Learning

Disabilities
Taylor Aloisio, Patty Wright, &
Michaela Carnesi
DEFINITIONS
LEARNING DISABILITY: a disorder in one or more basic psychological processes that may
manifest itself as an imperfect ability in certain areas of learning, such as reading, written
expression, or mathematics

Common Learning Disabilities:

DYSLEXIA: is a learning disorder that involves difficulty reading due to problems identifying
speech sounds and learning how they relate to letters and words (decoding)

DYSCALCULIA: is a math learning disability that impairs an individual's ability to learn

number-related concepts, perform accurate math calculations, reason and problem solve,
and perform other basic math skills.

DYSGRAPHIA: is a learning disability that affects writing abilities.

Workshop
Activity
In your breakout room,
discuss with your group
how your life would be
different if you had a
learning disability. What
would be different? How
would everyday tasks be
different?
Prevalence of Learning Disabilities
Lifetime prevalence of LD’s in U.S. children- 9.7% = 2.7 Million children in the U.S.
Characteristics of Learning Disabilities

Most frequent characteristics:

- Short attention span

- Poor memory
- Difficulty following directions
- Poor reading/writing ability
- Eye-hand coordination problems
- Difficulties with sequencing
- Inability to discriminate between letters
Characteristics of Learning Disabilities

Most frequent characteristics:

- Problems with math, gross motor, speech, language processing

- Emotional/behavioral problems
- Social problems
- Executive functioning problems

Executive Functioning: a set of mental skills that involve working memory, flexible
thinking, and self control. Trouble with executive functioning can make it hard to
focus, follow directions, and hard to handle emotions.
Characteristics of Learning
Disabilities
Less frequent characteristics:
- Performs differently from day to day
- Responds inappropriately in many instances
- Distractible, impulsive
- Says one thing, means another
- Difficult to discipline
- Doesn’t adjust well to change
- Difficulty listening and remembering
 Workshop
Activity
Each breakout room will be assigned a
parent account to read. When reading, put
yourself into the parent’s shoes and reflect
on how having a child with a learning
disability would change your everyday life.
http://www.ldonline.org/firstperson
 Assessment- SBST Multidisciplinary Team

Core Members: Other Members (as needed):

- Intervention Specialist
- Psychologist (Chairperson)
- Behavior Specialist
- Principal or Designee
- Reading Teacher
- Parents
- General Education Teacher
- Special Education Teacher
- Social Worker - Speech Therapist/ OT/PT
- Referring Teacher - ESL Teacher
- Instructional Coach (CIC, Instructional
Dean)
- School Counselor
Assessment
Step 1: Initial screening to determine if the student would benefit from more
educational support

Step 2: A more in-depth evaluation to determine if the student has a specific learning
disability

Tools:

Behavior Rating Scale: is a tool that can be used to quantitatively measure behavior. The BRS
is created for each individual student by a collaborative team to assess specific behaviors. As a
quantitative tool, the BRS allows the observer to rank student behaviors in terms of intensity,
frequency, or duration, depending on what the education team decides to measure

Connor Scale: performed by forms given to teachers, parents, and a self-report done by the child
being assessed
Etiology (Causation)
Genetic:

Family history and genetics

- A family history of learning disability increases the chance of passing on a

learning disability
- Gender

Acquired:

Prenatal and Neonatal risks

- Poor growth in the uterus, exposure to alcohol while in utero, premature

birth, and low birth weight
Etiology (Causation)
Biochemical/Neurological:

Psychological trauma

- Trauma/abuse during childhood may affect brain development

Physical trauma

- Head/ nervous system injuries

Environmental:

Environmental exposure

- Exposure to high levels of toxins (ex: lead, automotive exhaust,

Methylmercury, PCB’s, Pesticides)
 Placement (Continuum)
● Many options!
○ Inclusive general education classroom
○ Self-contained special education classroom
○ Resource room
○ Separate special education schools (District 75)
○ Residential treatment facilities
○ Hospital
○ Detention facilities
○ Homebound tutoring
■ All of these options are open to students under the
cascade of services
Placement (Continuum) -
(continued)
● Determined upon individual needs - placement is
contingent upon the LER (case by case
decisions)
● Four Part Assessment to Determine Placement:
○ Developmental history
○ Cognitive assessment
○ Academic achievement
○ Behavior, social and emotional functioning
Related Services
● Occupational therapy

● Speech therapy

● Counseling

● Reading specialists (push-in and pull-out)

