Learning Disabilities, Learning Disorders

Jim Chandler, FRCPC, MD

What is a learning disorder?

If you have a learning disorder, it means that for someone who is as smart as you, you are especially bad at something. Here are three examples which should explain what this is and what it is not.

Doug is 8 years old. He can not read. He knows his letters, but still is stuck at a grade 1 level in reading. He also is poor in math. He is more clumsy than most children his age. He has a limited vocabulary. His memory is not that good. His printing is very poor. There is nothing that Doug does which is up to what a person would expect of an 8 year old boy. He has always been behind, and he is a very slow learner.

This is the profile one sees in mental retardation. That is, Doug is poor at reading, but he is no worse at reading than he is at everything else. I would not say that Doug has a learning disorder

Christian is also 8. He can not read either. He knows his letters, but when he reads he reads backwards, skips lines, and can't seem to understand how words are organized on the page. He is good in math, loves to build things, is a good drawer, has a good vocabulary and is on two sports teams.

Christian has a learning disorder in reading. He is of overall average intelligence and his reading is much worse than what you would expect of a person who is of average intelligence.

Karen is also 8. She can not read in school, however her mom swears she can at home. She knows the letters and sounds, but doesn't pay attention to what she is doing and gives up. She has a hard time paying attention to other things, too. She is interested in horses. Once she found a book about horses that she was very interested in reading, she read it without problem and shocked her teacher.

Karen has Attention Deficit Disorder. Although some children have ADD and a learning disorder, she just has ADD. That is, she has no problem reading, if she can pay attention.

In a class room all three of these children can not read, but only one has a learning disorder. I could have cited many more causes of not reading which are not learning disabilities. Perhaps the most obvious other cause is not being able to see properly. Here is the clinical definition of a learning disorder. I will use reading as an example, but I could also use writing, math, coordination or memory.

a. Reading skills, as measured by an individually administered test, is substantially below that which is expected, given the person's chronological age, measured intelligence, and age-appropriate education.

b. The disturbance in reading significantly interferes with academic achievement or activities of daily living that require reading

c. If a sensory deficit is present ( hearing loss, vision problems) the learning difficulty is in excess of what one would expect.

The learning disorders are grouped by skills. That is there is a learning disorder for each of the major skills. There is a Developmental Reading Disorder, A developmental Mathematics Disorder, a developmental disorder of written expression, and a developmental coordination disorder. There are also language disorders which follow the same pattern.

What is the difference between a learning disorder and a learning disability?

Learning disabilities are the basic brain functions which are abnormal in a child with a learning disorder. A learning disability is what makes up a learning disorder. A learning Disorder is what you see is wrong from the outside. You see a child that can not read, write, do math, or run properly. The best way to understand this is to see what the learning disabilities are. To understand this, you have to know a little bit about how we currently think people use their brains to learn. click here to go to contents

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