After children are born, parents wait with great anticipation for them to achieve the developmental milestones. We celebrate every little thing: the first time they turn, when they can sit up by themselves, the moment they are able to pull themselves up, their first spoonful of solid food, their first step, their first word etc….

Watching our children hit these milestones are not only a delight in itself, it also assures us that our children are developing well. Which parent doesn’t say to themselves (and usually to others as well) “Oh look, my baby is so clever” whenever the child displays a new skill.

Parents carry that same anticipation as children grow and begin to learn to read, write and count. We take pride when our children can recite all the alphabets, advance from scribbling to printing recognizable shapes, match sounds to letters, count up to ten, learn their colours, read their first word or know all the days of the week.

But what happens when a child is a little late in demonstrating such intelligences? Naturally parents start to worry when they see their child lagging behind other children of the same age. It also can be very confusing On one hand, you are told that different children develop at different rates. You wonder if your child is just a late bloomer. You don’t want to look like an overly eager parent who is just blowing things out of proportion. On the other hand, if there really is a problem, you don’t want to wait too long before getting help. What do you do? How do you know if your child really has a learning disability?

The information below is taken from the ERIC EC Digest #E603:

Learning disabilities are presumed to arise from dysfunctions in the brain. Individuals with learning disabilities have significant difficulties in perceiving information (input), in processing and remembering information (integration) and/or in expressing information (output). Outward manifestations of any of these difficulties serve as indicators—or warning signs—of a learning disability.

Warning Signs in Preschool Children

Although children’s growth patterns vary among individuals and within individuals, uneven development or significant delays in development can signal the presence of LD. It is important to keep in mind that the behaviors listed below must persist over time to be considered warning signs. Any child may occasionally exhibit one or two of these behaviors in the course of normal development.

Language

  • Slow development in speaking words or sentences
  • Pronunciation problems
  • Difficulty learning new words
  • Difficulty following simple directions
  • Difficulty understanding questions
  • Difficulty expressing wants and desires
  • Difficulty rhyming words
  • Lack of interest in story telling

Motor Skills

  • Clumsiness
  • Poor balance
  • Difficulty manipulating small objects
  • Awkwardness with running, jumping, or climbing
  • Trouble learning to tie shoes, button shirts, or perform other self-help activities
  • Avoidance of drawing or tracing

Cognition

  • Trouble memorizing the alphabet or days of the week
  • Poor memory for what should be routine (everyday) procedures
  • Difficulty with cause and effect, sequencing, and counting
  • Difficulty with basic concepts such as size, shape, color

Attention

  • High distractibility
  • Impulsive behavior
  • Unusual restlessness (hyperactivity)
  • Difficulty staying on task
  • Difficulty changing activities
  • Constant repetition of an idea, inability to move on to a new idea (perseveration)

Social Behavior

  • Trouble interacting with others, playing alone
  • Prone to sudden and extreme mood changes
  • Easily frustrated
  • Hard to manage, has temper tantrums

Warning Signs in Elementary School Children

It is during the elementary school years that learning problems frequently become apparent as disabilities interfere with increasingly demanding and complex learning tasks. Difficulties in learning academic subjects and emotional and/or social skills may become a problem. Warning signs for this age group may include any of those listed above for preschool children in addition to the following.

Language/Mathematics

  • Slow learning of the correspondence of sound to letter.
  • Consistent errors in reading or spelling
  • Difficulty remembering basic sight words
  • Inability to retell a story in sequence
  • Trouble learning to tell time or count money
  • Confusion of math signs (+, -, x, /, =)
  • Transposition of number sequences
  • Trouble memorizing math facts
  • Trouble with place value
  • Difficulty remembering the steps of mathematic operations such as long division

Motor Skills

  • Poor coordination, or awkwardness
  • Difficulty copying from chalkboard
  • Difficulty aligning columns (math)
  • Poor handwriting

Attention/Organization

  • Difficulty concentrating or focusing on a task
  • Difficulty finishing work on time
  • Inability to follow multiple directions
  • Unusual sloppiness, carelessness
  • Poor concept of direction (left, right)
  • Rejection of new concepts, or changes in routine

Social Behavior

  • Difficulty understanding facial expressions or gestures
  • Difficulty understanding social situations
  • Tendency to misinterpret behavior of peers and/or adults
  • Apparent lack of “common sense”

Warning Signs in Secondary School Children

Some learning disabilities go undetected until secondary school. Physical changes occurring during adolescence and the increased demands of middle and senior high school may bring the disabilities to light. Previously satisfactory performance declines. Inappropriate social skills may lead to changes in peer relationships and discipline problems. Increased frustration and poor self-concepts can lead to depression and/or angry outbursts. Warning signs of learning disabilities in secondary school students include the following, which again, should occur as a pattern of behaviors, to a significant degree, and over time.

Language/Mathematics/Social Studies

  • Avoidance of reading and writing
  • Tendency to misread information
  • Difficulty summarizing
  • Poor reading comprehension
  • Difficulty understanding subject area textbooks
  • Trouble with open-ended questions
  • Continued poor spelling
  • Poor grasp of abstract concepts
  • Poor skills in writing essays
  • Difficulty in learning foreign language
  • Poor ability to apply math skills

Attention/Organization

  • Difficulty staying organized
  • Trouble with test formats such as multiple choice
  • Slow work pace in class and in testing situations
  • Poor note taking skills
  • Poor ability to proofread or double check work

Social Behavior

  • Difficulty accepting criticism
  • Difficulty seeking or giving feedback
  • Problems negotiating or advocating for oneself
  • Difficulty resisting peer pressure
  • Difficulty understanding another person’s perspectives

It is important to note that children with a learning disability are not low in IQ. Overall the children are intelligent but their development and achievements fall short of expectations. Many parents pass it off as the child being lazy. This is indeed unfortunate. If you suspect that your child may have a learning disability, do something about it. Approach the school your child is attending or make an appointment with learning disabilities specialist or child psychologist. Early intervention can help your child overcome the learning disability. You can take hope in a recent National Institutes of Health study which involved young students identified as being at risk for reading difficulties. Early intervention helped 67% of those students achieve average or above average reading ability.