Accomodations
Setting
● Work or take a test in a
different setting, quieter
with less distractions
● Preferential seating
● Small groups
● Special lighting &
acoustics
Presentation
● Large print
● Anchor charts & graphic
organizers
● Audiobooks, movies,
videos, digital media
● Orally giving assignments
● Record lesson rather than
taking notes
Accomodations
Responses
● Give responses in preferred format
(i.e. written or orally)
● Dictate to a scribe
● Audio recorder
● Calculator or table
● Word processors
Timing
● Extra time on assessments
● Take frequent breaks during
assignments
● Extra time to process spoken words
or directions
Accomodations
Organization

● Mark texts with a highlighter

● Use a planner or organizer
● Keep reminders and/or checklists on desk
● Use an alarm to help with time management
 Modifications
● Write papers with scaffolds and prompts
● Answer scaffolded and prompt test questions
● Complete scaffolded and prompted homework
problems/questions
● Create alternate projects or assignments
● Get graded or assessed using different standards than
other students
● Learn different material (such as continuing to work on
multiplication while other students work on fractions)
 Materials/Equipment
● Spell checking software
● Calculator
● Podcasts
○ Teachers can create podcasts for students to listen to (for auditory learners)
○ Students can create podcasts as assessments
● Clearly labeled classroom items (English and native language of students if necessary
● Audiobooks
● Headphones
● Graphic organizers
● Technology
Assisted Technology
● Any device, piece of equipment or system that helps bypass, work
around, or compensate for an individual’s specific learning deficits.
● Some examples of assisted technology are:
○ Audio books (Listening Problems)
○ Personal FM listening systems (Listening Problems)
○ Talking calculator (Math Problems)
○ Electronic math worksheets (Math Problems)
Assisted Technology (cont.)
○ Graphic organizers (Organization and Memory Problems)
○ Outlines (Organization and Memory Problems)
○ Information/data managers (Organization and Memory
Problems)
○ Speech synthesizers/screen readers (Reading
Problems)
○ Portable word processors (Writing Problems)
○ Proofreading programs (Writing Problems)
○ Word prediction programs (Writing Problems)
Assisted
Technology
 Workshop
Activity
Discuss what do
you notice about
the curriculum for
this LD student
in breakout groups
Group 1: What do you notice about the
curriculum?
Group 1
Jason A student who is in the fifth grade. He recently participated in a
science lesson regarding the concept of Learned traits versus Inherited traits.
Jason first created a “foldable” T-Chart that had the words “Learned” on the
left side and “Inherited” on the right side. He then, with his 5th grade peers,
reviewed/named and colored 12 illustrations on a sheet of paper. Next he and
the others cut each illustration out and glued the illustration on the
appropriate side of the T-Chart (learned/inherited). Last he checked his
answers with his table group.
Group 2: What do you notice about the
curriculum?
Group 2
Elisabeth A 3rd grade student who was a “star” in the third grade language
arts class performance of “ Princess Pigtoria and the Pea.” She was the
princess. The activity was based on the third grade learning standards that
addressed how students will be able to recount stories, including fables,
folktales, and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central message,
lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the
text.
Group 3: What do you notice about the
curriculum?
Group 3
Norman an eighth grade student in a general education English class.
Recently, the teacher directed students to the class website where they
would access a reading and complete a worksheet based upon the reading.
The class used a set of Chromebooks. Norman moved to a table at the back
of the room, found the reading online and plugged in a set of earbuds. Using a
text to speech application he “read” the text and completed the assignment
in the same time as everyone else in the class.
Discussion
What did you notice about
the curriculum?

Is it different from general

education?
 Take away points for LD
curriculum
● Scaffold learning…build supports then gradually fade where possible.
● Adapt text so that students can access the grade level materials.
● Apply a wide variety of vocabulary strategies.
● Modify the learner outcomes through a strategic approach.
● Plan lessons that are aligned with the general curriculum standards yet
adjusted for the learner.
Universal Design for Learning
● Universal Design for Learning: helps to encompass learning models,
methods, and products to enhance the educational experience of all
types of learners.
○ Recognition: The what of learning
○ Skills and Strategies: The how of learning
○ Care and Prioritizing: The why of learning
Done through multiple ways of representation, action and expression,
engagement through choices
Fundations
Wilson Fundations is multisensory and provides
research-based materials and strategies
essential to a comprehensive reading, spelling,
and handwriting program.
● Phonemic awareness
● Phonics/ word study
● High frequency word study
● Reading fluency
● Vocabulary
● Comprehension strategies
● Handwriting
● Spelling
How is Fundations
taught
All skills and concepts are taught and reinforced
through visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic
senses

● Hearing sounds
○ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BELlZ
Kpi1Zs&t=1s
● Manipulating color-coded sound
○ Different colors for different parts the
letters
How is Fundations
taught
● Syllable, and word cards

● performing finger tapping exercises

○ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g5v8G_X9go

● writing down spoken words

● repeating what they have read in their own words

● listening to others read aloud

Preventing Academic Failure

The PAF Handbook is the key to the PAF program. It is a detailed guide
to using all the materials in a sequence of unified lessons.

