Sarah’s story helps us understand how language- based learning difficul-ties manifest in the early years of schooling. Not only were Sarah’s spoken and written language skills slow to emerge, but she also was having difficulty understanding rudimentary mathematics and accom-plishing seemingly age- appropriate tasks, such as tying her shoes and completing puzzles.
Although my general approach is to address LBLDs holistically, it is still helpful to identify the specific challenges children like Sarah often face. In fact, I have organized this book by the commonly used catego-ries that fall under the umbrella term “language- based learning difficul-ties.” When you understand the common challenges experienced by children with LBLDs, you will be able to create a carefully customized and holistic approach to meet your child’s unique needs.
What Is Dyslexia?
Dyslexia is primarily a reading disability, but it also impacts many other areas of learning and expression. For this reason, dyslexia is an excellent example of a classification that benefits from a broader under-standing under the LBLD umbrella.
Dyslexia has been recognized as a discrete learning disability for many decades. Some dyslexia experts maintain that the term “dyslexia”
should be reserved only for people who experience difficulty with reading.
Other experts argue that dyslexia describes a broad set of neurological differences that impact a wide range of capacities, including listening, speaking, reading, writing, sequencing, and remembering. All dyslexia experts agree that dyslexia accounts for why some children have more difficulty learning to read than their peers. Even a small delay in reading can, in a few short years, translate into a significant gap between what a child is expected to read at school and what he or she is able to learn from reading.
This gap is often exacerbated for children with dyslexia because they tend to avoid reading. It’s an understandable avoidance; for these
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children, reading is arduous. But avoidance puts them at an even greater disadvantage. This phenomenon is referred to as the “Matthew Effect,”
a term coined by reading expert Keith Stanovich (1986). In the biblical story of Matthew, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. In the case of young readers, good readers read more and get better at reading, whereas less- skilled readers read less and fall farther and farther behind their peers. In time, the difference in reading ability can become signifi-cant and begin to impact other areas of learning, such as vocabulary development and comprehension. Other capacities, like speaking and writing, can also be influenced by the amount of reading a child does.
For many children with dyslexia, delayed progress in these areas dimin-ishes their self- esteem and motivation to complete schoolwork, both of which can further hinder the ability to learn at school.
What Is Dysgraphia?
Children with dysgraphia struggle with most aspects of writing.
Writing develops along a similar trajectory to reading, where a child moves from basic skills, like recognizing letters, to sophisticated skills, like comprehending. At an early age, a child begins to understand how to form individual letters, spell simple words, and string together words to express thoughts. A breakdown in any of these areas can translate into a writing disability, or dysgraphia.
Additionally, skilled writing requires well- developed executive tioning skills, which is why children with ADHD and executive func-tioning deficits often struggle to write well. Writing tasks require so many discrete skills that a child who struggles in any area of learning or emotional well- being can easily be challenged when attempting to write.
What Is Dyscalculia?
Dyscalculia is a math learning disability that has many similarities to dyslexia and dysgraphia. Children with dyscalculia have difficulty with math at a fundamental level, such as counting, recognizing numbers, forming numbers, understanding money, and telling time. Older chil-dren who are unable to perform basic mathematics such as adding, sub-tracting, multiplying, and dividing can also have dyscalculia.
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Like written language, math is governed by many rules that must be followed to be successful. Children with dyscalculia often have difficulty learning and remembering these rules; they therefore require consider-ably more direct instruction to achieve competency in math. Dyscalculia and dyslexia frequently occur together, which means that children with dyscalculia are also likely to have a hard time understanding written directions, examples, and word problems.
In my practice, I have seen many children identified as having dyscalculia also develop anxiety about math, which further diminishes their ability to learn and perform math- related tasks. This emotional component also needs to be taken into account when determining the type and amount of support you provide your child.
What Are Spoken Language and Visual Processing Challenges?
Generally speaking, being able to process information that is heard or seen is required to learn. I am not describing hearing acuity or seeing acuity, but rather how information that is seen or heard is processed, retained, and recalled. Children with LBLDs frequently exhibit significant delays in both spoken language processing and visual processing. As a conse-quence, they are unable to learn efficiently in a classroom and beyond.
Fortunately, there is a lot you can do to help your child if he or she has slowly emerging spoken language and visual processing skills. A key to supporting students with delays in these areas is to provide them with strategies that help them process and remember important things they are being taught.
What Are ADHD and Executive Functioning Disorders?
During the past decade, it has become common to refer to attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as a deficit in executive func-tioning skills. Children with ADHD and executive funcfunc-tioning disor-ders struggle to maintain focus, organize school materials, and manage their time. It’s not surprising then that these children struggle to fulfill
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their academic responsibilities. For example, when ADHD impacts a child’s ability to stay focused while reading, the outcome is the same as if he or she were a slowly emerging reader: the child is unable to learn material by reading.
The Ongoing Need for Support
I’d like to confirm what you might already know: that most language- based learning difficulties do not go away. Children with LBLDs continue to need support throughout their entire education. The type and amount of support your child will need will change as his or her capacities develop. Sometimes he or she may only need a little help, but, at other times, your child may need a lot. On occasion, you may find that the support your child needs exceeds what you are capable of providing. In these situations, I encourage you to identify other individuals to partner with in order to provide the addi-tional support your child needs. Sharing the perspectives and strategies offered in this book with those individuals can keep you all on the same page.
