Learning disability can occur in combination with other intellectual problems like MR, autism etc. Learning disability has different types and symptoms, depending upon which the treatment pattern for the child is defined.

2. INTRODUCTION
• A learning disability is a neurological condition that affects the brain's ability to send,
receive, and process information. A child with a learning disability may have
difficulties in reading, writing, speaking, listening, understanding mathematical
concepts, and general comprehension.
• Learning disabilities include a group of disorders such as dyslexia, dyspraxia,
dyscalculia, and dysgraphia. Each type of disorder may coexist with another.

6. National joint committee on learning disabilities ( NJCLD )
A Heterogeneous group of disorders manifested by significant
difficulties in the acquisition and use of listening , speaking ,
reading , writing , reasoning or mathematical abilities .
These disorders are intrinsic to the individual and presumed to be
due to central nervous system dysfunction .

7. Concept of LD
(2000)
Strong converging evidence supports the validity of the concept of SLD ( Specific learning disabilities ) . The central
concept of SLD involves disorders of ;learning and cognition that are intrinsic to the individual . SLD are specific in
the sense that these disorders each significantly affect a relatively narrow range of academic and performance
outcomes. It may occur in combination with other disabling conditions , but they are not due primarily to other
conditions , such as intellectual disability , behavioral disturbances , lack of opportunities to learn or primary sensory
deficits .

8. Definition
• “Specific learning disability means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in
understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to
listen, speak, read, spell, or to do mathematical calculations.
• The term does not include children who have learning problems which are primarily the result of visual, hearing
, motor handicaps, mental retardation, emotional disturbance or environmental, cultural or economic
disadvantages."

9. ETIOLOGY AND PATHOGENESIS
GENETIC
• Turner syndrome or fragile X syndrome.
• Chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (DiGeorge or velocardiofacial syndrome)
• Studies have linked some reading said abilities to specific gene loci on chromosomes 6 & 15.
• Family history

10. • PERINATAL RISK FACTORS
• Very low birth weight,premature birth
• Severe intrauterine growth restriction
• Perinatal hypoxic-ischemia encephalopathy
• Prenatal exposure to substances such as alcohol and drugs.
• Anomalies in the developing brain illness or injury
• Prolonged labor

11. • ACCIDENTS AFTER BIRTH
• Head injuries
• Malnutrition
• Exposure to heavy metals or pesticides

12. • ENVIRONMENT
• Cocaine, infections such as meningitis and HIV,brain injury secondary to intraventricular
haemorrhage, periventricular leukomalacia, or head trauma.
 Environmental and socio-cultural deprivation can lead to or potentiate, neurodevelopmental
dysfunction, which most often results from a combination of contributing factors rather than
a single cause.
 Stress at very young age

13. Characteristics of
learning difficulties
Slow reading
rate
Probles with
reasoning and
abstract
concepts
Problems in
understanding
what is read
Difficulty
recalling
arithematic
operations
Difficulty
finding
important points
or main ideas
Problems
remembering
math facts

14. • Confusion of similar words
• Poor organization and management of
time
• Frequent spelling errors
• Poor note taking and outing skills
• Poor memory
• Slow writing rate
• Difficulty following directions
• Inability to complete assignment on time
• Difficulty with sentence structure or poor
grammar

15. CLINICAL MANIFESTATIONS
READING
Language
 Phonologic processing
 Verbal fluency
 Syntactic and semantic skills
Memory
 Working memory
Sequencing visual-spatial
Attention
WRITTEN EXPRESSION,
SPELLING
Language
 Phonologic processing
 Syntactic and semantic skills
 Graphomotor
 Visual-spatial
Memory
 Working memory
Sequencing attention
MATHEMATICS
Visual-spatial
Memory
 Working memory
Language
 Graphomotor
Attention

16. DIFFERENT TYPES OF DISORDER

18. DYSLEXIA
• Commonest learning disability.
• Unexpected difficulty in reading, have trouble making conection between letters
and sounds with spelling and recognizing words , accurate or fluent word
recognition, and word coding disabilities.
• Word decoding is the ability to apply principles of phonetics to sound the word .
• Interferes with a child’s ability to store, process, or, reproduce information.
• The disability may be mild enough to remain undetected throughout life.

