What is a Learning Disability?

1. What is a Learning Disability? • Your brain processes information differently than most students • Certain information gets stuck or lost while traveling through your brain • Having a Learning Disability causes a discrepancy (difference) between your ability (what you have the potential to do) and your achievement (what you actual have done).

2. Important Vocabulary • Overwhelmed – feeling like you have so much to do that you can’t get it started. • Disorder – something that doesn’t work quiet well. • Processing – how your brain uses information. • Discrepancy – a difference between two things. • Ability – what you are able to do.

3. Important Vocabulary cont’d • Achievement – what you have already done • Storage – putting something away for safe keeping. • Retrieval – getting something out of storage. • Basic Reading – soundingout words. • Reading Comprehension - understanding what you read.

4. Important Vocabulary cont’d • Math Calculation – solving basic number problems • Math Reasoning – solving story problems or real - life situations. • Written Expression – giving information in writing. • Oral Expression – giving information by talking.

5. Important Vocabulary cont’d • Listening Comprehension – understanding what you hear. • Compensate – using a strength to make up for a weakness. • Interfere – get in the way.

6. A Learning Disability Makes you feel… • Overwhelmed by schoolwork • You just can’t seem to get assignments done on time. • It’s hard and sometimes scary to begin big projects. But worst of all……. Sometimes a learning disability just makes you feel DUMB

7. It’s kind of like a baseball player who has the abilityto hit home runs but is given a broken bat to use. He doesn’t have the chance to prove how great he really is.

8. An LD Student Often… • has trouble proving how smart he of she is.

9. Information Processing means the way your brain… • Takesin information • Uses information • Stores information in memory • Retrieves the information from memory, and • Expresses information (written, oral, etc.)

10. Learning disabled students struggle with certain kinds of learning because their brain have difficulty “processing” certain kinds of information. It’s like when you go on a car trip and get stuck in road construction. It takes you a lot longer to get where you are going. It’s the same with information going through your brain.

11. Information gets “boggeddown” in certain areas of the LD brain. When information gets “bogged down”, it is much more difficult to learn. Different kinds of information travel through different parts of the brain. That’s why some information is learned quickly and easily while other information is much more difficult.

12. A Learning Disability can affect… • Basic Reading • Reading Comprehension • Math Calculation • Math Reasoning • Written Expression • Oral Expression • Listening Comprehension

13. Why do I get “Special Education” help? • Each state has rulesabout who can receive special education services. • Because these services are very expensive you have to qualify according to the rules of the state. • To qualify, you have to prove that your LD is caused by the way your brain processes information. • You also have to prove that your processing difficulty causes a “severediscrepancy between what you should be able to learn and how much you have learned. This is done through special testing.

14. Are all LD students alike????? “NO” • Many LD students experience very similar processing and learning difficulties. • All LD students get frustrated in school.

15. Will I ever get over my LD??? • A true LD never goes away. • With understanding and effort you can learn to use your many strengths to compensate for your weaker processing skills. • You may also be able to strengthen your weak processing skills so that your LD is not as severe. • Many LD people are highly creative and gifted in many ways. • Even many famous and very successful people have LD.

16. Is a LD the same as Dyslexia??? • Dyslexia is simply a fancy word for a LD that involve reading. • Other similar terms include: • Dysgraphia - writing disability • Dyscalcula - math disability

17. Summary… • A LD involves how your brain processes information, not how smart you are. • A LD causes a discrepancy between your ability and your achievement, so you can’t always show how smart you are in school. • A LD lasts your wholelife.

18. Cher - Dyslexia Winston Churchill - LD Tom Cruise - Dsylexia Albert Einstein - LD Whoopi Goldberg - Dyslexia Thomas Edison - Dyslexia Bruce Jenner - Dyslexia Magic Johnson - ADHD Pablo Picasso - Dyslexia Jay Leno - Dyslexia Orlando Bloom - LD Walt Disney – LD Robin William - ADHD Many famous and highly successful people have LD including:

19. What can you learn from them??? • These people didn’t let their LD get in the way of their dreams. YOU SHOULDN’T EITHER!!!! What can you learn from them? ___________ __________________________________ __________________________________ __________________________________

20. Review Questions • What are the 2 main parts of a LD? • What does “processing” mean? • What does “discrepancy between ability and achievement” mean? • True or False – A “processing disability” is a like a fast car that is “stuck” in traffic”? Explain • True or False – All LD students are alike? Explain • True or False – All LD students get frustrated by their learning problems? Explain • Does your LD ever go away completely? Why or why not. • Can your LD improve? Why or why not. • True or False – You can’t really be successful if you have a LD? Explain • List 5 new things you learned about yourself through this exercise.