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Specific Learning Disabilities

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Specific Learning Disabilities

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SPECIFIC LEARNING

DISABILITIES
Miranda Shields, Psy.D
[email protected]
CALIFORNIA EDUCATION CODE
(CCR TITLE 5, SECTION 3030)

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), that may manifest itself in the imperfect
ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do
mathematical calculations
IDENTIFICATION OF SLD:
DISCREPANCY MODEL
Severe discrepancy between intellectual ability and achievement in one or
more of of the following areas, requiring specialized academic instruction.
oral expression basic reading skill
listening comprehension reading fluency skills
written expression reading comprehension
mathematical calculation
mathematical reasoning

Other models: Response to Intervention (RtI)


Patterns of strengths and weakness (PSW)
BASIC PSYCHOLOGICAL PROCESSES
1. Attention
2. Visual processing
3. Auditory processing
4. Sensory motor skills
5. Cognitive abilities including association,
conceptualization, expression
Executive processing is integrated into each of these areas
VISUAL PROCESSING

• Visual spatial processing; visual organization


(simultaneous)
• Visual memory (immediate vs delayed; retrieval vs
recognition)
• Visual working memory
• Visual speed and efficiency
AUDITORY PROCESSING

• Phonological processing (phonological awareness, phonological


memory, rapid naming)
• Auditory sequencing
• Auditory working memory
• Auditory memory (immediate vs delayed; retrieval vs recognition;
discrete vs contextual)
• Auditory comprehension
AUDITORY PROCESSING ITEM EXAMPLES

PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSING
Say doughnut. Now say doughnut but don’t say dough.
Say spider. Now say spider but don’t say d

SEQUENCING/WORKING MEMORY
Repeat in numerical and alphabetic order, numbers first:
4m7a2f3c
SENSORY MOTOR SKILLS

• Visual motor integration: copy shapes

• Precision/accuracy vs speed: mazes with time points

• Hand strength and dominance: finger tapper, hand


dynamometer, pegboard
Cognitive Abilities
Association, Conceptualization, Expression

Auditory
How are blue and red alike? How are rubber and paper
alike? What is the color of the small grey horse? What is a
cow? What is a fable? What does unanimous mean?
Visual
matrix tasks (analogies); fluency tasks; find the pictures that
go together; find the correct missing piece
Visual/Auditory
If you were facing west, and turn to your right, which direction
will you be facing?
DSM V
SPECIFIC LEARNING DISORDER

• Unexpected academic underachievement


• Similar to ed code but statistical significance is not defined as 1.5
standard deviations.
• Affected skills must be substantially and quantifiably below those
expected for individual’s chronological age
• Must cause significant interference with academic or occupational
performance as confirmed by individually administered standardized
achievement measures
• Must begin during school age years
DSM-V
TYPES OF LEARNING DISORDER
SLD WITH IMPAIRMENT IN READING
• Inaccurate or slow and effortful word reading
• Difficulty understanding what is read
SLD WITH IMPAIRMENT IN WRITTEN EXPRESSION
• Difficulty spelling
• Difficulty with written expression
SLD WITH IMPAIRMENT IN MATHEMATICS
• Difficulty mastering number sense, number facts, or calculation
• Difficulties with mathematical reasoning
DYSLEXIA AND DYSCALCULIA
• Dyslexia – pattern of learning difficulties
characterized by problems with accurate or fluent
word recognition, poor decoding, and poor spelling
• Dyscalculia- pattern of learning difficulties
characterized by problems processing numerical
information, learning arithmetic facts, and
performing accurate or fluent calculations
HOW TO TREAT SLD
• Research based interventions, applied consistently and with
fidelity. Progress monitoring to assess progress.

• Accommodations: many are easily implemented in K-12


setting. At college level, documentation will allow access to
waivers. Bookshare, Audible, and iTunes are invaluable!

• Self-advocacy
EARLY INDICATORS AND WARNING SIGNS
PRE-SCHOOL AGE
Late onset of speech. Difficulty with pronunciation after expected age. Lack of interest
in language-based play (rhyming, repetition, difficulty learning nursery rhymes). Does
not recognize letters in name or pick out environmental word. Does not give one, give
one more.
KINDERGARTEN
Difficulty recognizing and writing letters, breaking words into syllables, connecting
letters with sounds. Does not show one-to-one correspondence.
GRADES 1-3
Difficulty with sound symbol correspondence, recognizing and manipulating phonemes,
sequencing , remembering number facts. Vague speech (“um”, “stuff”)
WARNING SIGNS
GRADES 4-6
Difficulty pronouncing and/or reading multisyllabic words, trouble
remembering dates, names, phone numbers or passwords, trouble
completing work. Slow effortful reading, poor comprehension, written
work minimal and not cohesive.

ADOLESCENTS
May read words but slow and effortful. May have poor comprehension,
poor organization of written work. Poor mastery of math facts, difficulty
with word problems.
RESOURCES

Overcoming Dylsexia, by Sally Shaywitz


Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents, a Practical Guide to
Assessment and Intervention (1st or 2nd edition), by Peg Dawson and
Richard Guare
www.understood.org
www.ncld.org
www.ldonline.org
www.smartkidswithld.org

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