Students with specific learning disabilities may have difficulties in areas of psychological processing like attention, visual processing, auditory processing, sensory motor skills, and cognitive abilities including association, conceptualization, and expression. To support these students, teachers can implement strategies like breaking tasks into smaller chunks, using visual aids, limiting distractions, checking for understanding, and providing multi-sensory instruction. Accommodations include allowing movement breaks, extra time, books on tape, cue cards, and labeling rooms for organization. The document concludes with an activity where groups discuss appropriate supports for hypothetical students with different processing challenges.

1. Specific Learning
Disabilities
Characteristics, Strategies, and Accommodations
Valerie Chow
April 22, 2014

2. Objective
To bring awareness of specific learning
disabilities, how they impact the
acquisition of academic skills, and to
provide strategies and accommodations
that can be used in the classroom to
support student learning

3. Psychological Processing
Areas•Attention
•Visual Processing
•Auditory Processing
•Sensory Motor Skills
•Cognitive abilities including
association,
conceptualization, and
expression
SLD
Certification
Present
Levels of
Performanc
e

4. Attention
Establishing and maintaining attention to
tasks, short-term memory, self-monitoring,
and the shifting of mental operations.

5. Students with a psychological processing disorder
in attention may demonstrate difficulties
in one or more of the following areas:
• Making careless
mistakes
• Organizing tasks
• Completing tasks or
homework due to poor
recall and/or follow
through
• Easily distracted by
irrelevant stimuli
• Demonstrates main
ideas but misses details
or may attend to minor
information with
difficulty in seeing
entire picture
• Rushes through work
and/or gives up quickly
• Uses skills
inconsistently
• Frequently shifts tasks

6. Attention
Strategies and Accommodations
• Physically active students
should be allowed to stand by
their desk (or in the back of the
classroom, as long as they are
not disrupting others)
• Use low-level music or
environmental sounds during
independent work time (whole
class or with headphones)
• Student should not be seated
near the door, as he/she may
constantly be distracted by
who comes and goes
• Use visual aids
• Break long presentations into
"chunks"/small steps
• Give frequent checks for
understanding
• Use highlighters/underlining
• Check student understanding
of directions by having the
student restate
• Turn paper so lines go
vertically and can line up
problems in math
• If there are many items on a
page, fold the paper so only a
small amount shows at a time
• Provide “stretch time” and
allow for time out of seat
• Use cueing techniques to keep
the student on task

7. Visual Processing
The ability to make sense of information taken
in through the eyes and affects how the
information is interpreted or processed by the
brain. It is the ability to recognize, track,
remember, and interpret visual information.

8. Students with a psychological processing disorder
in visual processing may demonstrate difficulties
in one or more of the following areas:
• Noting differences and
similarities among
geometric forms, letters and
words
• Confusion of letters with
similar configurations (h-n,
i-j,v-w) or similar words (lap,
lip)
• Confused if too much
information is presented in
a small space
• Keeping place while reading
and copying materials
• Remembering the order in
• Displaying more difficulty in
spelling and writing than in
reading
• Not remembering the order
of letters in words (e.g.,
"the" may be spelled "het"
or "teh")
• Reversing letters or
symbols
• Locating/copying
information from the board
• Limited word attack skills;
trouble blending letters in
words visually

9. Visual Processing
Strategies and Accommodations
• Use cue card for
multistep-step processes
• Use color coding,
highlighting, and/or
underlining to differentiate
important parts of a
presentation
• Provide books on tape
• Teach color coding,
highlighting, and or
underlining
• Allow 3 x 5 card (i.e.
index card) to assist in
tracking when reading
• Fold paper to provide
boxes for work
• Provide calendars and
checklists

10. Auditory Processing
The ability to analyze or make sense of
information taken in through the ears. It is the
perception and use of auditory information
including auditory discrimination, memory,
sequencing, and integration.

