Learning Disorders

1
Learning Disorders
By Jeff Eggleston and Christina Goranson
Mathematics Disorder
History
Etiology
Prognosis
Written expression disorder
Diagnosis
2
Outline

• Historical Background
• Key figures
• Joseph Gall
• Samuel Kirk
• Richard Whelan
• Main Organizations
• ACLD
• 3 task forces
• Division of children with learning disorders

3
Diagnosis

• Symptoms
• 3 types of learning disabilities
• Criteria for DSM IV
• Ethnic cultural background

4
Etiology

• Genetic Factors
• Biological Etiology
• Environmental Etiology
• Etiology statistics
• Genetics

5
Treatment

• Linguistic Approach
• Instructional Aids
• Modified Speech Stimuli
• Vitamin therapy
• Anti-motion sickness drugs
• Vision therapy

6
Prognosis

• Frustration
• Success
• Hope

7
Historical Background

• Key figures
• Joseph Gall
• Samuel Kirk
• Richard Whelan
• Main Organizations
• ACLD
• 3 task forces
• Division of children with learning disorders

8
Historical Background

• German Physician Franz Joseph Gall
• believed different parts of the brain were
  responsible for very specific characteristics,
  skills and talents
• began with Gall in the early 1800s and his
  systematic investigation of learning
  disabilities(LD)

9
Samuel Kirk

• reintroduced learning disorder in 1963
• extreme interest in general population about LD.
• Parents of LD children pressed for a more
  suitable label for their children

10
Association for Children with Learning
Disabilities (ACLD)

• at a conference in 1963 decided to have ACLD be
  the official organization for LD (Myers and
  Hammill, 1976).

11
3 Task Forces

• The first is the Minimal Brain Dysfunction in
  Children Identification and Terminology
• The second is the Minimal Brain Dysfunction in
  Children Educational, Medical, and Health
  Related Services
• The third is the Central Processing Dysfunction
  in Children A Review of Research (Hallahan,
  1976).

12
Division for Children with Learning Disorders

• formed in 1968
• composed of
• college professors
• schools who are in the area of special education
• Skinners ideas were very influential in the
  1960s and 1970s especially on behavior analysis

13
Richard J. Whelan

• discovered a common link between LD and
  emotional disturbance in children (Hallahan,
  1976).
• There is an ongoing process of defining and
  redefining LD
• Many of the theoretical and historical views are
  being used to create newer and more sophisticated
  devices to treat LD.

14
Diagnosis

• Symptoms
• 3 types of learning disabilities
• Criteria for DSM IV
• Ethnic cultural background

15
Symptoms

• a specific skill deficiency
• lacks desire to read
• general reading deficiency
• difficulty with
• fluent oral reading
• word recognition
• reading comprehension
• written spelling

16
Diagnosis

• reading orally a person with LD may add, omit, or
  distort the pronunciation of words
• difficulty composing words
• problems recognizing mathematical symbols
• 3 major types of learning disorder
• reading disorder (dyslexia)
• mathematics disorder
• disorder of written expression

17
DSM-IV

• These all have very similar criteria in the
  DSM-IV
• It is
• if the standardized tests for reading
  achievement, mathematical ability, or writing
  skills (or functional assessment of writing
  skills) are substantially below that of the
  persons chronological age, measured
  intelligence, and age appropriate education
  (DSM-IV)

18
Criterion of DSM-IV

• if the disturbance of the above criterion
  significantly interferes with academic
  achievement or activities of daily living that
  require reading skills, mathematical ability, or
  composition of written texts
• if a sensory deficit is present the reading
  difficulties, mathematical ability, or writing
  skills are in excess of those usually associated
  with it
• test generally

19
Ethnic Cultural Background

• Intelligence testing should be in coordination
  with or similar to the individuals ethnic
  background
• should use tests in which individuals
  characteristics are represented
• examiner should be knowledgeable of individuals
  background

20
Etiology

• Genetic Factors
• Biological Etiology
• Environmental Etiology
• Etiology statistics

21
Genetic Factors

• Learning disorders tend to be heterogeneous
  (Pennington and Smith, 1983).
• Strong Evidence for familial transmission of
  dyslexia

22
Genetic Factors

• Many children with ADHD also have Learning
  disorders (Faraone, Biederman, and Lehman,
  1993).
• ADHD and dyslexia are transmitted independently
  in families and their co-occurrence may be due to
  non-random mating(Faraone, Biederman, and Lehman,
  1993).