Features of the handbook include:

● Clearly written, step-by-step instructions for teaching reading,
spelling, and handwriting using multisensory techniques
● A sequence of over 200 lessons that includes reading material for
fluency and comprehension, as well as words and sentences for
spelling instruction
● Assessment tests to monitor progress
Instructional Methodologies
● Direct Instruction
○ Introduction / review
○ Present the new material: lecture or modeling
○ Guided practice
○ Feedback and correctives
○ Independent practice
○ Evaluation/ review
■ I do, we do, you do
● Learning strategy instruction
○ is a teaching practice that shows students how to learn the content or
skills they need to acquire
● Using a sequential, simultaneous structured multi-sensory approach
○ Sensory through see touch and hearing
Learning Strategies
Metacognition training
Thinking about your thinking
How to prompt it?
● Pre Assessment, evaluate
confusion, journals, explain
the why they did what they
did
Mnemonic Strategies
Memory-enhancing strategies that
link a new word or concept to
information you already know
● Keyword
● Pegword Rhyming
● Acronym
● Acrostic Letter Sentence
Coloring Coding
Helps with the senses to make
visual representation
● Selective highlighting
● Color coded graphic
organizers
● Supporting student
discourse
● Color to distinguish
concepts
● perceived sense of freedom, independence, and autonomy
● enhanced self-competence through improved sense of self-worth,
self-reliance, and self-confidence
● better ability to socialize with others, including greater tolerance and
understanding
● enriched capabilities for team membership
● heightened creative ability
● improved expressions of and reflection on personal spiritual ideals
● greater adaptability and resilience
● better sense of humor
● enhanced perceived quality of life
● more balanced competitiveness and a more positive outlook on life

Recreation Programs
Benefits
Recreation Programs to Avoid
Dyscalculia
This can cause one to produce a sum that is incorrect, resulting in losing a
game or in misplacement of ranking in golf. This also can cause difficulty in
playing games such as dominos; scoring bowling or in any type of card game;
casino gambling; calculating dining charges, etc.

Dyslexia.
This inability to understand written language poses a problem when reading
craft instructions, theater programs, movie subtitles, travel itineraries, tour
guide brochures, and interpreting the directions in learning a new game.
http://www.ldonline.org/article/6173/
 Examples of Recreational Programs

Summer camps and Educational Programs

http://www.ldanys.org/index.php?s=4&b=11&p=27

Finding recreational programs in New York State

https://www.justicecenter.ny.gov/disability-resources
Post Secondary Options

Four-year Colleges and Universities

Two-Year Colleges
Vocational-Technical Schools and Programs
Adult Education and Continuing Education Programs
Four Year Colleges, Two Year Colleges
and Universities
Recommendations for four and two Common services provided for two year
year schools schools
https://www.petersons.com/blog/20- ● Learning specialists
great-colleges-for-students-with-learni ● Peer tutors
ng-disabilities/ ● Study Groups
● Math Lab
● Writing Center
● Career development services
● Executive Function Counseling
● Social Pragmatics
● Health and Counseling services
● Remediation and Learning Specialists
● Skills and strategies tutors
● Academic Advisors
Vocational and Technical Schools and
Programs
What is it?
Rather than giving students a general knowledge base that they get at a traditional high
school, vo-tech schools teach students skills for a trade or occupation, better preparing
them for the workforce directly out of school.

Discussion: What are possible benefits of trade schools for LD students?

 Adult Education and Continuing
Education Programs

What is it?
The terms 'adult education' and 'continuing education' are often used interchangeably to
refer to classes for adult learners.

