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short animated explanation of what learning disabilities are, and how they can be dealt with.

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Dyslexia Explained: What's It Like Being Dyslexic?

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Famous People with Learning Disabilities

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Famous People with Learning Disabilities

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Famous People with Learning Disabilities

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We Are People With Learning Disabilities

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We Are People With Learning Disabilities

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National Center for Learning Disabilities

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We are People with Learning Difficulties - The Gang

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A group of people with special needs have joined together to RECORD two beautiful songs with powerful messages. The group is based at St. Helens. People's Choice an independent self advocacy group run for and by people with learning disabilities. They empower people to have their own say about the things that are important to them.

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What is it like to have a learning disability? Here's a Learning Disability Simulation to see if you pass. The results may surprise you.

Look at the picture below. Who do you see? Now walk back from your computer about 15 feet or so.

Now who do you see? This hybrid image was created in 2007 by Dr. Aude Oliva of MIT.

If you saw Albert Einstein up close and Marilyn Monroe when you stepped back 15 feet, congratulations! You now know what it's like to have a learning disability.

This visual cognition experiment acts as a learning disability simulation and illustrates what many kids with learning disabilities endure in school.

The teacher at the front of the classroom either writes something on the board, shows a slide on a monitor or simply lectures to the class. Pretty standard stuff that happens every day in schools across the country. And for most students, what is shown or said at the front of the class is exactly what they see or hear.

But for children with learning disabilities, the information that makes it across the room to their eyes and ears becomes scrambled in various ways depending on their disability, and is perceived as something completely different than the intended message. The teacher is lecturing about Albert Einstein but the learning disabled child sees Marilyn Monroe.

These children are not dumb. They just have problems receiving all of the information as it is presented. Or sometimes they receive too much information. As I said, it all depends on the disability.

By recognizing how children can have difficulties learning through this learning disability simulation, we can better understand the need to find the right tools and programs to help them.

In my opinion, the absolute master of teaching people what it's like to have learning disabilities is Richard Lavoie. His video, " How Difficult Can This Be? The F.A.T. City Workshop: Understanding Learning Disabilities " is the best video on the subject ever produced.

If you haven't seen the video, and are a parent or teacher of children with learning disabilities, buy it! It's worth every penny and you will show it to everybody you know that has a child that struggles in school.

Buy The F.A.T. City Workshop here.

More information about the Marylin Einstein hybrid image on this page can be found here.

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What is it like to have a learning disability? Here's a Learning Disability Simulation to see if you pass. The results may surprise you. Look at the picture below. Who do you see? Now walk back from your computer about 15 feet or so. Now who do you see?

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Article

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What is a learning disability?
-A learning disability is a neurological disorder.
-A Learning disability affects the brain's ability to receive, process, store, respond to, and communicate information.
-LDs are actually a group of disorders, not a single disorder.
-A Learning disability is any one of a heterogeneous set of learning problems that can affect the acquisition and the use of listening, speaking, writing, reading, mathematical and reasoning skills.
-Learning disabilities are common, affecting between 4% to 6% of school age children.

What causes a learning disability?
--The exact cause of a learning disability is unknown. However it is thought it could be caused by heredity, problems during pregnancy and/or birth, and incidents after birth.
Heredity factors:
--Thought to be caused by family environment

Problems during pregnancy and delivery:
--Umbilical cord being wrapped around the neck cutting off oxygen
--Mother's immune system attacking the fetus as if it were an infection
--Mother smoking can cause low birth weight which is linked to learning disabilities
--Mother's alcohol consumptions mutates developing neurons
--Mother's drug consumption can cause problems in neuron receptors

Incidents after birth
--Serious illness
--Head injuries
--Poor nutrition
--Exposure to toxins can affect the growth of new brain cells and neurons

Signs that may indicate a learning disability

Speaks later than most children

Pronunciation problems

Slow vocabulary growth, often unable to find the right word

Difficulty rhyming words

Trouble learning numbers, alphabet, days of the week, colors, shapes

Extremely restless and easily distracted

Trouble interacting with peers

Difficulty following directions or routines

Fine motor skills slow to develop

--Grades K-4

Slow to learn the connection between letters and sounds

Makes consistent reading and spelling errors including letter reversals (b/d), inversions (m/w), transpositions (felt/left), and substitutions (house/home)

Transposes number sequences and confuses arithmetic signs (+, -, x, /, =)

Slow to remember facts

Slow to learn new skills, relies heavily on memorization

Impulsive, difficulty planning

Unstable pencil grip

Trouble learning about time

Poor coordination, unaware of physical surroundings, prone to accidents

--Grades 5-8

Reverses letter sequences (soiled/solid, left/felt)

Slow to learn prefixes, suffixes, root words, and other spelling strategies

Avoids reading aloud

Trouble with word problems

Difficulty with handwriting

Awkward, fist-like, or tight pencil grip

Avoids writing assignments

Slow or poor recall of facts

Difficulty making friends

Trouble understanding body language and facial expressions

--High School Students and Adults

Continues to spell incorrectly, frequently spells the same word differently in a single piece of writing

Avoids reading and writing tasks

Trouble summarizing

Trouble with open-ended questions on tests

Weak memory skills

Difficulty adjusting to new settings

Works slowly

Poor grasp of abstract concepts

Either pays too little attention to details or focuses on them too much

Misreads information

Types of Learning disabilities
--Spoken language-listening and speaking
--Written language-reading, writing, and spelling
--Arithmetic-calculation and concepts
--Reasoning-organization and integration of ideas and thoughts
Signs that do not indicate a learning disability:

Although the following may contribute to an already present disability, or facilitate a new difficulty, they are not the cause of a learning disability.

A learning disability does not include problems that result primarily from mental retardation, or emotional disturbance

A learning disability does not include problems primarily due to auditory, visual or motor disabilities

A learning disability does not include problems that result from economic, cultural or environmental difficulties

Resources:
http://www.ldonline.org/ldbasics/signs
http://www.ncld.org/types-learning-disabilities/what-is-ld/what-are-learning-disabilities
http://www.ldav.ca/brain_development.shtml

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What is a learning disability? -A learning disability is a neurological disorder. -A Learning disability affects the brain's ability to receive, process, store, respond to, and communicate information. -LDs are actually a group of disorders, not a single disorder.

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WHAT ARE LEARNING DISABILITIES? LDs affect how a person processes information taken in through the senses. LDs specifically refer to a group of disorders that affect a person's ability to obtain, remember, recall, understand, organize or use information that is presented to them. WHAT ARE THE TYPES OF LEARNING DISABILITIES?