National Association of School Psychologists
By Mary Beth Klotz, PhD, NCSP, and Andrea Canter, PhD, NCSP

A major concern for parents as well as teachers is how to help children who experience difficulty learning in school. Everyone wants to see their child excel, and it can be very frustrating when a child falls behind in learning to read, do math, or achieve in other subjects. Children who have the most difficulty are often referred for an evaluation to determine if they need and qualify for special education services. The term “learning disability” has been used for many years to explain why some children of normal intelligence nevertheless have much difficulty learning basic skills such as reading.

From Smart Kids with Learning Disabilities
By Jane Ross

Jane Ross, founder and Executive Director of Smart Kids with Learning Disabilities, shares the lessons that she learned the hard way...

From National Association of School Psychologists (NASP)
By Joseph Kovaleski, PhD, NCSP & David P. Prasse, PhD, NCSP

Amid the activity surrounding the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in the late 1990s were calls for a reconceptualization of how learning disabilities are assessed and identified. The IQ-achievement discrepancy, which had been the predominant method of identifying learning disabilities since the original establishment of regulations (for then PL 94-142) in 1977, was challenged on a number of issues. It was argued that this approach often results in the wrong students being identified for special education, requires that students "wait to fail" before receiving needed special education services, and does not lead to useful educational prescriptions for the remediation of the student's academic difficulties (Lyon et al., 2001; see "Resources"). In place of this traditional method, a number of authors as well as the President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education recommended that the student's response to intervention be used as an alternative or replacement of the IQ-achievement discrepancy approach (Gresham, 2002). This approach has alternatively been called "response to instruction" (RTI).

From National Center for Learning Disabilities

What is Executive Function?

"Executive Function" is a term used to describe a set of mental processes that helps us connect past experience with present action. We use executive function when we perform such activities as planning, organizing, strategizing and paying attention to and remembering details.

From Learning Disabilities Association of America

Learning Disabilities (LD) are neurologically-based processing problems. These processing problems can interfere with learning basic skills such as reading, writing, or math. They can also interfere with higher level skills such as organization, time planning, and abstract reasoning.

The types of LD are identified by the specific processing problem. They might relate to

• Input - getting information into the brain
• Organization - making sense of this information
• Memorty - storing and later retrieving this information
• Output - getting this information back out

From Learning Disabilities Association of America

Recent research confirms that we can teach students with learning disabilities how to learn. We can put them into a position to compete! Here are the strategies that work:

Lee Swanson (1999) and his colleagues found two major intervention practices that produced large outcomes. One is direct instruction. The other is learning strategy instruction.

From Teaching Exceptional Children
by Cathy F. Telzrow and Aimée M. Bonar

Would you know whether a student of yours has the syndrome of nonverbal learning disability (NLD)? If you were included on a planning committee for this student’s individualized education program (IEP), what would you recommend or plan? Recognizing NLD and providing responsive educational programming for affected students are critical if we are to ameliorate the potentially devastating course of this disorder (Fletcher, 1989).

This article provides an overview of the NLD syndrome to assist educators in identifying this frequently overlooked condition and to describe educational strategies, or interventions, for the special challenges experienced by students with this disability.

From http://www.nldline.com
by J. Palombo

The attached "Descriptive profile of children with Nonverbal Learning Disabilities" provides a compilation of the characteristics of children thought to have this problem. It was culled from an extended review of the literature.

From Annual Convention of School Psychologists
by Carleen Franz

This 8 page paper, Diagnosis and Management of Non-Verbal Learning Disabilities, that was presented to a New Orleans conference of School Psychologists in 2000. According to this paper, 20% of students with a learning disability can be considered to have a "non-verbal learning disability" (NVLD). There are differences between language based learning disorders and NVLD. The paper was written to help school psychologists understand the symptoms of NVLD and offers a few suggestions on how to help these students.

From Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) database

Something's not quite right about Johnny. He seems bright enough, but often his performance or behavior falls short of expectations. He can do some things very well, but in other ways is behind his peers. Is he simply lazy? Does he just need to try harder?

When the development or academic performance of a healthy child falls short of what is expected for his or her age and intelligence, parents or teachers may suspect the child has a learning disability (LD). Being aware of the signs of learning disabilities will help parents determine if the child should be referred for evaluation. This digest summarizes some of the common warning signs of learning disabilities for preschool, elementary, and secondary school children and youth.