11. Students with a psychological processing disorder
in auditory processing may demonstrate
difficulties
in one or more of the following areas:
• Learning sound symbol
relationships
• Following complex verbal
directions
• Attending to lectures/verbal
presentations
• Hearing the letter sound in the
beginning, middle, or end of a
word
• Recognizing rhyming words
• Spelling
• Reading comprehension due
to decoding and low fluency
• Recalling numbers
• Recalling information in a
systematic, sequential order
• Hearing a series of sounds
and blending them
• Retelling stories - describing
events
• Remembering what teacher
says
• Seems to be “lost” about what
is being discussed or
presented, may seem to
daydream or become restless
when listening is required
• Easily distracted by
background noise

12. Auditory Processing
Strategies and Accommodations
• Minimize auditory
distractions
• Ask student to repeat or
summarize directions
• Use flash cards for
vocabulary and spelling
words
• Use a high degree of
visual cues and examples
along with auditory
information
• Keep directions brief
• Highlight important
information using colored
highlighters
• Present only one or two
tasks/directions at one
time
• Use books on tape when
reading

13. Sensory Motor Skills
Difficulty with perceptual-motor integration, motor
proficiency/speed, and perceptual organization.

14. Students with a psychological processing disorder
in sensory motor skills may demonstrate difficulties
in one or more of the following areas:
• Performing tasks that
require eye-hand
coordination such as
copying from the board;
catching a ball;
reproducing shapes and
figures; drawing and art
projects; and handwriting
• Pencil control and
handwriting
• Awkward pencil grip
• Switching from far vision
to near vision, such as
losing place when
copying from the board
• Writing is cramped, too
close together, too far
apart, or goes
uphill/downhill
• Resistant to do written
work
• Does not edit or re-check
work

15. Sensory Motor Skills
Strategies and Accommodations
• Seating the student near
the board/point of
presentation
• Use of visual aids with
auditory cues
• Shorten large tasks into a
series of smaller tasks
• Allow use of a pencil grip,
large pencils, or large
lined paper for writing
tasks
• May need reading
material held at a slant

16. Cognitive Abilities:
Association
The ability to acquire and store basic units of
information in memory (long-term) and to
relate these units to one another; and/or
register and immediately use information
(short-term).

17. Students with a psychological processing disorder
in association may demonstrate difficulties
in one or more of the following areas:
Long-term memory
• After exposure and
apparently learning the
skill or information,
unable to remember
information or
demonstrate skill
• Recalling of facts,
details, procedures,
skills, methods, and/or
events in life
• Recalling information
quickly, accurately, or
easily
Short-term memory
• Understanding complex
directions
• Remembering
information long
enough to process it for
comprehension
• Maintaining attention
• Processing information
quickly

18. Cognitive Abilities:
Conceptualization
The ability to learn new concepts and use
information reason, generalize, problem solve,
and use multi-step directions.

19. Students with a psychological processing disorder
in conceptualization may demonstrate difficulties
in one or more of the following areas:
• Keeping two or more
ideas in mind
• Applying previously
learned information to
the solution of new
problems
• Selecting and
verbalizing appropriate
relationships between
two objects or concepts
• Verbalizing what has
been learned
• Creative problem
solving, flexibility in
thinking, math problem
solving, and reading
comprehension

20. Cognitive Abilities:
Expression
The process of ordering thought in a form that can
be understood by others and to effectively
communicate ideas through language.

21. Students with a psychological processing disorder
in expression may demonstrate difficulties
in one or more of the following areas:
• Word retrieval when
speaking or writing
• Listening
comprehension
• Verbally recalling
information/facts
• Expressing ideas
verbally

22. Association, Conceptualization, and Expression
Strategies and Accommodations
• Label areas of room used for
specific items or tasks
• Use a multi-sensory
approach to learning (visual,
auditory, hands-on)
• Use cooperative learning
strategies
• Give ample time for
responses or preparation
• Give written questions to
think about before answering
oral questions
• Offer story starters to
promote creative writing
• Use verbal enrichment
activities including Scrabble,
analogy, and other word
games
• Allow the student to use cue
cards, manipulatives, number
lines, or math fact charts
• Use verbal rehearsal
(Mnemonics) to retrieve
information

23. Activity
1. Form 4 groups of 3 to 4 people.
2. Get to know your hypothetical student.
3. Determine appropriate strategies and
accommodations that can be used in the
classroom to support your student’s
needs.
4. Share back with the rest of the group.