Specific Learning Disorders
Learning difficulties are caused by genetic and /or neurobiological factors that interfere with how the brain functions and consequently affecting the cognitive processes related to learning.
These processing problems make it hard for children to develop skills such as reading, writing and doing math. However, they can also interfere with executive function skills hence people struggle with prioritizing, organizing, time planning, and reasoning as well as having a weak memory and a short attention span
It is important to know that learning disabilities affect individuals academic performance and can put a lot of strain on relationship with family, friends and workmates. Learning difficulties may be caused by genetics, environmental factors, and problems during the mothers pregnancy such as stress, drug or alcohol consumption, poor nutrition, and other medical conditions during prenatal or postnatal periods.
A lot of students struggle in schools and live a head- to head life with school leaders and parents because many parents and teachers are unaware of neurodevelopmental disorders.
Many students or adults never get the evaluation and go through life with problems after problems with academics, employers, friends, and nuclear and extended family members. However, the good news is that when these learning difficulties are diagnosed at young age, people would study, work and live a successful life.
Dyscalculia: Dyscalculia is a math learning disability. People with this disability have problems with math calculation and difficulty understanding numbers and math facts. Children with dyscalculia have weaknesses in fundamental number representation and processing. They have a real struggle with high-level math problem solving and quantitative reasoning
Dyslexia: Though dyslexia is a reading disability, but it also impacts many other areas of learning and expression. It can be the basic reading difficulty which is the inability to understand the relationship between sounds, letters and words. Or a reading comprehension problem which is the incapacity to grasp the meaning of words, phrases, main ideas of paragraphs and consequently affecting reading speed, fluency. Reading less affects vocabulary development and comprehension, speaking, listening and writing which hinder the ability to learn and succeed at school and at work.
Dysgraphia: Dysgraphia is the writing learning difficulty. It may be a basic writing disorder which involves the difficulty in forming words and letters. Or it might mean an expressive writing disability which is the struggle of organizing clear thoughts on a paper. Children or adults with dysgraphia have problems with the writing speed, grammar and composition. They struggle with writing in a straight line, omit some words or letters from sentences, write letters in reverse, lack writing neatness, and have wrong order of words in sentences.
ADHD: Attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common nuerodevelopmental disorders among children and adults. Children with ADHD often have difficulty with inattention, hyperactivity and impossibility. ADHD people live with executive dysfunction. Their responses may be inappropriate to questions, fail to follow directions, or take and complete notes during the teaching session.
ADHD makes it difficult for them to finish what they started, to stay organized, concentrate, regulate their mood, and sit still. These children often interrupt others, cant wait their turns, never play quietly and dont listen to their peers. They often have unfinished schoolwork or rush through their work with little regard for details. Often times, they are daydreamers. Left untreated, ADHD causes serious academic, work, and social problems.
Visual Processing Disorder: A visual processing or perceptual disorder happens when the brain fails to accurately receive and process or read the visual cues taken in through the eyes. It is different from sight or sharpness ion vision. Visual processing affects academic performance because most of the information students learn is received via eyes.
Children with visual processing confuse similar looking words, reverse letter or numbers, skip words, have a poor reading comprehension, make copying errors, forget letters or numbers easily, spell poorly, have handwriting that is crooked or poorly spaced and get challenges of following multi stepped directions.
Auditory Processing Disorder: Also known as central auditory processing disorder is not hearing loss. It is simply a hearing problem where the brain doesnt process the sound in normal way like cold and called; wonder and wander. Someone with APD will hear please haze your plan instead of please raise your hand. Difficulties to distinguish small differences in hearing sounds can make it difficult to speak, read, and write in life and school situations.
Dyspraxia: Dyspraxia is also known as Developmental coordination disorder(DCD). When a child carries out his/her routines well less than his / her peers, then he / she might have developmental co ordination disorder which affects physical co-ordination of daily activities. Children with DCD may present some delays in crawling, walking, self feeding, dressing, riding, running, playing sports and doing other physical activities expected at his / her developmental stages.
Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD): Children with DCD may present some delays in crawling, walking, self feeding, dressing, riding, running, playing sports and doing other physical activities expected at his / her developmental stages.
The difficulties might include clumsiness, inaccuracy, and slowness of motor skills such as balancing or catching objects, handwriting, cutting, riding a bike, handling tools used in sports or swimming. It also affects attention, working memory and time management.
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BioLEX, Biology, Learning, Environment and Experiences is an online platform that informs parents, students, teachers and schools about neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), and provides assessments and treatments for children who have NDDs.
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