Learning Disorders

A Response-to-Intervention Perspective

Peter Westwood

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138041813
• eBook ISBN: 9781351703178
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

What are learning disorders? How can schools endeavour to address these disorders in today's inclusive classrooms? This book answers these important questions in practical terms and discusses in detail the instructional needs of students with dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia and other significant disorders that affect learning. Peter Westwood draws on international research literature to provide supporting evidence of best practices.

The book is unique in linking the teaching methods recommended for overcoming learning problems directly to each of the three tiers of support in the Response-to-Intervention Model. It presents examples of effective whole-class teaching, intensive small group instruction and individual tutoring, as well as addressing key topics such as:

• educational progress of students with learning disorders;
• principles for teaching dyslexic students;
• difficulties with writing and spelling;
• developing students' numeracy skills;
• specific intervention strategies;
• nonverbal learning disabilities.

Learning Disorders will be of interest to practising teachers, trainee teachers, teaching assistants, educational psychologists, school counsellors and parents. It will also provide valuable insights for any school planning to upgrade its support system for students with special educational needs.

Chapter 1

Learning disabilities and disorders

Some students find learning in school difficult for a variety of different reasons. Most of these difficulties are not related to any disorder, disability, or impairment but are due to factors such as below-average intelligence, irregular attendance at school, frequent changes of school, poverty, lack of family support and resources, emotional problems, poor motivation, or inappropriate teaching methods. The common learning difficulties that arise are usually described as ‘general’ or ‘garden variety’ to differentiate them from specific learning disorders (SpLD). These general learning difficulties affect the progress of an estimated 16 per cent of students, and they cause poor achievement in most academic subjects in the school curriculum. These students, however, are not the main focus in this book; here, the focus is on the much smaller number of students with a specific learning disorder.

Specific learning disorders

Some students fail to achieve minimum standards in literacy and numeracy because they experience severe learning problems despite having normal intelligence and favourable environmental influences (Farrell, 2012; Reid, 2011). Some may have high ability in several areas and may even fall within the category of gifted and talented. Their difficulties in learning specifically affect their acquisition of fundamental skills in language, literacy, and numeracy.

Various reports of students’ achievement levels in different countries indicate that too many students are failing to reach the minimum standard in reading, writing, and basic mathematics (ACARA, 2016; Mullis et al., 2007; 2012). Within this group of failing students there are those (the minority) who do have a specific learning disorder – and they are the focus of this book.

Put as simply as possible, students with a specific learning disorder or specific learning disability experience severe and persistent learning difficulties for no obvious reason. They have unexpected problems learning to read, write, listen, speak, or doing mathematics (CPIR, 2015). The British Dyslexia Association (BDA, 2016) states that specific learning disorders affect the way information is processed, understood, and stored – and they are believed to have a neurological and genetic basis. The Australian Psychological Society (2016) states that no one can say definitely why some people experience these learning problems, and it is probable that there are multiple and varied causes. These students have been of interest to educators, psychologists, and the medical profession for almost 150 years, as described later in the section on the history of learning disabilities.

The specific learning disorders and disabilities to be discussed in this book include:

• severe reading difficulties (dyslexia)

• problems with handwriting and aspects of written expression (dysgraphia)

• spelling disability (dysorthographia)

• severe difficulties in learning basic mathematics (dyscalculia)

• difficulties with fine motor coordination (dyspraxia or developmental coordination disorder)

• acquired learning disorders resulting from traumatic brain injury.

General characteristics of learning disorders

A specific learning disorder affects how an otherwise perfectly normal individual processes, understands, and remembers information, and how easily he or she acquires new knowledge, skills, and strategies. Naturally, these disorders seriously affect many areas of learning in school and later at university.

A description provided by the Australian Psychological Society (2016) states:

The most common forms of learning disability are in reading and spelling, but they may also be found in other areas of functioning including spoken language and mathematics. Individuals can present with a specific difficulty in one or more areas and have average or above average performance in other areas.

