This document provides information about specific learning disabilities, including:
- It defines specific learning disabilities as lifelong neurological disorders that affect a child's ability to acquire and apply knowledge.
- It discusses the NH criteria for identifying a specific learning disability, including identifying a severe discrepancy in areas like oral expression, listening comprehension, reading, writing, or math.
- It describes common characteristics and classroom strategies for specific types of learning disabilities, including dyslexia (affecting reading), dysgraphia (affecting written expression), and dyscalculia (affecting math).
- It emphasizes that identifying a learning disability requires a team approach and following the special education process.
2. Who am I?
Gale E. Cossette, Ph.D.
Reading interventionist VVCS
LD Specialist/Reading Specialist
Highly Qualified in Elementary Special Education,
Reading, Elementary Educator, and Early Childhood
President of the NH Branch of the Learning Disability
Association
Develop online professional development courses for
OPEN NH and teach them.
3. AGENDA
Individual activity
The brain and learning
Learning disabilities and causes
NH definition of SLD
Types
What they look like
In class strategies
Resources
4. The Brain
Frontal Lobe
Behavior, attention,
creativity, intellect,
libido, abstract
thought, reasoning,
non-verbal learning, Occipital Lobe
speech, and smell
Reading, vision
Temporal Lobe
Hearing, memory fear,
some language,
speech and auditory
memories
5. Left Side & Right Side
Left Right
Lots of reading New learning
Writing Pictures, diagrams
Assignments Video
involving reading Talks about feelings
and analyzing Social Activities
Attention to detail Music
Quantitative The Big Picture
methods
Organized approach Creative projects
to assignments New Learning
Education favors the left side of the brain – Best to teach to both
6. How Learning Occurs
The more dendrites the better
Can increase dendrites through active learning
Transmit nerve signals to the brain at 200 mph
Axon Dendrites
7. Learning
Electrical charges – synapses
Dopamine helps electrical charges go to dendrites
Repeated activities strengthen charges
An active and challenged brain creates more dendrites
Synapse
8. The Brain and Learning Disabilities
Exposure to toxins
Genetics
Birthing factors
Symmetry of brain
Developmental disruptions
Nutrition
Tobacco/Alcohol/Drugs
9. Learning Disabilities
Any disability that affects/inhibits a
child to acquire and apply knowledge
Autism
Traumatic Brain Disorder
Mental Retardation
Specific Learning Disability
10. Specific Learning Disability
It is a lifelong disability.
RTI
Discrepancy Model
Child does not achieve according to
age and ability levels in one or
more identified criteria and has
been provided with the opportunity
to achieve.
11. NH Specific Learning Disability Criteria
Team find a severe discrepancy in:
Oral Expression
Listening Comprehension
Written Expression
13. BUT, Not a Learning Disability, If:
Severe discrepancy is a result of
Visual, hearing, or motor impairment
Mental Retardation
Emotional Disturbance
Environmental, Cultural, or Economic
Disadvantage
14. Disclaimer
The following are different types of learning disabilities,
what they might look like in the classroom, and
strategies to use in the classroom.
They do not suggest that a student has a disability
because he/she displays these signs.
To identify a child as having a learning disability entails
a team approach and the following of the special
educational process.
15. Listening Comprehension
Central Auditory Processing Disorder
Difficulty processing information or language, but no problems with
remembering non-verbal language or sound
Process sounds slowly, but difficulty in repeating them.
Misspells/mispronounces similar sounding words (celery/salary, three/free)
Often distracted by other noises
Difficulty in staying focused on and remember verbal presentations
Misinterpret or difficulty following verbal directions
Difficulty with rapid speech
“Ignores” people, especially when engrossed
Says “What?” a lot, even when he has just “heard” what was said
Literal, does not get puns or jokes
16. Listening Comprehension
Strategies
Student to constantly verbalize concepts
Allow student 5-10 seconds to respond
Show vs. explaining
Speak slower
Visual cues, manipulatives, handouts
Vary pitch and tone
Reword/help understand confusing oral directions
Avoid child listening and writing at the same time
Ask specific questions to see if student understands
Reduce or space directions – “Ready?”
Provide favorable seating – less distractions
Teachers look at student when speaking
17. Visual Perceptual/Motor Deficit
Affects Reading/Writing/Comprehension
Substitutes small sight words (I/me, he/she)
Letter reversals
Eye itches, blurs, pain
Holds head at odd angles while reading
Holds pencil too tightly/breaks pencils
Cannot copy accurately
Looses place while reading
Struggles to cut and/or paste
Messy papers/misaligned letters
18. Oral Expression
Difficulty in expressing thoughts verbally
Difficulty labeling objects
Frustrated by having to say a lot and no way to
say it
Can describe a word or draw it, but cannot retrieve
the word
Difficulty getting jokes
19. Oral Expression Strategies
Provide alternatives:
Video taping/tape record
Written/visual
Work/practice with a peer
Provide plenty of opportunities to build prior
knowledge
Provide classroom discussion topics before hand
Speaking slowly
Practice story mapping
Graphic organizers
22. Dyslexia
Reading
Slow, painful reading
Decoding errors/reversals
Encoding problems
May have difficulty w/writing
Difficulty recalling known words
Written language
Math computations
23. Dyslexia
Quiet areas for reading activities
Books on tape
Large print books/big spaces
Don’t count off for spelling
Laptop for writing
Multi-sensory methods of teaching
Use logic vs. rote memory
Present material in small units
Use different colored chalk on board for each line
Pre-teach in class reading and assign a passage
Paired reading
24. Dyslexia Strategies, Cont
Spelling Rules
Teach to find errors
Allow students to dictate creative stories
Tracking tools
Experiment with pastel, embossed, or raised
line paper
Restrict copying tasks
25. Dysgraphia
Written Expression
Hard to read writing
Mixture of cursive/printing
Unfinished words/letters or omits words
Odd wrist, body, or paper position
Difficulty pre-visualizing letters
Writing very slow and laborious
Poor spatial planning on paper
Cramped or unusual grip
Difficulty thinking and writing notes at the same time
26. Dysgraphia
Use a word processor
Corrections about writing privately
Oral testing
Tape recorder
Provide notes/note taker
Pre-printed math problems
Wide rule paper or lines
Pencil grips
Alternatives to writing assignments
Grade content vs. writing
27. Dyscalculia
Math
Difficulty understanding math concepts (place value, quantity, number
lines)
Word problems
Sequencing
Steps in solving problems
Understanding fractions
Difficulty recognizing patterns in X, -, +, and /
Challenged when making change
Putting language to math processes
Time, days of the week, keeping numbers lined up
Organization on paper
28. Dyscalculia
– Allow the use of finger/other devices
– Use diagrams/draw out concepts
– Peer assistance
– Graph paper, colored pencils
Manipulatives
Teach how to draw pictures
Mnemonic devices
Rhythm/Music
Computers
Plenty of scratch paper w/lines
Space
29. Resources
http://www.ldanh.org/ NH Branch of
LDA
http://www.bookshare.org/web/Welco
me.html Books on tape - free for
schools
http://www.ldanatl.org/aboutld/adults/i
ndex.asp Adults with learning
disabilities