Individuals with learning disabilities display a wide variety of symptoms; no two individuals with learning disabilities are exactly alike. The main characteristic of learning disabilities is a discrepancy between potential and performance.
Learning disabilities typically affect five areas:
- Spoken Language: delays, disorders, and deviations in listening and speaking
- Written Language: difficulties with reading, writing, and spelling
- Arithmetic: difficulty in performing arithmetic operations or in understanding basic concept
- Reasoning: difficulty in organizing and integrating thoughts
- Memory: difficulty in remembering information and instructions
Symptoms
The following are some commonly seen symptoms which may be observed in children who have learning disabilities. They factors to consider are the frequency, intensity, and duration of the behaviors.
- Poor performance on group test
- Difficulty discriminating size, shape, or color
- Difficulty with time concepts
- Reversals in writing and reading
- Poor visual-motor coordination
- Difficulty copying correctly from a model
- Slowness in completing work
- Poor organizational skills
- Easily confused by instructions
- Difficulty with abstract reasoning and/or problem solving
- Disorganized thinking
- Poor short-term or long-term memory
- Impulsive behavior
- Low tolerance for frustration
- Failure to see consequences to actions
- Overly distractible
- Difficulty with tasks requiring sequencing