What is a Learning Disability?
Learning Disability is a lay term (not a diagnostic term) that refers to significant problems in mastering one or more of the following skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning, and mathematics.
What is a Communication Disorder?
Communication Disorder is a diagnostic term that refers to deficits in language, speech, and communication. Communication disorders include the following diagnostic categories:
1. Language disorder (problems using language to communicate, such as spoken words or sign language, or understanding what other people say)
2. Speech sound disorder (deficits in productive speech sounds).
3. Childhood-onset fluency disorder (problems in speech fluency, such as stuttering).
4. Social (pragmatic) communication disorder.
Features of Language Development.
What is a Specific Learning Disorder?
Specific Learning Disorder is a diagnostic term that refers to specific problems in learning and using academic skills.
1. Specific learning disorder is determined by achievement test results that are substantially below what is expected for the child’s age, schooling, and intellectual ability.
2. People with learning disabilities have normal intellectual processes in most areas but are relatively weaker in others, which is known as having an unexpected discrepancy between measured ability and actual performance.
What is Phonological Awareness?
Phonological Awareness is a broad construct that includes recognizing the relationship between sounds and letters, detecting rhyme and alliteration, and being aware that sounds can be manipulated within syllables in words.
What is Phonology?
Phonology is the ability to learn and store phonemes as well as the rules for combining the sounds into meaningful units or words.
Features of Phonological Awareness.
Features of Communication Disorders.
What is a Language Disorder?
Language Disorder is a communication disorder characterized by difficulties in the comprehension or production of spoken or written language.
Features of Language Disorder.
The DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for Language Disorder.
A. Persistent difficulties in the acquisition and use of language across modalities (i.e., spoken, written, sign language, or other) due to deficits in comprehension or production that include the following:
1. Reduced vocabulary (word knowledge and use).
2.Limited sentence structure (ability to put words and word endings together to form sentences.
3.Impairments in discourse (ability to use vocabulary and connect sentences to explain or describe a topic or series of events or have a conversation).
B. Language abilities are substantially and quantifiably below those expected for age, resulting in functional limitations in effective communication, social participation, academic achievement, or occupational performance, individually or in any combination.
C. Onset of symptoms is in the early developmental period.
D. The difficulties are not attributable to hearing or other sensory impairment, motor dysfunction, or another medical or neurological condition and are not better explained by intellectual disability (intellectual developmental disorder) or global developmental delay.
Treatment of Language Disorders
What is Childhood-Onset Fluency Disorder (Stuttering)?
Childhood-Onset Fluency Disorder (Stuttering) is the repeated and prolonged pronunciation of certain syllables that interferes with communication.
Features of Childhood-Onset Fluency Disorder (Stuttering).
THE DSM-5 Diagnostic Criteria For Childhood-Onset Fluency Disorder.
A. Disturbances in the normal fluency and time of patterning of speech that are inappropriate for the individual’s age and language skills, persist over time, and are characterized by frequent and marked occurrences of one (or more) or the following:
1. Sound and syllable repetitions.
2. Sound prolongations of consonants as well as words.
3. Broken words (e.g., pauses within a word).
4. Audible or silent blocking (filled or unfilled pauses in speech).
5. Circumlocutions (word substitutions to avoid problematic words).
6. Words produced with an excess of physical tension.
7. Monosyllabic whole-word repetitions (e.g., “I-I-I-I” see him).
B. The disturbance causes anxiety about speaking or limitations in effective communication, social participation, or academic or occupational performance, individually or in any combination.
C. The onset of symptoms is in the early developmental period (Note: Later-onset cases are diagnosed as adult-onset fluency disorder).
D. The disturbance is not attributable to a speech-motor or sensory deficit, dysfluency associated with neurological insult (e.g., stroke, tumor, trauma), or another medical concern and is not better explained by another mental disorder.
What is Pragmatics?
Pragmatics are culturally specific practices and skills related to social uses of language, conversational norms, and the use of nonverbal communication, such as eye contact and gestures.
Features of Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder (SCD).
THE DSM-5 Diagnostic Criteria For Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder.
