What is a Learning Disability?
What is a Learning Disability from a classical point of view?
How is a Learning Disability determined traditionally?
What is a Learning Disability from a neurodevelopment point of view?
How is a Learning Disability determined neurodevelopmentally?
What behavior is associated with a Learning Disability?
What is Crossroads Institute's solution?
So what is a Learning Disability ?
A learning disability is typically indicated when a child has difficulty "retaining" learned information. However, the real issue is determining the reason behind this learning difficulty and how it can be corrected
Within the past 30 years our schools systems have developed programs called special education. These programs vary in their services, but in general they are designed for kids with special needs.
The passing of special state and federal legislation funds the education of these children. A genuine effort is being made to evaluate and separate special needs kids from the normal or "typical" classroom in an attempt to ensure a better quality of education for both classifications of children.
One problem we have seen with this development is that it tends to separate these children from their peers and they have difficulty developing the self-esteem required to function normally in adulthood.
Top
What is a Learning Disability from a classical point of view ?From a classical or traditional point of view a "learning disability" is considered to have a biological (genetic) root. The memory or perceptional systems are underdeveloped or slow in processing.
From this same point of view, your child may receive a learning disabled label if they exhibit certain symptoms, and score low on achievement tests with poor or inconsistent behavior. These symptoms are reported by parents or teachers and are subjective in nature.
Additionally, from an allopathic (MD) point of view, a learning disability is considered a disruption of the prefrontal lobes and thalamic regions of the brain and needs to be regulated with medication.
Children are being labeled as learning disabled, hyperactive and neurologically impaired and are being assigned special class placement. Each year, new classifications arise for those individuals who do not fit into the regular, normal classroom. More and more children are being identified and placed in these programs, and as a result, the number of "special" programs has increased.From our experience many of these children are being inappropriately labeled and placed in special classes. Unfortunately, due to the "Learned Helplessness" factor each are subject to, a learning issue often becomes a reality.
Top
How is a Learning Disability determined from a classical point of view?
It is important to note that the classifications are administrative and are not a diagnosis. There is no such disease as hyperkinesis, hyperactivity, learning disabled, etc. These are symptoms of a problem, they are not the problem itself.Many times children who are placed in special-education categories become stigmatized by the label because they are segregated into an abnormal environment that makes it virtually impossible for them to learn normal, appropriate behaviors.
Obviously, a child is incapable of learning normal behavior in an abnormal environment. Accordingly, these children, instead of having a great opportunity to succeed, have even less of a chance.
Top
What is a Learning Disability from neurodevelopmental point of view?
When a learning disability is looked upon as a developmental delay issue, it is seen as an underdeveloped nervous system.
This underdevelopment may be located in the Central Nervous System (brain and spinal cord) or in Peripheral Nervous System (the supporting neuropathways) which brings information to the brain.
We need to determine which part of the nervous system is affected and how the brain receives, stores, processes and expresses information. From this a set of symptoms the real issue/s begin to emerge leading the way to a non-medicated solution.
After proper identification, exercises can be designed to help develop the part of the nervous system effected, which in turn allows the effected areas to mature. At that point, many individuals can overcome the "label" of learning disabled.
Top
How is a learning Disability determined neurodevelopmentally?A Quantitative EEG (qEEG) assessment.
A neurodevelopment assessment which includes an qEEG.
Top
Behavior associated with Learning Disabilities
How brain disorganization affects function expressionsIf the child lacks right or left hemisphere dominance, the brain's organization will also be lacking because the influx of information to the brain is not occurring correctly. For instance, if a child is right side dominant he may take in visual information through his right eye and store it in his left hemisphere. If dominance is not established and the information is placed in either the left or right hemisphere then the child cannot efficiently process that information and firm pathways in the brain are not established.
You might view the disorganization as a room filled with filing cabinets. If the cabinets (brain regions) are properly organized and all of the files (pathways) are in alphabetical order, information can be added or retrieved efficiently. If however, the cabinets (brain regions) are disorganized and the files (pathways) not alphabetized, the information is there but retrieval of that information is difficult at best and often times impossible.
These children are typically the ones who study for a test one night, only to fail when they take it the next day. They took in the information but lost it when they attempted to retrieve it. When you place these children under any type of stress, the system immediately begins falling apart, and their processing function diminishes.
Often these children won't remember a homework assignment from the previous night, yet they can remember what color dress their mother wore on Christmas two years previously. These individuals are not lacking innate intelligence. They just cannot properly take in information, assimilate it, process it, and bring it back out again.
Top
A disorganized but otherwise bright child, who is presently not functioning at the same level as his peers, will often question his own intelligence and dwells upon what is wrong and why he is different. A large portion of these children (at approximately the third grade level) eventually develop behavior problems.
While these behavior problems can generally be managed with a proper neurodevelopment program it can be a severe handicap for the child.
Many of these behavioral problems originate as a self-defense mechanism, one that the child formulates in an effort to protect his battered ego. If a child tries and fails, he generally is left with only one recourse; internalize the belief that he is of below normal intelligence. Therefore, it is safer in the terms of his ego protection to not try at all or to act out. He then can blame his failure on the fact that he did not try, which is much easier for him to live with.
Children labeled as behavior problems will develop a poor self-image, particularly if they are placed in a special class.Every child attending school knows who is placed in a special classroom, and the child becomes an object of taunting and ridicule by his peers This serves to strengthen a poor self- image.
If they are negatively segregated at school it can alter the child's behavior to produce feelings of despondency. Many of these children withdraw and become introverted, some even become aggressive. These children always seem to be getting into fights, and very often they initiate the quarrel.
Top
What is Crossroads' Solution ?
A home programWhen we work with children with mild disorganization through our individualized home programs we can often eliminate these minor problems within a six-month period. If the child has a more severe problem, therapeutic measures would take longer.
We set home-program goals for children with minor problems at a rate of one year's academic growth within every three-month period.
Rapid academic advancement is not as difficult as it may sound, because concurrently we are improving the child's neurological functions. The child is able to absorb information and process it at a much faster rate. We also design the academic program to fit the needs of each individual child. Quite often we only require thirty minutes a day for the child's instruction, for both the neurological and academic portions of the program.
The future can be bright for these children if the problem itself is treated and not the symptoms. We must also avoid the labels, stigma, and destruction of the child's self-image if we are to achieve the greatest potential each of our children possess.Top
Back to Spectrum Page