23
Biological Basis

• Malfunctions in Central Nervous system
• Brain dysfunction
• Dysfunction of Cerebral hemisphere affects motor,
  mental, and sensory development (Myers and
  Hammill, 1976).
• Deficits in Visual perception, attention, and
  memory.
• Abnormalities in cognitive processing.

24
Environmental Basis

• Insufficient early learning experience.
• Emotional problems correlate with Learning
  Disorders.

25
Statistics

• 80 fall into the unknown causes of learning
  disabilities.
• 60-80 are males.
• However, closer analysis shows that it is closer
  to 50 in males and females.

26
Treatments

• Linguistic Approach
• Instructional Aids
• Modified Speech Stimuli
• Vitamin therapy
• Anti-motion sickness drugs
• Vision therapy

27
Linguistic Approach

• Used with individuals with writing and reading
  disorders.
• Emphasis on listening, speaking, reading, and
  writing skill.
• Readiness skills
• learning letter-sound correspondences and
  phonetic analysis.

28
Instructional Aids

• Used primarily in Dyslexic cases.
• Individuals perform better with aids
• such as tape recorded lectures
• tutors
• writing editors
• Supervised School tasks and peer
  groups(Lamminmaki, et al., 1997 ).

29
Modified Speech Stimuli

• Individuals with language disorders find
  improvement in intensive training in modified
  speech stimuli.
• Specific computer games aimed at language
  learning
• Audio Tapes
• All incorporate slowed speech sounds
• Modified Speech Stimuli exhibited far better
  results then did unmodified speech stimuli.

30
Megavitamin Therapy

• Some learning disabled children suffer from
  biochemical imbalances and genetic metabolic
  deficiencies (LePerchia, 1987)
• Megavitamin therapy may be helpful in controlling
  disability (LePerchia, 1987)

31
Anti-motion Sickness Drugs

• Anti-motion sickness medications such as
  Dramamine have found favorable responses in
  dyslexic children (Levinson, 1991)

32
Vision Therapy

• vision care is a key part in helping children and
  adults with learning
• disabilities.
• Vision therapy improves efficiency and visual
  processing thereby allowing the individual to be
  more responsive to educational instruction
  (anonymous, 1998).

33
Prognosis

• Frustration
• Hope
• Success

34
Frustration

• Treatment is an on-going process.
• Most children with reading disorders have
  probably experienced significant frustration and
  lack of motivation.
• Therefore, positive opportunities to experience
  the feeling of mastery and self efficacy are
  crucial (Davidson and Neale, 1998).
• Positive ways of learning must be stressed, so
  that they can be strengthened .

35
Success

• Treatments tried, like the Davis Dyslexic
  correction, had a 97 success rate (Davis, 1995).
• Dyslexic individuals often succeed in college
  with the aid of instructional support.
• Does not inhibit one from leading a successful
  life

36
Hope

• Individuals can often overcome their disabilities
  and live ordinary lives.
• Good chance of beating dyslexia with proper
  treatment (Nation and Snowling, 1998).
• Dyslexia can be looked as a gift (Davis, 1995)

37
The Gift of Dyslexia

• The Book, The gift of dyslexia, discusses the
  belief by Ron Davis that Dyslexia is a result of
  an inherent mental gift or talent.

38
References

• American Psychiatric Association. (1994).
  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
  Disorders (4th ed.) Washington, D.C. Author

39

• Anonymous. (1998). Vision care and learning
  disabilities treatment. Journal of Adolescent
  Adult Literacy, 41, 530.
• Discusses that vision care is an essential part
  of the diagnosis and treatment of individuals
  with learning disabilities, and gives 3 points
  of evaluation.

40

• Davidson, G.C . Neale, J.M. (1998). Abnormal
  Psychology, seventh edition. New York Wiley.
• Definitions of the three types of learning
  disabilities, etiologies, treatments and general
  information.

