Week 3: Learning Disabilities and Difficulties

Question 1

What percentage of the school population have a learning difficulty?

Answer 1

16-20%

Question 2

What percentage of the school population have a learning disability?

Answer 2

3-5%

Question 3

What is a learning disability?

Answer 3

A diagnosed, neurological and heritable problem that is lifelong and affects a child’s ability to learn effectively. Learning disabilities are resistant to intervention.

Question 4

What is a learning difficulty?

Answer 4

A child with a normal range of intelligence who’s learning is affected due to dyspedagogia, high absenteeism, poverty or instructional casualties. Such students are responsive to intervention and are identified through class or school based assessments e.g. Department of Ed On-Entry Screening

Question 5

Describe Dyslexia

Answer 5

Difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction.

Question 6

Describe Dysgraphia

Answer 6

Is an unusual difficulty with handwriting, forming letters and spelling that may occur alone or with dyslexia. There are two types of dysgraphia which are motor based (forming letters) and written expression (spelling, punctuation, writing organisation).

Question 7

Describe Dyscalculia

Answer 7

A wide range of difficulties in maths, in particular the acquisition of arithmetic skills.

Question 8

Describe Dysorthographia

Answer 8

An inability or delay in learning to properly spell words from letters.

Question 9

Describe Dyspraxia

Answer 9

Disorder of motor coordination usually apparent in childhood that manifests as difficulty in thinking out, planning out, and executing planned movements or tasks.

Question 10

What is a SLD?

Answer 10

A specific learning disorder is “a neurological condition that interferes with an individual’s ability to store, process or produce information”.

Question 11

What are some characteristics of students with a SLD?

Answer 11

Learning the alphabet
Counting and learning numbers
Choosing correct methods for calculations
Remembering routines
Comprehending what has been read
Following directions
Determining what information is important
Remembering newly learned information
Staying organised
With messy handwriting

Question 12

What is the difference between a learning disability and a learning difficulty?

Answer 12

A learning difficulty is external to the child as a learning disability is neurological in the brain and is usually heritable. Learning difficulties are responsive to intervention as learning disabilities are not. Students with learning disabilities have a professional diagnosis as students with learning difficulties are identified through school based diagnostic testing.

Question 13

What are some teaching strategies to assist students with learning disabilities/difficulties?

Answer 13

• Visual organisers
• Audio visual materials
• Clear behavioural expectations and consequences
• Careful sequencing of curriculum content
• Elaborated Curriculum Guides
• Instructional groupings – Peer tutoring, Team teaching, Cooperative learning
• Assistive technology – Text-to-speech, Word processing, Spelling assistance, Books on tape
• Classroom structure
• Different curriculum materials to cover content at a lower reading level
• Breaking tasks into smaller steps
• Direct Instruction
• Direct strategy training