20. • Pathogenesis
 Dyslexic individuals have difficulty developing an awareness that spoken words can be segmented into smaller
elemental units of sound(phonemes).
 Functional brain imaging demonstrates an inefficient functioning of left hemisphere posterior brain systems.
 Brain imaging is not able to differentiate an individual case of the dyslexic reader from a typical reader .

22. • Diagnosis
History ,psychometric assessment
Phonologic deficit, one that does not intrude into other linguistic or cognitive domains.
Family history, teacher and classroom observation, and tests of language, reading including fluency, and spelling
represent a core assessment for the diagnosis of dyslexia in children
Tests of intellectual ability, attention, memory, general language skills, and mathematics may be administered.
For informal screening, the primary care physician can listen to the child read aloud from the child’s grade level
reader. In attempting to read aloud, most children and adults with dyslexia display an effortful approach to decoding
and recognizing single words, an approach in children characterized by hesitations, mispronunciation, and repeated
attempts to sound out unfamiliar words.

23. • Treatment
 A multidisciplinary approach, involving the class teacher, parents, social worker, paediatrician, psychologist,
and, if warranted, even a psychiatrist, is important in managing the learning disability.
 In younger children, the focus is on remediation. The affected children are best taught in small groups by
teachers trained in the principle of phonics. The children are taught how letters are linked to sounds.
 For older children, the management stresses on accommodation rather than remediation, e.g., use of laptops
computers with spell check, recorded books, and giving extra time for writing tests or multiple-choice questions
(MCQ) type of tests. The teaching curriculum is adjusted and specific teaching materials are employed to help
the child explore his optimal learning potential.

24.  Practice in reading stories is useful.
 Computers with spelling checker
 Tape-recorders
 Recorded books
 Oral rather than written examination

26. Dysgraphia
• Dysgraphia is characterized as a learning
disability in the category of written
expression when one's writing skills are
below those expected given a person's age
measured through intelligence and age-
appropriate education.

29.  Messy handwriting
 Difficulty in Forming letters
 Writing grammatically incorrect sentences
 Spacing letters incorrectly
 A strong dislike holding and controlling a writing
tool
 Writing incomplete words without skipping letters
 Saying words out load while writing

30. • Diagnosis
 BHK for children or teenagers, the Minnesota Handwriting Assessment, ETCH and DASH.

32. • Treatment
 Occupational therapy can be effective in the school setting, and teachers should be well informed about dysgraphia to
aid in the carry-over of the occupational therapist's interventions.
 Some physicians recommend that individuals with dysgraphia use computers to avoid the problems of handwriting.
 Dysgraphia can sometimes be partially overcome with appropriate and conscious effort and training.
 The International Dyslexia Association suggests the use of kinaesthetic memory through early training by having the
child overlearn how to write letters and later practice writing with their eyes closed or averted to reinforce the feel of
the letters being written.
 Cursive writing

34. • ( III )MATHEMATICS
• Dyscalculia is a math learning disability that impairs an individual’s ability to learn number-related concepts,
perform accurate math calculations, reason and problem solve, and perform other basic math skills.
Dyscalculia is sometimes called “number dyslexia” or “math dyslexia.
• Dyscalculia is present in about 11 percent of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD or
ADD). Other learning disorders, including dyslexia and dysgraphia, are also common – up to 45 percent of
children with ADHD have a learning disorder.

