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Estimates of the prevalence of learning disabilities range from
4% to 20%, depending on how they are defined.1 Problems
imposed by learning disabilities and different learning styles can
significantly affect a child’s early sense of mastery and
competence and can have lifelong implications on occupational functioning
and psychological health. The Learning Disabilities Act of 1969
defined learning disabilities into federal law and mandated that
the educational needs of children with these disabilities be addressed.
This made interventions for learning disabilities a matter of public
policy and has led to ongoing controversies in establishing functional
definitions and criteria for diagnosis. Learning disabilities cannot
be diagnosed at an earlier age than the skills are expected to develop,
but high-risk factors can be ascertained. Learning disabilities
can be identified at any time throughout the school years. They
may present with difficulty in individual subjects, underachievement,
behavior problems, attention problems, and, eventually, school failure.
If unrecognized, a chronic lack of school success can lead to low self-esteem,
behavior problems, truancy, depression, high-risk behaviors of adolescence, and
school dropout.
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Learning Preferences and
Styles
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Learning preferences and learning styles refer to an individual’s
preferred modes of and different approaches to learning based on
their individual strengths and weaknesses. Although various learning
styles exist, the most commonly referenced types are auditory, visual,
and kinesthetic (learning by doing). Ideally, students learn effectively
using a combination of these styles. Those who do not are at a strong
disadvantage if their school teaches in a manner that does not match
their individual learning style. The use of learning style profiles
to guide instruction requires careful monitoring of a student’s
progress and learning effectiveness so that adjustments can be made
as appropriate. Inventories and style indicators are useful as only
guides; their reliability and benefit can be determined only through
continual evaluation of a student’s performance. The intent
of identifying learning styles or preferences is to enable a student to
intake and output information in ways that are most comfortable
and successful.
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Underachievement refers to lower academic performance than expected
based on abilities (IQ). It is reflected by poor grades and schoolwork
production. It may also be accompanied by lower than expected performance
on tests of academic achievement. Possible causes of underachievement
include attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), learning
style and other educational issues, emotional and behavioral disorders,
family and social factors, and engagement in high-risk behaviors
such as drugs and delinquency. Underachievement can lead to or reflect
poor self-esteem. Unaddressed, this may lead to school failure and dropout.
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The most common definition of a learning disability is a significant
to severe (1.5–2 standard deviation) discrepancy between
a child’s abilities (as measured by an individually administered
IQ test) and the child’s achievement (as measured by individually
administered tests of achievement in reading, written expression, and
mathematics).2 This model is often used to ...