Here are ways to join with medical providers and ensure learning success for children with learning disabilities.
Help dispel the stubborn mythology that surrounds specific learning disabilities.This is an ideal role for physicians. Ask them to explain how LD is not about seeing letters upside down or reversed, and that dyslexia is just one type of learning disability that affects reading speed and accuracy, vocabulary, comprehension, spelling, and written expression.
Convey the message that learning disabilities are real.No medical tests can diagnose learning disabilities, but that doesn't mean they're not real. Neurobiological and genetic research in this area is far from complete, but we do know learning disabilities often run in families, and their effects can be lifelong.
Ask physicians to help children and families understand that learning disabilities can affect an individual's ability to function at different times and in different ways across the person's lifespan. Let them articulate that learning disabilities aren't limited to any one skill area, such as reading, math, or listening, and that learning disabilities do not result from educational impoverishment or physical, sensory, or motor impairments; that they're as likely to appear in boys as in girls; and that they don't result from a lack of motivation or effort on the part of the individual.
Better understand the similarities and differences between different disorders. Although disorders of learning, attention, mood, and anxiety often have overlapping characteristics and co-occur with some frequency, each has recommended treatment approaches, and each demands unique evaluation protocols to determine what will work best and how to monitor improvement over time.
Take LD and AD/HD. The public is well aware that a number of medicines have proven effective in helping children with AD/HD stay focused. There is, however, no recommended medical treatment for LD. We've also discovered that LD and AD/HD co-occur in as many as one-third of children with these disorders. Medical professionals can help avoid confusion and misunderstanding about how the features of these two different disorders overlap, explain the necessary assessments to determine the presence of LD or AD/HD (or both), and explain what different types of treatments and interventions are available.
Communicate the message that there is no "cure" for learning disabilities.
This is a critical role for medical personnel. Proven treatments for specific learning disabilities alone rarely involve medicine, diet, or other nonbehavioral approaches. Medical providers should reassure parents and educators that the best way to address learning disabilities is through a well-targeted, intensive program of instruction and support, coupled with careful, ongoing observation and monitoring of progress.
Include physicians in the feedback loop when evaluating progress during periods of focused instruction, documenting the child's response to intervention and making needed adjustments.
Let's agree that learning disabilities (LD) is an "umbrella" term that encompasses disorders in listening, speaking, reading, writing, and mathematics. And let's also agree that individuals with LD have unique learning profiles, meaning that they struggle in some areas of skill devel... More >
I am an academically gifted student who has struggled with learning disabilities (LDs) all my life even though I wasn’t officially diagnosed until 2005. Since I began to talk, people remarked on my intelligence. Yet when I learned to write my name, I wrote a mirror image. I was nea... More >
Creating safe, stable, and nurturing opportunities for children to learn is a gargantuan task, and the list of potential — and in some cases, essential — ingredients that contribute to children's educational well-being is virtually endless. Attending to these needs can be especia... More >
My child is struggling 
Now that my child has 
