Specific Learning Disorders (315

SPECIFIC LEARNING DISORDERS (315)

Specific learning disorder or SLD is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is biologically based. It

affects a child’s (or adult’s) ability to take in or process information. Communicating

information can be difficult as well. They result in various problems, including reading accuracy, comprehension, and fluency, spelling and/or written expression, and arithmetic calculation and/or math reasoning. Because of these learning deficits, there are problems in

learning more complex subjects and cause a lag in academic achievement. In order to qualify

for this disorder, it cannot be due to a sensory problem, such as vision or hearing deficits.

The different types of learning disorders include dyslexia (or difficulty in reading) and

dyscalculia (or difficulty in mathematics). There is also dysgraphia (or difficulty in writing) and

Auditory Processing Disorder (or difficulty in understanding spoken instructions). The disorders

are classified according to their severity. There are mild, moderate, and severe levels of

severity. Learning disorders, now all clumped together as “specific learning disorder” affect 5-

15 percent of school-age children and 4 percent of all adults. About a third of all patients will

exhibit evidence of ADHD; others will have other developmental disorders, depressive

disorders, or anxiety disorders.

SLD can be diagnosed through careful psychometric testing. They generally have normal

intelligence but have standardized testing of learning ability that falls below that expected by

their age and impacts their work, school, or daily living activities. Some learning disorders are

not noticeable until the child reaches school age and begin to lag behind their peers. The

treatment of SLD involves specialized instruction by a special education teacher that is directed

toward their specific learning problem.

There are differences in specific learning disorder between old DSM volumes and DSM-V. Now,

SLD is an overarching category with specifiers that indicate reading, writing, or mathematic

difficulties. There is no IQ-achievement discrepancy requirement and instead there are four

criteria that need to be met. Criterion A requires at least one of six symptoms present for six months or more (such as reading accuracy/fluency; spelling accuracy; written expression