A. Persistent difficulties in the social use of verbal and nonverbal communication as manifested by all of the following:
1. Deficits in using communication for social purposes, such as greeting and sharing information, in a manner that is appropriate for the social context.
2. Impairment of the ability to change communication to match context or the needs of the listener, such as speaking differently in a classroom than on a playground, talking differently to a child than to an adult, and avoiding use of overly formal language.
3. Difficulties following rules for language and storytelling, such as taking turns in conversation, rephrasing when misunderstood, and knowing how to use verbal and nonverbal signals to regulate interaction.
4. Difficulties understanding what is not explicitly stated (e.g., making inferences) and nonliteral or ambiguous meanings of language (e.g., idioms, humor, metaphors, multiple meanings that depend on the context for interpretation).
B. The deficits result in functional limitations in effective communication, social participation, social relationships, academic achievement, or occupational performance, individually or in combination.
C. The onset of the symptoms is early in the developmental period (but deficits may not become fully manifest until social communication demands exceed limited capacities).
D. The symptoms are not attributable to another medical or neurological condition or to low abilities in the domains of word structure and grammar, and are not better explained by autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disability (intellectual developmental disorder), global developmental delay, or another mental disorder.
What is Specific Learning Disorder (SLD)?
Features of Specific Learning Disorder (SLD).
THE DSM-5 Diagnostic Criteria For Specific Learning Disorder.
A. Difficulties learning and using academic skills, as indicated by the presence of at least one of the following symptoms that have persisted for at least 6 months, despite the provision of interventions that target those difficulties:
1. Inaccurate or slow and effortful word reading (e.g., reads single words aloud incorrectly or slowly and hesitantly, frequently guesses words, has difficulty sounding out words).
2. Difficulty understanding the meaning of what is read (e.g., may read text accurately but not understand sequence, relationships, inferences, or deeper meanings of what is read).
3. Difficulties with spelling (e.g., may add, omit, or substitute vowels or consonants).
4. Difficulties with written expression (e.g., makes multiple grammatical or punctuation errors within sentences; employs poor paragraph organization; written expression of ideas lacks clarity).
5. Difficulties mastering number sense, number facts, or calculation (e.g., has poor understanding of numbers, their magnitude, and relationships; counts on fingers to add single-digit numbers instead of recalling the math fact as peers do; gets lost in the midst of arithmetic computation and may switch procedures).
6. Difficulties with mathematical reasoning (e.g., has severe difficulty applying mathematical concepts, facts, or procedures to solve quantitative problems).
B. The affected academic skills are substantially and quantifiably below those expected for the individual’s chronological age, and cause significant interference with academic or occupational performance, or with activities of daily living, as confirmed by individually administered standardized achievement measures and comprehensive clinical assessment. For individuals aged 17 years and older, a documented history of impairing learning difficulties may be substituted for the standardized assessment.
C. The learning difficulties begin during school-age years but may not become fully manifest until the demands of those affected academic skills exceed the individual’s limited capacities (e.g., as in timed tests, reading or writing lengthy complex reports for a tight deadline, excessively heavy academic loads).
D. The learning difficulties are not better accounted for by intellectual disabilities, uncorrected visual or auditory acuity, other mental or neurological disorders, psychosocial adversity, lack of proficiency in the language of academic instruction, or inadequate educational instruction.
Specifiers for Specific Learning Disorder.
Specify if:
1. With impairment in reading: Word reading accuracy, Reading rate or fluency, Reading comprehension.
2. With impairment in written expression: Spelling accuracy, Grammar and punctuation accuracy, Clarity or organization of written expression
3. With impairment in mathematics: Number sense, Memorization of arithmetic facts. Accurate or fluent calculation. Accurate math reasoning
Specify current severity:
1. Mild: Some difficulties learning skills in one or two academic domains, but the individual may be able to function well when provided with appropriate accommodations or support services.
2. Moderate: Marked difficulties learning skills in one or more academic domains, so that the individual is unlikely to become proficient without some intervals of intensive and specialized teaching.
3. Severe: Severe difficulties learning skills, affecting several academic domains, so that the individual is unlikely to learn these skills.
Specific Learning Disorder with Impairment in Reading.
Specific Learning Disorder with Impairment in Written Expression.