About Learning Disabilities

The term, "Learning Disabilities," is a broad term that refers to a wide variety of significant difficulties with information processing, as manifested by interference with the acquisition, organization, storage, retrieval, or expression of information. These information processing limitations are intrinsic to the individual and are presumed to be neurologically based.

The diagnosis of LD in an adult requires documentation of at least average intellectual functioning along with a deficit in one or more of the following areas:

• Auditory processing
• Visual processing
• Information processing speed
• Abstract and general reasoning
• Spoken and written language skills
• Reading skills
• Mathematical skills
• Spatial skills
• Motor skills
• Executive functioning (planning ability)
• Memory (long-term, short-term, visual, and auditory)
• Oral expression
• Listening comprehension

A learning disability may occur with, but cannot be primarily the result of, a visual, hearing, or motor impairment; mental impairment; emotional disorders; or environmental, cultural, economic influences, or a history of insufficient/inappropriate education programming). A person with a learning disability is likely to have a combination of factors that may interfere with achieving one's full potential. Learning disabilities are lifelong conditions that, in some cases, affect many aspects of a person's life (e.g., school, work, daily routines, family life, and friendships). Some individuals may have a single learning problem that has little impact on other parts of their lives.

Selected resources for students with learning disabilities