36.  Difficulties with processing numbers and quantities,
including:
o Connecting a number to the quantity it represents
(the number 2 to two apples)
o Counting, backward and forwards
o Comparing two amounts
 Trouble recalling basic math facts (like multiplication
tables)
 Difficulty linking numbers and symbols to amounts
 Trouble with mental math and problem-solving
 Difficulty with telling time on an analog clock
 Difficulty immediately sorting out direction (right from
left)
 Troubles with recognizing patterns and sequencing
numbers
• Persistent finger-counting, especially for easy,
frequently repeated calculations, may indicate a
problem.

37. • Academic records and performance in standardized tests, asking about family history, and learning more about how
the patient’s difficulties manifest in school, work, and everyday life.
• Tools like the PAL-II Diagnostic Assessment (DA), the KeyMath-3 DA, and the WIATT-III are commonly used
when evaluating for dyscalculia.

41. • Treatment
• The goals of treatment, therefore, are to fill in as many
gaps as possible and to develop coping mechanisms that
can be used throughout life.
• Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
(IDEA), students with dyscalculia are eligible for
special services in the classroom. Dyscalculia
accommodations in the classroom may include:
 Allowing more time on assignments and tests
 Allowing the use of calculators
 Adjusting the difficulty of the task
 Separating complicated problems into smaller steps
 Using posters to remind students of basic math
concepts

47. Prevention of learning disorders
• Indeed, the more efficient application of knowledge, would considerably reduce the present incidence of
brain damage from such disturbances as perinatal hypoxia hypoglycaemia, kernicterus, and hypernatremia
and the prevalence of maternal rubella by the institution of anti-rubella vaccination.
• Screening programs during the neonatal period for several of the treatable inborn errors of metabolism such as
phenylketonuria, homocystinuria, , galactosemia as well as congenital hypothyroidism are making some
impact on the number of learning impaired children.

48. • Prenatal diagnosis is most often based upon examination of the amniotic fluid obtained by transabdominal
amniocentesis between the 14th -16th weeks of pregnancy. A sampling of chorionic villi or foetal blood or tissue
may also be employed in selected cases. Chromosome analysis of amniotic cell cultures may reveal
abnormalities such as trisomy 21,13 and 18 or trisomy affecting sex chromosomes.

49. • Study : Resilience and Stress in Children and Adolescents with Specific Learning Disability.
• Authors : Panicker Anuja S , Chelliah Anujothi.
• Journal : Journal of Canadian academy of child and adolescent psychiatry .
• Year : 2016 Feb 01
• Objectives : To assess the levels of resilience, depression, anxiety and stress among children and adolescents
having SLD and to compare with those having Borderline Intellectual Functioning (BIF). It also aimed to
evaluate the parental awareness about their child's learning disorder.

50. • Methodology : 82 children and adolescents, diagnosed as having SLD (N=41) and BIF (N=41) were selected for the
present study. The participants completed Resilience Scale-14 and Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales and parents
completed the Parent Interview Proforma.
• Result: Low level of Resilience was found in 75% of the children and adolescents with SLD. Severe Stress (16.6%),
severe Depression (14.2%) and severe Anxiety (23.8%) were seen in this sample. The level of Resilience was lower
among participants with SLD as compared to those with BIF. 90 % of parents were aware that their child had SLD,
however, only 39% gave individual attention for assisting them in their studies.
• Conclusion: The present study emphasizes the importance of individualized interventions dealing not only with remedial
training, but also for incorporating components including parental awareness of the emotional consequences of SLD as
well as individual interventions for children, focusing on strengthening their coping and Resilience.

51. SUMMARY

52. CONCLUSION
• A learning disability is a neurological condition that affects the brain's ability to send,
receive, and process information. A child with a learning disability may have difficulties
in reading, writing, speaking, listening, understanding mathematical concepts, and general
comprehension. Learning disabilities include a group of disorders such as dyslexia,
dyspraxia, dyscalculia, and dysgraphia.

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expression-disorder
• Dysgraphia. Wikipedia The free encyclopaedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysgraphia

54. • Frye Devon. What is Dyscalculia? Math learning disability overview.Additude’s ADHD Medical
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