What are Language Learning Differences?
Language learning differences (also know as Specific Language Disability, SLD, or Dyslexia) is a syndrome of characteristics that results in processing difficulties due to a lack of integration between the three major learning pathways.
The three major learning pathways are:
- Visual - where the initial stimulus travels through the eye to the brain
- Auditory - where the initial stimulus travels through the ear to the brain
- Kinesthetic - the memory of sequential movement necessary to form words in speech or letters for writing
Characteristics of SLD:
- Reversals, transpositions and omissions in reading, spelling and/or speech
- A delay in learning to talk
- Difficulty recalling words
- Directional confusion in time and space
- Labored or illegible handwriting
- Poor organizational skills
- Difficulty retrieving math facts and solving word problems
- Distorted ability to perceive, retain and recall language symbols
- Poor word recall and decoding skills
- Reading comprehension lost during struggle to recognize words
- Meager writing vocabulary
- Images for individual letters and letter sequencing cannot be recalled accurately
- Difficulty expressing self (talks a lot but can’t make a point)
- Poor left to right orientation
- Easily distracted by other children or activities in the classroom
- Apt to omit one or two steps in multiple directions
- Frequently says, "But I thought you said…"
- Difficulty listening to what is being said and doing something else at the same time
Individuals with SLD are not mentally deficient or emotionally disturbed, nor do they have learning disabilities per se. Their difficulties are specific to language skills and are in no way global in nature. Children with SLD are responsive to multisensory instruction taught by trained teachers. Their rate of learning depends upon the degree of disability, when instruction begins, native intelligence, and the skill of the teacher. (Beth H. Slingerland)
Facts about people with SLD (Dyslexia):
- One in every five persons is dyslexic.
- Dyslexic individuals have average to superior intelligence and are divergent thinkers.
- While dyslexia does not 'go away," it can successfully be managed by mastering effective lifelong learning strategies.
Research shows that early intervention is the key to successful academic remediation; AND the earlier the intervention, the less a child experiences failure and loss of self-esteem.
- Many individuals with learning differences have gifted the world at key points in history, including Winston Churchill, Thomas Edison, and Albert Einstein.
- Individuals with learning differences "think outside the box' (Sally Shaywitz, Yale University) and come up with new approaches to old problems, including Charles Schwab and Paul Orfalea (founder of Kinko's).
- Some of our most gifted artists and athletes have learning disabilities, including Whoopi Goldberg, Jay Leno, Cher, John Irving, and Bruce Jenner.
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