(Australian Psychological Society, 2016, p.1)

Students with learning disorders usually experience most of their problems in school lessons in which reading comprehension, writing, or calculating are involved. It is a constant struggle for them to keep up with their classmates, and they often make very slow progress. They perform poorly day after day, and this failure naturally undermines their confidence. Unless they are unusually resilient, their constant failure destroys motivation and self-esteem. Over time, these students may develop what is termed learned helplessness, a state in which they see themselves as being incompetent and powerless to improve their situation (Yates, 2009). In some cases, they look for alternative ways of gaining kudos, for example, by exhibiting bad behaviour, becoming the ‘class clown’, avoiding assignments, or absenting themselves from class (RCP, 2016). Alternatively, they may become withdrawn and depressed. Some become the target of bullies in the schoolyard or online (Rose et al., 2015). Students with learning disorders obviously need to be identified as early as possible and provided with effective instruction and emotional support.

As stated earlier, a learning disorder may even be present within a student who is of high intellectual ability, and these individuals are now referred to as twice exceptional learners (Collins, 2016; Wormald, Rogers & Vialle, 2015). Some of these gifted students are quite adept at masking their learning problem in school by using compensatory strategies such as copying assignments or claiming to have lost notes or a textbook, and often they are not immediately identified by their teachers (van Viersen et al., 2016).

In addition to major problems acquiring literacy and numeracy skills, students with learning disorders may also have problems with oral language and with attentive listening (Snowling & Hulme, 2012). In class they are easily distracted, and they often fail to finish assignments and activities in the allotted time (or at all). In a few cases, their disorder may also involve poor coordination of gross and fine motor skills, resulting in general clumsiness. This problem is discussed fully in Chapter 6.

It is widely reported that many students with learning disorders also have difficulties developing social skills and competencies, which then affects their acceptance within the peer group (Swanson & Malone, 1992). All these problems are discussed in more detail in later chapters.

Classifications

The key reference used by psychologists and the medical profession is the Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM-5) (APA, 2013). This resource defines a wide range of conditions that can affect learning and development. Each successive edition of DSM, beginning in the 1950s, gradually adopted increasingly complex sets of symptoms and descriptors to classify learning disabilities into various sub-types. Eventually there were so many overlapping features across sub-types that accurate diagnosis and sub-typing became increasingly difficult. These complications in accurate sub-typing were the major reason why DSM-5 has now adopted a simpler approach to the classification of learning disorders.

The fifth edition of DSM now refers much more generally to learning disorders and classifies them simply by the performance area in which the problem is most obvious: for example, impairment in reading (DSM-5 code 315.0), impairment in written expression and accuracy (DSM-5 code 315.2), or impairment in mathematics (DSM-5 code 315.1). The degree of impairment is then reported as mild, moderate, or severe (Medina, 2014). Impairment in reading is recognized by inaccurate word recognition, slow rate of reading resulting in lack of fluency, and poor understanding of what is read. Impairment in written expression covers deficits in spelling, grammar, punctuation, clarity of expression, and organization of ideas. Impairment in mathematics includes deficient number sense, poor recall of arithmetic facts, inaccurate and slow calculation, and weak reasoning in problem solving.

In line with the DSM-5 attempt at simplification of classification, the other main reference used by professionals – the International classification of diseases (ICD-10) – refers now to ‘specific reading disorder’, ‘disorder of written expression’, ‘mathematics disorder’, ‘developmental disorder of scholastic skills’ and ‘specific developmental disorder of motor function’ (WHO, 2016).

In this book, the new terms from DSM-5 and ICD-10 will be used where appropriate. However, the common descriptors specific learning disability and specific learning difficulties, used for many years in schools and in research literature, will also be retained in most sections. They are familiar terms to teachers and are well understood. The classification specific learning disability is regarded in this book as synonymous with learning disorder.

Issues of terminology

Skues and Cunningham (2011) have pointed out that much confusion is still evident in policies, research papers, and in schools over the use of terms such as learning disability, learning difficulties, and learning disorders. The confusion is particularly evident in Australia, where there has been a long-standing reluctance at government level to adopt the terms learning disability or learning disorder to identify a particular sub-set of students with special needs (ACT Government, 2013). The preferred term in Australia is still learning difficulties – and this term includes all students who make poor progress in school regardless of their level of intelligence or the cause of their learning problem.

In some parts of the world, the terms specific learning disability and dyslexia are used interchangeably, as if the meaning is the same – but dyslexia is actually only one type of disability within a much broader group of learning disorders (Chan et al., 2008). Dyslexia is discussed fully in the next chapter, together with a summary of appropriate teaching and intervention methods.

