Flying Under the Radar: A Parent’s Guide to Learning Disabilities

Luke Clark was in second grade when he first began having trouble reading. At first, it didn’t seem like that big of a deal: skipping over words and flipping letters. Eventually, though, he had trouble remembering what he had read, and he couldn’t accurately copy words from the whiteboard onto his paper. Concerned, his parents had Luke tested for a learning disability. The tests came back negative.

As far as anyone could tell, there was absolutely nothing wrong with the way Luke processed information.

Except, there was.

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Three years and several schools later, Luke struggled under mountains of work he couldn’t finish in class, all while taking more tests and trying out more techniques to figure out what he was doing “wrong” so that he could get up to speed with his classmates. Nothing worked. The teachers, administrators and specialists were at a loss, and Luke felt like a failure.

“It was very frustrating,” says Luke’s mother, LeAnn Clark, “and it was heart wrenching because everywhere we went it wasn’t working. And my child felt like there was something wrong with him.”

At her wit’s end, Ms. Clark decided to act on a friend’s suggestion and take a chance on something called vision therapy. Little did she know it would be the answer to her prayers. It took only a few tests for the doctor to pinpoint Luke’s problem: a learning disability caused by a “lazy” eye that stopped working after reading only part of every word.

“I just started crying,” Ms. Clark says. “Finally somebody knows what I’ve been seeing for a long, long time.”

Optometric Vision Therapy is a fairly new discipline that essentially re-trains the eyes and the brain to work together. Through the use of specialized computers, patients perform visual exercises in the doctor’s office and at home. For Luke, it took eight months to teach his right eye to keep working when it got tired.

Luke’s learning disability falls into the category of a Visual Processing Disorder. It is not so well-known among educators or even optometrists, and it’s also not something that gets picked up on a routine vision test or even a standard learning disability screening. His disability is directly linked to how his eyes work together, how they focus and blend images, how they move and track across a page, and how well they send a single, stable image to his brain.

“It has nothing to do with his eye sight,” Ms. Clark says. “It has to do with the muscles in his eyes, and it has to do with how his eyes compute things to his brain and vice versa.”

WHAT IS A LEARNING DISABILITY?

Luke’s diagnosis and subsequent success prove a key point about learning disabilities: they are neurological in origin. Vision therapy worked for him because it taught his brain a new way of communicating.

Once incorrectly associated with low IQ or a physical handicap like deafness or blindness, learning disabilities now are known to affect pretty much anyone, of any intelligence, with or without any other type of disability. No one really knows why they occur, but they can run in families.

And unlike an obvious physical ailment, don’t expect your pediatrician to mention learning disabilities to you at your child’s yearly well-check. That’s because a learning disability shows up in school when kids have continual problems with math, reading, and writing, or with their language, auditory or visual skills.

In the beginning, a child will get help in the classroom. “Teachers are required to intervene with different strategies and interventions for a period of time,” says Shannon Townsend, a Special Education teacher at Cedar Park Middle School. “But for a student with a specific learning disability, oftentimes it doesn’t help and… then they’re referred to special education.” There, a student gets the one-one-one or small group instruction that’s often so successful in treating a learning disability and integrating a child back into the general education classroom. Despite our technologically advanced society, nothing beats those interpersonal lessons, and most learning disabilities are still handled this way.

But first, an educator needs to pinpoint a child’s specific learning disability. Some of the most common are:

Dyslexia – difficulty processing and understanding a written language, inaccurate word recognition, poor spelling and reading comprehension, and reduced reading experience

Dyscalculia – trouble with math, specifically solving arithmetic problems and grasping math concepts

Dysgraphia – problems with handwriting, spelling, organizing ideas and writing within a defined space

Dyspraxia / Sensory Integration Disorder – poor hand-eye coordination, balance, manual dexterity and other fine motor skills

Auditory Processing Disorder – trouble hearing the differences between sounds, resulting in reading, comprehension and language difficulties

Visual Processing Disorder – misinterpretation of visual information, leading to problems with reading, math, maps, charts, pictures and symbols

Non-Verbal Learning Disabilities – a broad category that includes a lack of social and emotional skills, as well as issues with attention, organization and following-through with instructions

NATIONAL TRENDS

Learning disabilities affect about five percent, or 2.5 million, American public school students, according to the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD), but there remains a disparity among ethnic groups, sexes and those of varying socio-economic backgrounds. The Center outlines these recent trends in its 2011 publication, The State of Learning Disabilities. While the NCLD received its data from a 2005 U.S. Survey of Income and Program Participation, it admits that reliable information on learning disabilities is scarce. Schools may be required to report the number of learning disabled children in its classrooms, but surveys are based on parent- and self-reporting. Since many learning disabilities (or LDs) are never diagnosed or even admitted, the prevalence of them among the population ages six years and older may actually be higher.

Some findings from the report show that:

Twice as many boys as girls are reported to have learning disabilities. However, that ratio is lower among adults, backing-up clinical evidence that suggests the incidence of LDs in both sexes is about equal. The NCLD report speculates that it’s probably more likely that parents of boys with LDs are more willing to reveal the problem and seek help.

