Learning to Learn Differently

Helping Your LD Child to Excel

By Ruth Brister

What do Albert Einstein, Agatha Christie, George Patton, Charles Schwab and Robin Williams all have in common? Each was plagued by one of the most common – and misunderstood – childhood ailments: a learning disability.

What is a learning disability (LD)? The term describes a neurological disorder that impedes a person's ability to receive, store, process and/or produce information, which affects reading, writing, spelling, computation, organizational skills, coordination and/or attention span.

Traits children with a learning disability may have include unpredictable or uneven test performance, perceptual impairments, motor problems and behaviors such as impulsiveness and difficulty in social situations.

Mary Cathryn Haller, educator and author of Learning Disabilities 101: A Primer for Parents (Rainbow Books, 1999), wrote a book based on her experiences with her own learning disabled child. Haller understands why so many parents feel they are to blame for not being able to "see" the problem. "LD is sometimes referred to as the 'invisible' disability mainly because children with LD look and act intelligent and have no obvious physical handicaps. The difference lies in the fact that they process information differently from those children without LD," Haller says.

Several early clues indicate the presence of LD. In preschool children, the failure to use language in communication by age 3 or inadequate motor skills (buttoning, tying, climbing) may herald a problem. In school-age children, failure to learn grade-appropriate skills is an indicator, as are the specific traits listed below:

• Age-inappropriate hyperactivity, impulsivity, distractibility, inattention, short attention spans
• Difficulty with short- and long-term memory


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