41

• Faraone, V.S., Biederman, J., Lehman, B.K.
  (1993). Evidence for the independent familial
  transmission of attention deficit hyperactivity
  disorder and learning disabilities results from
  a family genetic study. The American Journal of
  Psychiatry, 150, 891-5.

42
Reference (continued)

• Looked at different case studies and compared
  them for genetic likeness but found that
  transmission is independent but may be due
  non-random mating.

43

• Hallahan D.P. (1976). Introduction to learning
  disabilities. New Jersey Prentice Hall Inc.
• This contains information on Richard Whelan and
  comparison between socially and emotionally
  disturbed children with learning disabilities.
  As well as information on the three task forces.

44

• Lamminmaki, T., Ahonen, T., Todddebarra, H.,
  Tolvanen, A., Nichelsson, K., Lyytinen, H.
  (1997). The two year group treatment with
  children with learning difficulties assessing
  effects of treatment duration and pretreat
  characteristics. Journal of Learning
  Disabilities, 31, 354-363.

45
Reference (continued)

• this gave specific treatments of using the
  multifaceted neurogeneritive treatment and half
  hand supervised school tasks and peer group
  support.

46

• LaPerchia, P. (1987). Behavioral disorders,
  learning disabilities and megavitamin therapy.
  Adolescence, 1987, 22, 729-38.
• This addressed the issue that some learning
  disabled children suffer from biochemical
  imbalances and genetic metabolic deficiencies
  therefore Megavitamin therapy may be helpful in
  controlling learning disabilities.

47

• Levinson, N.H. (1991). Dramatic favorable
  responses of children with learning disabilities
  or dyslexia and attention deficit disorder to
  Anti-motion sickness medications four case
  studies. Perpetual and Motor skills,73, 723-38.
  
• This showed through four case studies that
  Anti-motion sickness medication, Dramamine,
  worked the best and gave the best results in
  helping the children focus easier.

48

• Myers, P.I., Hammill, D.D. (1976). Methods
  For Learning Disorders. Canada John Wiley and
  Sons, Inc.
• This looked at the probable causes of learning
  disorders. Focusing on the biological and
  environmental factors. It also gave an overview
  of the history of learning disabilities referring
  to Gall.

49

• Nation, K., Snowling, M.J. (1998). Individual
  Differences in Contextual Facilitation Evidence
  from Dyslexics and Poor Reading Compensation.
  Child Development 69, 996-1009.
• This gave evidence how dyslexics can compensate
  for their poor decoding skills through special
  treatments. This also shows how dyslexics are
  different from just poor readers.

50

• Pennington, B.F., Smith, S.D. (1983). Genetic
  Influences on learning disabilities and speech
  and language disorders. Child Development,54,
  369-387.
• This looked at the genetic and hereditary
  influence. It showed that learning disorders
  could be passed on from parent to child.

51

• Smart, D., Sanson, A., Prior, M. (1996).
  Connections between reading Disability and
  behavior problem Testing temporal and causal
  hypotheses. Journal of Abnormal Child
  Psychology, 24, 363-375.

52
Reference (continued)

• This showed the relation between reading
  difficulties and children with behavioral
  problems. This tested whether or not these two
  could be causal to each other or if they were
  just by coincidence.

53

• Spache, D.G. (1976). Diagnosing and Correcting
  Reading Disabilities. Boston Allyn and Bacon
  Inc.
• This focused on how diagnosis is a continual
  process. Diagnosis should cover a wide basis.
  It should be honest and look for ways one does
  learn so that it can be strengthened.

54

• Pennington, B.F., Smith, S.D. (1988). Genetic
  influences on learning disabilities An update.
  Journal of consulting and clinical psychology,
  56, 817-822.
• This gave further proof the learning disabilities
  can be passed down genetically through families.

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• Davis, Ron (1995). Davis Dyslexia Correction.
  Netscape Communicator 1-4. Available on-line
  www.dyslexia.com/program.htmcure
• This site focused on the Davis Dyslexia
  Correction program. It discusses Ron Davis book
  The Gift of Dyslexia as well as how he approaches
  dyslexia and how to deal with it.