What Is Specific Learning Disorder? Retrieved from American Psychiatric
Respond to the student below by providing at least two contributions for improving or including in their Parent Guide and at least two things that you like about their guide.
Jennifer
Specific Learning Disorder
COLLAPSE
Signs and Symptoms of Specific Learning Disorder
Parents must understand that every child has difficulty learning at some point, especially when learning new material. The diagnosis of learning disorder requires persistent problems in reading, writing, arithmetic, and mathematical reasoning skills during formal years of schooling (Association, 2013). According to Logson, the signs and symptoms of a learning disorder in children include: Make poor grades despite significant effort, need constant, step-by-step guidance for tasks, cannot remember problem-solving steps because they do not comprehend tasks or the logic behind them, have a poor memory of spoken or written material, have difficulty mastering tasks or transferring academic skills to other tasks, cannot remember skills and facts over time, have strong general knowledge but cannot read as in dyslexia, write as in dysgraphia, or do math as in dyscalculia at that level, have difficulty with communication and language processing, expressive, and receptive language, become very frustrated with school and homework and have low self-esteem (Logson, 2020).
Pathophysiology of Specific Learning Disorder
Specific Learning Disorder consists of impairment in reading, impairment in mathematics, and impairment in written expression. The pathophysiology is pretty similar between the three different impairments.
The first disorder is an impairment in reading. There are so specific physical signs or laboratory measures that would be helpful when diagnosing the child with a reading deficit. If a child was suspected of having a reading deficit, psychoeducational testing would be critical in determining this deficit. The patient would be given a spelling test, written composition, processing and using oral language, design copying, and judgement and adequacy of using a pencil (Sadock, Sadock & Ruiz, 2014).
The second disorder is impairment in mathematics. There is no physical signs or symptoms that can indicate that a child has a mathematics disorder, but same with reading there are some standardized measurement of intellectual function to be able to diagnose a child with a mathematics impairment. There is a test that is given to a child called The Keymath Diagnostic Arithmetic Test that will measure different areas of math including knowledge of math content, function, and also computation. This is used for children in grades 1st through 6th grade (Sadock, Sadock & Ruiz, 2014).
The last disorder in an impairment in written expression. Once again there are no physical symptoms that a child may exhibit that have an impairment, so educational testing is done to make this diagnosis as well. Diagnosis is based on a child’s writing performance that is shown being marked below the expected production for his or her age by someone who is trained to perform the standardized test. There are a few tests that they give which include: Test of Written Language, Test of Early Written Language and the DEWS. They also recommend that the patient gets evaluated for impaired vision and also hearing. They also suggest that if the child does have an impairment in written expression that a standardized test is administered to the patient is an intelligence test to check the overall intellectual capacity of the child (Sadock, Sadock & Ruiz, 2014).
Diagnosing Specific Learning Disorder
Specific Learning Disorder is a learning disability that usually starts during the school-age years. As stated in Bonifacci (2020), specific learning disorders (SLD), i.e., neurodevelopmental disorders that impede learning or efficiently using reading, writing, or math skills have an ascertained neurobiological etiology, nowadays best explained as deriving from multiple risk factors, that involve genetic, cognitive, and environmental influences. To be diagnosed with a specific learning disorder a person must meet certain specified criteria. A person must have difficulties in at least one of the following areas for at least six months despite targeted help: difficulty reading; difficulty understanding the meaning of what is read; difficulty with spelling; difficulty with written expression; difficulty understanding number concepts, number facts or calculation; difficulty with mathematical reasoning (APA, 2018). Also, these difficulties must start during the school-age years causing the child to have academic skills below what is expected for age and must not be due to a medical/intellectual condition, socioeconomic condition, language barrier, or lack of instruction (APA, 2018). It is also worth noting that many children with SLD receive diagnoses different from reading or arithmetical disorder; For example, using the ICD-10 coding system (World Health Organization, 1993), children can also be diagnosed with specific spelling disorder and mixed disorder of scholastic skills (i.e., with impairments in reading or spelling and in the arithmetical area) (Toffalini, 2017).
Treatment for Specific Learning Disorder, (SLD)
There is no current cure for this disorder; however, it can be successfully management throughout a person’s life span. Seeking early intervention is a very important part of treatment for SLD. When symptoms are noticed early, interventions can be sought after sooner in helping the individual before problems arise in school or at home. Treatment usually includes both strengthening the skills and developing a learning strategy that tailor the needs of each person as an individual (CMI, 2020). Under federal law, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), students with learning disabilities are eligible for special education services available in the schools. It is under no expense to the parents that if there is a suspicion of a child having a disability the school must provide an evaluation for the child (Lee, 2020). Special Education can help the student with learning disability with reading, writing and math. The classroom may have to be adjusted to fit the needs of each student in a classroom setting. Teachers may have to give the child extra time to complete assignments or modify an assignment. Students with disabilities may require certain accommodations throughout their education. After a child is evaluated by a school, An Individualized Education Plan (IEP) will be created. An IEP is a plan or program developed for a child with a disability in elementary or secondary education to receive special instructions or services throughout their educational years (Baumel, 2014).
References
APA. (2018, November). What Is Specific Learning Disorder? Retrieved from American Psychiatric Association: https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/specific-learning-disorder/what-is-specific-learning-disorder
Association, A. P. (2013). Specific learning disorder. American Psychiatric Association: www.psychiatry.org
Baumel., J., (2014)., What is an IEP?
Learn the ins and outs of an Individualized Education Program (IEP). Retrieved from https://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/what-is-an-iep/
Bonifacci, P., Tobia, V., Marra, V., Desideri, L., Baiocco, R., & Ottaviani, C. (2020). Rumination and Emotional Profile in Children with Specific Learning Disorders and Their Parents. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(2). https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.3390/ijerph17020389
Child Mind Institute., (2020)., Specific Learning Disability: Treatment., Retrieved from https://childmind.org/guide/specific-learning-disorder/treatment/#:~:text=While%20there%20is%20no%20cure,advantage%20of%20a%20child’s%20strengths.
Lee., A., Individuals with Disabilities Education Act; What You Need to Know., Retrieved from https://childmind.org/guide/specific-learning-disorder/treatment/#:~:text=While%20there%20is%20no%20cure,advantage%20of%20a%20child’s%20strengths.
Logson, A. (2020). Recognizing learning disability symptoms in children. Very Well Family. https://www.verywellfamily.com/learn-about-learning-disability-symptoms-2162937
Sadock, B. J., Sadock, V. A., & Ruiz, P. (2014). Kaplan & Sadock’s synopsis of psychiatry: Behavioral sciences/clinical psychiatry (11th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer.
Toffalini, E., D. G. (2017). Strengths and Weaknesses in the Intellectual Profile of Different Subtypes of Specific Learning Disorder: A Study on 1,049 Diagnosed Children. Clinical
Psychological Science, 402-409. Retrieved from https://journals-sagepub-com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/doi/epub/10.1177/2167702616672038
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