Introduction

About half of all children served by Special Education are classified as having a Learning Disability. That means anywhere from 2-10% of all school-age children will have that label at some time during their school careers. Yet, despite the number of children with this diagnosis and the number of school programs that serve them, most parents don't really understand what Learning Disabilities are. Teachers and researchers often disagree about how schools should evaluate and support children with severe academic problems. Recent changes in special education law (IDEA) have heightened concerns among parents, educators, and advocates. This article highlights some of the key issues in this debate so that you will be better equipped to discuss your child's needs and to understand the impact of the changes in law.

What is a Learning Disability?

The law governing special education, The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) provides this definition of learning disability:
“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 an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations, including such conditions as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia.”

What does this mean? It is not unusual for children to experience some difficulties learning to read, do math, spell, or write. There are many reasons why some children encounter problems when they enter school. Some lack preschool experiences and need more time to become familiar with the materials and concepts used in kindergarten and first grade classrooms; some have few opportunities to learn outside of school due to limited family resources; some who come from other countries and cultures are struggling to learn English; some do not attend school regularly and miss a lot of instruction; some have physical or health-related problems that interfere with learning.

Most experts believe a Learning Disability is primarily a problem with the way the brain processes information. This may include information from print, information that depends on listening skills, or information from symbols like letters or numbers. Because a child has trouble processing this information, he or she may have difficulties in learning new material, in expressing or understanding ideas, or in remembering what is taught.

The most common learning disabilities affect reading and spelling, but some children read well but have extreme difficulty handling numbers and calculations in math or in expressing thoughts in writing.

Learning disabilities do not primarily result from a lack of early experiences, from frequent school absences or from other problems like deafness, blindness, or limited English skills. For example, a child who is otherwise developing and learning normally might sustain a head injury that then results in difficulties in reading or writing. This would not be called a Learning Disability, but rather an acquired brain injury that, in turn, causes the learning problems. (Such a child might be eligible for special education under another classification due to a health or physical impairment.)

Educators sometimes use the term “Dyslexia” to describe a learning disability that affects reading. Dyslexia simply means “abnormal reading” or “difficult reading.” At one time, people associated Dyslexia with reading letters reversed, backwards, or confused with one another. However, research has shown that the vast majority of reading problems are actually related to difficulty using auditory information—understanding the sounds that make up words.

Typically, children are identified as Learning Disabled during elementary school, when teachers and parents are most likely to notice the child’s difficulties learning to read, spell or do math problems. When adults or older children encounter difficulties in reading or math--difficulties that were not observed earlier—they probably are not learning disabled, particularly if they were already successful in developing and acquiring basic academic skills.

One of the controversies surrounding Learning Disabilities is the definition itself. A number of educators feel that it is impossible to separate the impact of socioeconomic factors such as poverty, second language acquisition, and inconsistent or poor instruction from resulting problems in processing language and visual information. They suggest that school personnel spend a lot of time trying to “rule out” these environmental factors from the child's “innate” capabilities, when distinguishing these factors does not lead to different approaches to instruction. These educators and researchers therefore favor definitions and criteria for service that emphasize the child’s needs rather than labels.

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