Learning disabilities are complex and can impact the life of a child and
family in significant ways.  This is one area that a school psychologist can provide a great deal of support.

What is the definition of the Learning Disability?

According to state and federal regulations:

"Specific learning disability" means a disorder in one or more of the basic
psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language,
spoken or written, which may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to
listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations.
To aid schools and school psychologists in the understanding of what a
learning disability is, the federal regulations pertaining to serving the
learning disabled child (Volume 42, No. 250, of the Federal Register,
Thursday, December 29, 1977) provide the following commentary:

Those with specific learning disabilities may demonstrate their handicap through a variety of symptoms such as hyperactivity, distractibility, attention problems, concept association problems or skill deficits.  This highlights the importance of not making quick decisions regarding the reasons for a student's difficulties.  Children can display one behavior as a sign of difficulty in another, unrelated domain.

Learning disabilities have two primary components (i.e., cognitive and academic).  The cognitive difficulty causes the academic difficulty.  One relates directly to the other.  To have  a learning disability, the child must have a deficit in one or more academic areas.  What is a academic deficit?  Children naturally vary in their skill levels in comparison to one another.  Some are above average and some are below average.  "Academic deficits" set a student apart from their peer group.  They are unusual and cause for dysfunction in a child's life.  Children with deficits are usually frustrated, struggle to complete tasks even if they try or complain about school being difficult.

Interventions to assist with learning problems should be a prerequisite to
an evaluation and diagnosis.  New legislation is moving toward showingthat students are
"resistant to intervention" before a diagnosis can be made.  In Foxborough, interventions are developed by teachers and support personnel informally through consultation or more formally through the BBST process (Building Based Support Team).  Evaluation usually occurs when interventions are not working.

When to suggest evaluation and diagnosis?

A few points to consider:

(1) determining "effective interventions"

(2) when is a student "resistant to intervention". 

As a parent or teacher, you may be asking, "How do you know that a given intervention is the right one for my particular child?".  There are general teaching principles and scientifically proven approaches that are good for all children.  These are usually applied first.  For example, in the area of reading, phonological awareness training in early elementary school has been found to be essential for becoming a good reader.  Methods for training students to hear and work with sounds should be considered good teaching and an "effective intervention".  These types methods should be attempted prior to evaluation and diagnosis. 

If a student does not respond to these interventions over time (how long is not clearly defined), then an evaluation is warranted to examine the student's individual profile of cognitive, academic and social/emotional
abilities. 

During testing, a scientific approach is used to confirm or reject hypotheses that are developed prior to your child's assessment.  This is called an assessment plan.  Evaluators analyze learning variables through record reviews, observations and interview with parents and teachers.  Once a plan is developed, select tests are chosen and administered to the child. 

Research has helped evaluators by studying the most common cognitive difficulties for reading/writing and math.  While not exact science, these variables are very commonly found to be deficit in students with learning disabilities.

What are these abilities? 

In general, reading disabilities are most commonly caused by deficits in one or more of the following domains:

Language/Verbal skills
Phonological Processing/Auditory Processing
Short-term Memory/Phonological Memory
Associative Memory
Processing Speed/Rapid Naming

Math disabilities are most commonly caused by deficits in one or more of the following domains:

Language/Verbal skills
Short-term Memory
Processing Speed
Fluid Reasoning/Perceptual Reasoning
Visual/Perceptual Processing

Once a comprehensive evaluation has been completed, an analysis of the
available data, outcomes of interventions and classroom progress are all
integrated to make the decision about diagnosis of a learning disability.  A
comprehensive evaluation will provide the needed input to help design
meaningful and uniquely talored interventions.

Other handicapping and sociological conditions may result in poor achievemet
in school or resistance to intervention.  There are those for whom these
(other) conditions are the primary factors effecting achievement. In such
cases, academic problems may be the primary result of these factors and
not of a severe learning problem.

Children with Neurodevelopmental Delays, but Average Achievement Scores

An October, 2000 article in the Journal of Learning Disabilities (Characteristics of Children Referred for Evaluation of School Difficulties Who Have Adequate Achievement Scores, Morgan, Singer-Harris, Bernstein and Waber), highlights the limitations that standardized, skill-based achievement tests can have when evaluating children with subtle neurodevelopmental delays.  This study determined that children with these delays often perform average on standardized tests, but have similar cognitive processing skills as children with learning disabilities, with particular difficulty managing the complexity and automaticity of an "on-line" educational setting such as a school classroom.  This can result in underdiagnosis and treatment, possbily leaving these types of children without necessary supports.  The article pointed to the need for more "process-oriented" achievement testing.  Such tests should measure rapid naming, executive functioning and reading efficiency.