Learning differences
Understanding Your Child
EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING
- Weak impulse and emotional control
- Weak working memory - often forgetful
- Rigid thinking
- Difficulty with organization
- Challenges with prioritizing and planning
- Difficulty with task initiation
DYSLEXIA
- One of the most common learning disabilities
- Affects reading, writing, spelling and often handwriting
- Letter or word reversals may be a concern for children with dyslexia
- Commonly diagnosed between Kindergarten and Grade 3
SENSORY PROCESSING DISORDER
- Overly sensitive to sounds and touch
- Uncoordinated
- Bumps into things
- Unable to tell where their limbs are in space
- Difficult to engage in conversation or play
ADHD
- Easily distracted by extraneous stimuli
- Often loses things necessary for tasks or activities (e.g., assignments, pencils)
- Often fidgets with hands or feet or squirms in seat
- Often leaves seat in classroom or in other situations in which remaining seated is expected
- Often blurts out answers before questions have been completed and interrupts
DYSGRAPHIA
- A mixture of upper case/lower case letters
- Irregular letter sizes and shapes
- Struggles to use writing as a communications tool
- Odd writing grip
- Many spelling mistakes
- Talks to self while writing
- General illegibility
- Reluctance or refusal to complete writing tasks
- Experiencing physical pain in the hand and/or arm when wri
Learn More
Children with learning differences are as smart or smarter than their peers. But they may have difficulty reading, writing, spelling, reasoning, recalling and/or organizing information if left to figure things out by themselves or if taught in conventional ways.
- Fifteen percent of the U.S. population, or one in seven Americans, has some type of learning disability, according to the National Institutes of Health.
- Difficulty with basic reading and language skills are the most common learning disabilities. As many as 80% of students with learning disabilities have reading problems.
- Learning disabilities often run in families.
Parents can help children with learning disabilities achieve such success by encouraging their strengths, knowing their weaknesses, understanding the educational system, working with professionals and learning about strategies for dealing with specific difficulties.