Examples
● Literacy and GED Programs
● Life enrichment courses
● Art and mediation
● Career related for maintaining licences
Organizations
and Agencies
http://ldaamerica.org/resources/professional-organizations/
 Bibliography of Books
Professional Literature
○ Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids by Chris Biffle
■ Whole Brain Teaching (WBT) is a happy, militaristic style of teaching that claims to grip all your
students’ attention all the time. Here’s a really cute kindergarten class using WBT successfully.
○ The Complete Learning Disabilities Handbook: Ready-to-Use Strategies and Activities for Teaching Students
with Learning Disabilities by Joan M. Harwell & Rebecca Williams Jackson
■ The third edition of this classic resource is a comprehensive source of information, strategies, and
activities for working with learning disabled students. The book offers special educators, classroom
teachers, and parents a wealth of new and proven suggestions and ready-to-use materials for helping
LD students of all ages learn and perform at their fullest potential.
○ A Mind at a Time by Mel Levine
■ Dr. Levine shows parents and others who care for children how to identify individual learning
patterns. He explains how parents and teachers can encourage a child's strengths and bypass the
child's weaknesses. This type of teaching produces satisfaction and achievement instead of
frustration and failure.
Bibliography of Books
● Children's Literature
○ Lemon the Duck by Laura Backman
■ Neurological issues make the main character Lemon unable to walk, but with the
support of a compassionate teacher and her students, Lemon is still able to
become one happy duck!
● Teaches kids to understand others differences and that Lemon is just as
special as they are
○ Just Because by Rebecca Elliott
■ This heartwarming picture book about being perfectly loved, no matter what, tells
of a brother's love for his sister. He is so enthusiastic about just how loving and
special she is, and delights in telling us about all the fun things they do together.
Only as his tale unfolds does the reader begin to realize that his sister has special
needs... and by then we just accept as he does all the wonderful things about her.
Bibliography of Books
● Novels
○ Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
■ Ally is dyslexic, and hides it every time she goes to a new school. Until a new teacher sees
her possibilities.
○ My Name is Brain Brian by Jeanne Betancourt
■ A special teacher helps to see Brian’s needs and helps to get him accommodations.
○ The Alphabet War: A Story about Dyslexia by Diane Burton Robb
■ Once Adam is diagnosed as Dyslexic, he finds a new love for a subject he once despised.
 Workshop
Activity
Kahoot Quiz!
https://create.kahoot.it/v2/share/
learning-disabilities/35a9be86-b8
f2-4d17-a522-d9da46667a84
 Webliography
● https://ldaamerica.org/advocacy/lda-position-papers/what-are-learning-disabilities/
● https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/dyslexia/symptoms-causes/syc-20353552
● https://www.additudemag.com/what-is-dyscalculia-overview-and-symptom-breakdown/
● http://www.ldonline.org/article/12770/
● https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/119/Supplement_1/S77#:~:text=RESULTS.,with%20special%20health%20care%20needs.
● https://ldaamerica.org/info/symptoms-of-learning-disabilities/
● https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cgg.asp
● https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK545498/
● https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/childrens-health/in-depth/learning-disorders/art-20046105
● https://s3.amazonaws.com/cmi-teaching-ld/technologies/1/uploaded_files/original_CAP_TeachingLD_Kennedy.pdf?1384384914
● http://www.p12.nysed.gov/specialed/aim/aim101.htm
● http://www.ldonline.org/article/8022/
● http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/109011/chapters/Supporting-the-Classroom-with-Materials-for-Instruction.aspx
● https://www.smartkidswithld.org/getting-help/know-your-childs-rights/determining-placement-for-your-child-with-ld/
● https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdf_info_briefs/IRIS_Least_Restrictive_Environment_InfoBrief_092519.pdf
● https://www.ldatschool.ca/assistive-technology/
● https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.tcase.org/resource/resmgr/Interactive17Handouts/Modifying_Grade_Level.pdf
● http://www.cast.org/impact/universal-design-for-learning-udl
 Webliography
● https://www.wilsonlanguage.com/programs/fundations/
● https://ldaamerica.org/info/successful-strategies-for-teaching-students-with-learning-disabilities/
● https://www.bookwidgets.com/blog/2019/03/direct-instruction-a-practical-guide-to-effective-teaching
● https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/for-educators/universal-design-for-learning/what-is-strategy-instruction
● https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/metacognition/
● https://blog.brookespublishing.com/5-mnemonic-strategies-to-help-students-succeed-in-school/
● https://juniperpublishers.com/gjidd/pdf/GJIDD.MS.ID.555587.pdf
● https://ldaamerica.org/info/post-secondary-educational-options/
● http://www.ldanys.org/index.php?s=4&b=11&p=27
● http://ldaamerica.org/resources/professional-organizations/
● https://www.petersons.com/blog/20-great-colleges-for-students-with-learning-disabilities/
● https://www.educationcorner.com/vocational-technical-schools-guide.html