Learning Disorders
There are so many reasons why children can struggle to learn in school and to acquire the necessary academic skills. When young people struggle academically, they can become frustrated with school, avoid schoolwork, and not achieve their goals. Though learning disorders can have the most pounced impact on academics, when the learning
network is implicated, these individuals can struggle to learn routines, sequences, and social norms. Parents find themselves worried about their futures, and educators struggle to provide the necessary resources to support their student’s success.
Often times, parents and teachers feel uncertain about how to best help a struggling learner, or to identify the most appropriate supports. In these situations, an assessment that examines the causes of learning challenges as well as directly measures learning skills is indicated.
What Is A Reading Disorder?
A reading disorder is one type of learning disability and is often referred to as dyslexia. Many people think that dyslexia is the result of switching letters, or letters float on a page; however, it is actually the result of deficits in phonological awareness and rapid naming. Reading challenges, and the underlying neurocognitive deficits, can impact a child’s writing, spelling, comprehension and interpretation, and general communication.
What Is A Writing Disorder?
Dysgraphia is a specific learning disorder that impacts the student’s ability to write. This may include physical print, as well as the other processes around written expression, such as generating ideas, formulating grammatically correct and semantically meaningful phrases, as well as organizing ideas. When any one part of the process is challenging for an individual, it can derail the whole process.
What Is A Math Disorder?
Finally, a math disorder, is known as dyscalculia. This specific learning disorder impacts an individual’s ability to perform mathematical calculations from simple calculations to daily math like estimating total costs when shopping. This can also include math fact fluency or automaticity, problem solving, estimation, and learning math algorithms. Many skills can contribute to math success including visual spatial reasoning, processing speed, spatial memory, perceptual estimation, and sequencing.
Diagnosing Learning and Related Differences
In many cases, school-age children and teens benefit most from assessment for
learning disorders, including dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia, to receive
appropriate educational support and resources to succeed academically. An initial
diagnosis is often made to establish a baseline in younger children. Some students with learning disability have other neurocognitive differences or may even be gifted intellectually. Those with both giftedness and learning challenges, are known as twice-exceptional (2e). Periodic re-evaluation can then be conducted to gauge improvement and adjust academic resources as necessary to ensure students continue to receive the support they need to be successful in and out of the classroom. Understanding your learner’s needs and style is imperative to designing the most effective intervention programs.
Get Started with Learning Disorder Assessment
When you’re worried about your child’s education, adding something else to your plate may seem overwhelming. The Connected Minds NYC team knows how that feels, and we do our utmost to make getting started with dyslexia and learning disorder assessment simple and stress free. Your first step will be completing our online contact form. From there, we’ll schedule a free, 15-minute initial consultation. During this introductory chat, an assessment psychologist will answer your questions and discuss options to ensure our practice is the right fit before scheduling.