Learning disorders are estimated to occur in five to fifteen percent of children and adolescents with a male predominance between 3:1 to 5:1. The true prevalence of learning disorders is difficult to establish; the male predominance may also reflect a referral bias. That is, males are more likely to have behavioral problems when they have learning disorders and acting out behaviors may bring them to the attention of educational authorities.
There are eight areas of neurodevelopmental function that relate to learning disorders. Attention impacts on the arousal of the central nervous system, mental energy and the mobilization and distribution of mental efforts. Teens with attention difficulties yawn, daydream and fidget. They have difficulties sustaining concentration and as a result suffer from performance inconsistency.
Memory is increasingly important as children and teens progress through school. By high school, it is expected that an adolescent is able to have a rapid and very precise recall of information from memory. Proficiency in both short term and long term memory is needed to retrieve skills, facts and concepts.
Teaching in middle and high school is primarily through language. Teens who have problems with language skills may have very significant learning disorders. Some teens experience an unclear reception of English language sounds; this is termed phonology. An adolescent who has a weak phonologic sense may have difficulties with reading. Teens with a receptive language problem have difficulties understanding language, while adolescent with expressive language problems have impediments in sound production or communication skills. And there are teens who have difficulties with word retrieval. This could affect their abilities to find the exact words when speaking.
Visual-spatial ordering may present as difficulties for an adolescent in organizing the position and shape of objects that he or she is viewing. This may cause problems with word recognition, and spelling may emerge as a weakness. By itself, visual-spatial ordering issues will probably not lead to serious academic problems, unless the adolescent has developed other learning disorders.
A teen with temporal-sequential ordering problems may have difficulties in preserving the proper order to motor procedures, a narrative or mathematical algorithms. For example, he or she may read a story and recite it in an improper sequence-such as starting in the middle, returning to the beginning of the narrative and then finishing with the end of the tale.
Neuromotor dysfunction is a neurodevelopmental function that may be classified into three separate pieces. Fine motor dexterity may affect a teen’s ability to do well in artistic and crafts activities. Adolescents with gross motor delays may also have visual-spatial information problems. For example, teens with this problem may not be able to catch a thrown ball since they have difficulty forming a judgment as to the ball’s trajectory in space. The third part to neuromotor dysfunction may include graphomotor fluency problems. Teens with this problem may have illegible writing and poor spelling. These adolescents may prefer printing to cursive writing.
Critical thinking skills, problem solving, brainstorming, creativity and other executive functioning comes under the broader function termed higher-order cognition. Teen with problems in these areas may have difficulty grasping new concepts and underachieve. Some adolescents may have difficulty with concepts in a very specific domain such as mathematics or science. Teens with good problem-solving skills are good strategists and may create alternative methods to meet challenges. Those teens with poor problem solving skills may be rigid or impulsive and do not develop the best strategic approaches.
The final neurodevelopmental function is social cognition. This refers to the skills that an adolescent needs to enter smoothly into new relationships, time and stage interactions effectively and develop sensitivity to social feedback. In addition, teens should also acquire the ability to develop reciprocal relationships with peers as well as the capability to praise or nurture other individuals. Teens with dysfunction in social cognition may sustain verbal abuse, bullying and rejection. They may seek a world of fantasy or relationships with animals or younger children.
Who is likely to develop learning disorders?
Some medical conditions may cause learning disorders. For example low-level lead intoxication, meningitis, AIDS, low birth weight and recurrent ear infections may have an association with learning disorders. There may be a family history of reading and spelling disabilities in teens with these particular learning disorders. There is a lot of research regarding the role of environmental and sociocultural deprivation as etiologic factors or at least potentiating factors in learning disorders. For many teens with learning disorders, however, no definite cause may be determined.
What are the symptoms of learning disorders?
Each teen with a learning disorder will have his or her own specific symptoms depending on the specific learning disorder profile. The teen could be inattentive, confused or disorganized about academic work. There may be behavior or control issues in school.
Perception difficulties could be marked by difficulty in organizing visual materials. A teen with auditory perception problems may have difficulty in following directions or understanding conversation. Once information enters the brain, it must be sequenced, abstracted and organized. Teens with problems in these areas may have the sequence of a story out of place. Adolescents with abstraction issues may not laugh at a joke since they do not understand the full meaning.
A teen with expressive language disabilities may have problems with spontaneous language or demand language. For example, in spontaneous language, a teen initiates whatever is said. This allows the initiator to select the subject, content and correct words before speaking. In demand language, someone else sets up the circumstances, and the teen must respond to it. With a language disability teens usually have less of a problem with spontaneous language. However, they may have difficulty responding in a demand language situation.
Teens with learning disorders may have difficulty in many academic areas. Sciences necessitate processing of dense verbal materials and intact memory skills. Social studies usually require sophisticated language skills and abstraction. For teens with language disorders or memory issues, the mastery of a foreign language may be met with difficulty.
Adolescents with learning disorders may develop self-esteem issues, chronic fatigue, sadness and even suicidal ideation. Some lose motivation and ambition.
How are learning disorders evaluated?
Any teen who is not functioning well in school deserves an evaluation. Ideally a multidisciplinary team that consists of a pediatrician or adolescent medicine specialist, a psychologist or psychiatrist and a psycho educational specialist, performs the evaluation. Many teens may undergo evaluations in school as guaranteed under Public Law 94-142.
An evaluation consists of a complete medical history and physical examination as well as some neurological and sensory testing. Historical information on the teen’s academic performance, behavioral adjustments and development issues should be obtained. The mental health specialist may identify family issues that could complicate the learning disorder. And the psycho educational specialist may administer relevant tests to obtain data in regard to reading, spelling, writing and mathematical abilities. The team works together to present a comprehensive report on the teen’s learning disabilities.
How are learning disabilities treated?
Treatment for learning disabilities is tailored to the teen’s specific issues. Teens should be given an explanation of their learning disorder. Accommodation can be utilized to bypass a specific problem. For example, if an adolescent has difficulty with legible writing, then a word processor can be utilized. If there is difficulty with oral presentations, then written works could be substituted. These strategies do not cure the learning disorder, but they do help to minimize the academic and social effects.
Remediation such as tutorial programs help to advance a teen with deficient academic skills. Specialists in reading or math may be utilized to assist the teen. Remediation usually occurs in a school’s resource room or learning center.
Other treatments could include modification in the curriculum, strengthening of a teen’s strengths and individual or family counseling services. Occasionally medication may be prescribed. This usually would be indicated for teens with Attention Deficit Disorder. Teens with learning disabilities and depression or anxiety may by prescribed medication also.
How are learning disabilities prevented?
Since most learning disabilities have no known etiology, there is no prevention. However, early recognition and appropriate special education intervention may help to prevent further problems from the learning disabilities.
Related topics:
Academics, attention deficit disorder, counseling, disabilities, intellectual development, lead poisoning, meningitis, self-esteem, speech disorders
