understanding numbers or
numerosity and counting
By age 5…
children with math subtype
By age 5 > typically developing children understand basic principles of counting
Children learn that counting all… can also be counting on…
Children with mathematics subtype
* acquire many of these abilities but do so more slowly and less accurately
* third grade or above > display errors in rapid retrieval of number facts & problems
using addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division
identifying slds
- Discrepancy between IQ & Achievement Level
- Discrepancy between average academic achievement and grade level
- Response to Intervention Approach
identifying slds
- Discrepancy between IQ & Achievement Level
- Performance on a measure of general ability (IQ) exceeds performance on specific tests of achievement
- A discrepancy of two or more SDs between intelligence and achievement scores is the standard approach
Overall General Ability > Specific Area
= Impairment
standardized achievement tests
Peabody Individual
Achievement Test - Revised
Woodcock Reading
Mastery Series
identifying slds
2. Discrepancy between average academic achievement and grade level
- The average academic achievement (in at least one academic area) is 1-2
grade levels below what is expected of their current grade level - A 1-2 year discrepancy represents a greater deficit at an earlier age than it does at later ages
identifying slds
3. Response to Intervention Approach
- A method of identifying children with SLDs based on whether they respond to a particular intervention; can be considered a form of prevention
- Exposes child to progressively more intense levels of instruction
- Children who do not perform commensurate with peers are provided with a more intensive educational program
- If the child continues to perform poorly with additional support, they receive an evaluation to identify whether a SLD is present
Response to intervention tiers
Tier 3
Individualized, high intensity intervention, progress monitoring, and diagnostic assessment.
Tier 2
Targeted small group interventions for at risk students; consistent progress monitoring
Tier 1
Provision of evidence-based, scientifically informed educational
instruction to all students, with universal screening
SLDs & Self-Concept
SLDs are associated with a reduced sense of self-worth
Even when school grades are comparable, children with SLDs report
greater levels of helplessness and
reduced self-efficacy compared to their
typically developing peers
As a result of academic failure, children
with SLDs doubt their intellectual abilities
and believe that their efforts to achieve
are futile
Assessing achievement across domains
Wide Range Achievement Test
* Paper and pencil test of reading, spelling, and arithmetic skills
* Questions become progressively harder, and the child is told to do as
many problems as they can
* Fairly quick and easy estimate of
academic grade levels
Peabody Individual Achievement Test
* Kindergarten to grade 12
* Provides measures of:
o General information, reading recognition, reading comprehension,
mathematics, spelling, written expression, written language
composite, total reading score
Assessing SLDs
Reading Subtype
Woodcock Reading Mastery Series
Letter identification
* Upper and lowercase letters that are written in a variety of fonts
Word identification
* Read words in a list format aloud
Nonsense words
* Read words that are not real
Word comprehension
* Antonyms, synonyms, and analogies
Passage comprehension
* Read passages to themselves & draw inferences
Assessing SLDs
Written Expression Subtype
Peabody Individual Achievement Test
Handwriting
* Fine motor skills – develops gradually and requires effort
Spelling
* Draws on phenetic skills, word recognition, retrieval
of learned letters, and words from memory
Text generation (composition)
* Involves memory for words, understanding sentence structure, higher order executive functions, and
metacognitive skills
** standardized tests for writing skills are limited and may require analysis of children’s
written work
Assessing SLDs
Mathematics Subtype
Test of Early Mathematics Abilities (TEMA 3)