In the UK it is unfortunate – and potentially very confusing – that the term learning disability (without the word specific) is now used to describe students with IQs below 70 who were previously referred to in that country as mentally handicapped or intellectually disabled. These individuals have a significant cognitive impairment affecting almost all areas of their learning and development. In particular, they have difficulty acquiring everyday living skills and functional independence. They naturally have major problems learning mainstream curriculum topics in school and often still attend special schools, even in this era of inclusive education. Students with intellectual disability are not a topic of attention in this book; but see Westwood (2009).

It should be noted that there is still disagreement among writers and researchers concerning the actual disabilities or conditions that should be included within the broad category of specific learning disorders. For example, in addition to the obvious reading, writing, and mathematics difficulties, some authorities wrongly include deafness, vision impairment, autism, Asperger syndrome, attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity, developmental delay, speech and language impairment, perceptual disabilities, and minimal brain dysfunction. This broad range is inappropriate, and simply obscures the precise nature of a specific learning disorder or disability. In the USA, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) (USDE, 2004) made it clear that the term specific learning disability does not include learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, intellectual disability, or emotional disturbance, or are due to environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.

In line with existing USA policy, DSM-5 defines a specific learning disorder as ‘a neuro-developmental problem of biological origin’. It is characterized by persistent learning difficulties in acquiring academic skills. DSM-5 stresses that the learning problems are not caused by intellectual disability, sensory impairment (hearing or vision), brain injury, emotional disturbance, or developmental disorders such as autism, and they are not the result of inadequate instruction, cultural factors, economic disadvantage, or limited English language proficiency (APA, 2013; Cortiella & Horowitz, 2014).

In this book, autism, Asperger syndrome, developmental delay, intellectual disability, and aphasia are not regarded as specific learning disabilities per se, and are not included here. However, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is discussed in Chapter 6 because many students with a specific learning disorder also have ADHD as an additional problem. Traumatic brain injury is also discussed in Chapter 6 as an example of an event that creates an acquired learning disorder.

Defining learning disorders and disabilities

Cottrell and Barrett (2016) suggest that when it comes to specific learning disorders, we often seem to be trying to define something that simply cannot be defined. However, over the years there have been significant advances in clarifying what these disorders are, and how to differentiate them from other types of learning and developmental problems.

In the USA the term learning disability has been favoured in official policy making and in research studies since the 1960s. It signifies a severe and unexpected problem in learning that occurs in intellectually normal students. The definition used for many years refers to specific learning disability, and this term appeared in the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, and later in the 1990 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) as amended in 2004.

The Act states that a learning disability is caused by:

a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations [20 USC. 1401:3; 1401: 30].

(USDE, 2004)

In seeking to clarify the various definitions of specific learning disabilities, Bradley et al. (2002) indicated that the central concepts in all definitions seem to be that (i) the learning problems are intrinsic to the individual, and (ii) are not the result of adverse outside influences such as poor teaching.

The difficulties are ‘specific’ in the sense that they affect a relatively narrow range of academic performances – particularly reading, writing, spelling, and mathematics. But of course, weakness in these areas also affects learning and achievement across the school curriculum. It is true that occasionally only one area of performance is affected (for example, spelling or mathematics), but it is more common to find that a given student with a learning disorder exhibits moderate to severe learning difficulties in literacy, mathematics and, in some cases, physical coordination. He or she may also have additional social, emotional, or developmental problems (Landerl & Moll, 2010).

Additional problems often accompanying a learning disorder

It is reported that at least 30 per cent of students with a learning disorder also have other significant problems such as attention deficits, hyperactivity, emotional issues, and speech or language abnormalities (AACAP, 2013; NCLD, 2014). It is also noted that states of anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem often accompany learning disorders (Mammarella et al., 2016; Raad, 2013). Older adolescents with learning difficulties are said to be somewhat more prone than other students to get into trouble with drugs and alcohol (Carroll, Houghton & Bourgeois, 2014). In other words, although the disorder is described as ‘specific’ in terms of curriculum subjects affected, for many students it is not specific to one narrow set of problems.

A significant number of students with literacy difficulties also have a more general problem with oral language and with ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• A note on the Response-to-Intervention Model
• 1. Learning disabilities and disorders
• 2. Dyslexia
• 3. Specific methods and interventions for reading
• 4. Learning disorders affecting writing and spelling
• 5. Learning disorders affecting mathematics
• 6. Developmental coordination disorder and other non-verbal learning difficulties
• References
• Index