Caucasians, African-Americans and Latinos reported themselves as having learning disabilities equally across all ages, but the numbers were lower among Asians and higher among Native Americans. Interestingly, schools report that African-Americans and Latinos have a much higher incidence of LDs than the rest of the student population. For many Hispanics, this may be related to English not being spoken in the home. But for all groups, poverty is the great equalizer. Poor people of all races are more likely to have experienced early exposure to risk factors such as poor nutrition and toxins like lead, tobacco and alcohol, potentially leading to learning disabilities.

Students with LDs are 3.4 years behind their enrolled grade level in reading and 3.2 years behind in math, leading to a higher rate of grade retention in an attempt to close the achievement gap that only widens as a child advances through grades.

Teenagers with learning disabilities aspire to go to college on par with their non-disabled peers, and the high school dropout rate among those with LDs has fallen by 18% over the past decade. More and more students with learning disabilities are graduating with conventional high school diplomas, but fewer students with learning disabilities earn undergraduate and advanced degrees. So it’s not surprising that there is still a gap between working-age adults with and without learning disabilities. In 2005, only 55% of adults with a learning disability were employed compared to 76% of those without.

Between 2000 and 2009, the number of students with learning disabilities declined 14% overall. While on the surface this seems positive, the reason for the trend is more complicated. First, there have been major improvements in early childhood education, reading instruction and assistance in general education classrooms. Second, a classification change in 1999 moved children with Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder out of the LD category. (While neither of these conditions is considered a learning disability, they can occur in conjunction with one.) The third reason dates back to 1975, when the United States enacted its first special education law. For many years afterward, there was a continual increase in the number of children identified as having learning disabilities. This dramatic rise drew criticism from those who questioned the methods used to diagnose children. In 2002, a report from a Presidential commission on special education agreed, stating that up to 40% of those identified for special education were actually never taught to read and didn’t have a learning disability at all. Two years later, drastic changes were made to the manner in which learning disabilities are identified in school age children, which has made a big impact in the numbers we’re seeing today.

RED FLAGS

Armed with this data, what should parents to do if they suspect their child has a learning disability? First of all, get help early!

LDOnline.org, a leading website dedicated to learning disabilities, points out that there is a crucial window of time in which intervention will be most effective. For reading disabilities specifically, the website states that 90% of children will read normally if they receive help by the first grade. But if specialized instruction doesn’t begin until after the age of nine, 75% of those children will have some reading difficulty throughout their lives.

Special Education teacher, Shannon Townsend, agrees, “From what I’ve observed, oftentimes if that achievement gap is not closed, it’s harder… to graduate and enter a four-year university and really excel at a job… if you’re still really lacking in an academic area.”

They key for parents, then, is to become educated about learning disabilities so that you know the warning signs. The NCLD offers an excellent brochure on its website that details more than 90 symptoms of various learning disabilities. The checklist includes everything from mixing up left and right, to not picking up social or emotional cues from others. The purpose of the checklist is not to diagnose a specific learning disability, but rather to offer a guide for parents who are concerned about whether their child may have a learning disability. (You can download the brochure by going to http://www.ncld.org/en/ld-basics/ld-explained/early-warning-signs/learni... or by going to ParentWiseAustin.com and clicking on the link there.) The organization also offers a shorter checklist of “early warning signs”, which we’ve placed in a side-bar box on page ________.

The National Center for Learning Disabilities is careful to point out that not every learning or behavior issue is tied to a disability. Everyone struggles with memory lapses or misreads information at one time or another. However, someone with a learning disability will have consistent and persistent patterns of difficulty. These patterns often can be spotted when children are as young as four or five, and the earlier intervention begins, the better.

CHANGING ATTITUDES

While a child’s inability to finish a timed test or accurately read directions may not be cause for concern, it’s important for parents to be vigilant and watch for problems that become persistent. But at the same time, keep some perspective. Many people with LDs can and do go on to have very successful lives. People can’t really “outgrow” a learning disability, but with specialized instruction, the brain can be re-programmed.

Fortunately, as times have changed, so have attitudes. A 2010 study commissioned by the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation found that more people are familiar with learning disabilities than they were a decade ago, and 80% of Americans recognize that children with learning disabilities have average or above average intelligence; they simply learn differently than the rest of the population.

Luke Clark is an excellent example: his experience clearly demonstrates that a learning disability has more to do with the brain’s wiring than anything else. Thanks to vision therapy, the now-12-year-old is excelling in ways he never could before. This offers hope to his parents, who recently learned that Luke’s younger brother has the same learning disability Luke has. This time, though, dealing with the disability should be a little easier: LeAnn Clark has no reason to think vision therapy won’t work again. It certainly did for Luke, and she believes it was her perseverance and belief in her child that finally got him to where he is today. And that, she says, is the crucial element to success for kids with learning disabilities.
“Fight for your children,” she says. “Listen to what they’re saying, and try to figure out what that is. Go get the help that they need, and don’t give up.”