Post#15C Learning Disabilities -Where/When?
This post muddies the water between ‘Where’ the learning disability or difference is encountered and ‘When’ it is encountered but does offer some understanding of time and place.
As I have said in earlier posts, we became aware of Yasik’s learning struggles or differences somewhere in his first and second grade. I don’t remember any overt awareness in kindergarten. From several sources, I have read that it is helpful to become aware as early as pre-kindergarten and that the age of 7 is cutting it close in terms of good help.[i]
But when a child comes into an English-speaking kindergarten with a body, brain, mind, soul and heart, in a nature/nurture combo, still filtering all communication, cultural perceptions, relationships and societal expectations through the perspectives of Russian orphanage life, how is it possible to see signs signally a learning disability? Where and when are ‘gaps in learning’ to be isolated and identified?[ii]
The first point has been made: Should a different “developmental age” be considered?[iii]
Perhaps it helps to first step back and take a wide sweep of humanity and learning. According to Dr. Aliza Pressman our brains construct and reconstruct to enable learning, adapting, rewiring in “three major stages of neuroplasticity”. During the first few years of a baby’s life about 90% of the brain develops, from adolescence to around 30 our brains are reconstructing/pruning, and then (and this one was a surprise to me) when we open our lives to caregiving, apparently caring for anything from a pet to parenting or allo-parenting another we experience another “neural growth spurt”.[iv]
The second point has been made: human beings learn.
The third point needs to be made: there is simply not one way to be human nor is there one way to learn. We all learn and develop in “myriad” ways.
Most helpfully, Nick Walker provides an online site to clear up the terminology involved, https://neuroqueer.com/neurodiversity-terms-and-definitions/,
In case we fear Walker is going woo woo on us, he begins: “There’s an awful lot of scientific evidence that shows quite plainly that there’s considerable variation among human brains”. As Nick Walker wants to make very plain, “There are myriad ways of being neurodivergent”.
This is called ‘Neurodiversity’, “the diversity of human minds”, which is “natural and valuable”.
“… The idea that there is one “normal” or “healthy” type of brain or mind, or one “right” style of neurocognitive functioning, is a culturally constructed fiction, no more valid (and no more conducive to a healthy society or to the overall well-being of humanity) than the idea that there is one “normal” or “right” ethnicity, gender, or culture”.
However, because we are irrepressible dividers, organizers and labelers, “When an individual or group of individuals diverges from the dominant societal standards of “normal” neurocognitive functioning, … they’re neurodivergent as opposed to Neurotypical, …having a style of neurocognitive functioning that falls within the dominant societal standards of “normal”.
Neurodivergence “can be largely or entirely genetic and innate, or it can be largely or entirely produced by brain-altering experiences, or some combination of the two … [it] is not intrinsically positive or negative, desirable or undesirable…”[v]
Here’s an odd little side point of interest to middle-aged and senior women I couldn’t resist tucking in as it was also my experience. The Shaywitz family tell us that loss of estrogen post-menopause impacts the female brain’s ability to cope with reading, speaking and memory. For a few menopausal months I was a stuttering English teacher.[vi]
Within neurodivergence can be found a neurominority, people who share a form of neurodivergence that is “largely innate and that is inseparable from who they are, constituting an intrinsic and pervasive factor in their psyches, personalities, and fundamental ways of relating to the world”. By this definition even menopausal women are a neurominority community.[vii]
Are we at a fourth point now? Learning Disabilities are neurominority communities.
Grok will tell you stats on such communities vary in definition, diagnostic criteria and country, settling on the numbers 5 to 15% of the world’s population with 10% as the most widely accepted number however higher the percentage may actually be. The same numbers are offered for the specific LDs: Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia, though Non-verbal LD comes in at a lower percentage. These neurominority communities have learning differences that do not disappear with the reconstruction going on in the adolescent brain, are often found in family clusters, and are “not limited to alphabetic writing systems but also logographic languages like Japanese”, but whether they are more heavily male than female communities is still up for discussion.[viii]
Some suggested ways to spot members of a neurominority community are, to me, questionable. A child who shows little interest in being read to or seems “more intelligent when younger but seemed to grow progressively less perceptive (especially relative to peers) as she grew older” are indicators I find unstable, but I can see having “difficulty understanding the increasingly complex, layered, clause-filled sentence that come into use around grades three and four” as a useful red flag.[ix]
Therefore, it seems safe to say, if the grade school teacher asks Suzy to read most days of the week, but Suzy has a problem translating the squiggles on the page into communicating language, some learning difference on a spectrum between moderate to severe is showing. Obviously.
Alison Gopnik says, “When most people had to hunt [as in an ancient hunting society], a minor genetic variation in your ability to focus attention was hardly a problem, and may even have been an advantage… When most people have to make it through high school, the same variation can become a life-altering disease”.[x]
For most in a LD neurominority, awareness of a learning difference becomes apparent when children enter a school system built around reading. For others the differences manage to stay in the background, not interfering with life too much until adulthood. Again, if you live in a community that doesn’t use reading to communicate, a non-reading neurominority may be hard to find.[xi]
My beautiful, creative young neighbour is possibly a reluctant member of a neurominority, and for all the wonderful features of her community, she looks over the fence at the neurotypical communities around her and would like to jump the fence.
But one of the things she may not yet realize or doesn’t want to realize, as it may make her present as ‘different’, is a sign of intelligence she already possesses. “…One of the generally accepted signs of intelligence is an awareness and acceptance of what you don’t know”.
Nonetheless, some of what tantalizes as she looks over the fence is how much safer a neurotypical community looks, away from the barbs of ‘What’s wrong with you? You must really be dumb if you can’t read’. Intelligence is often questioned in the face of a learning disability or difference.
And point #5: LD is a neurominority. IQ is a peer reference within some communities.
“IQ is a measurement that takes the slippery, unspecified nature of intelligence into account, but most people assume it’s far more definitive than it is… but what an IQ of 100 is actually worth in terms of intelligence is variable, [though] …Studies have shown that performance on intelligence tests also seems to remain fairly stable over a person’s lifetime despite all the changes or learning they experience,”.[xii]
When seniors apply for housing in a gated community they must swear they are not bringing children along. Carting in dated furniture is not on the checklist for identity as a senior.
When a person is assigned a label or place in a learning difference neurominority, the person’s intellectual capacity is not a required box to be checked. It may be questioned when applying for a Mensa community or an intellectually disabled community, but IQ and LD are separate. LD is about how someone learns. IQ is a peer reference, reliably or otherwise. (Grok says IQ tests are not given the authority they have had in the past). Sally and Jonathan Shaywitz make the point for separation of IQ assessments and LD designations this way. “…[N]ot only do IQ and reading travel together over time, they influence each other as well. A child’s IQ one year will influence his reading score the following year, while his reading score one year will influence his IQ in a subsequent year… …(but) in the case of dyslexia, IQ and reading are not linked at all. The data show that dyslexics can have a very high IQ but still struggle to read; that is, they can think quickly and read slowly…. These data provide the long-sought-after empirical validation of the ‘unexpected’ nature of dyslexia”.[xiii]
Yasik came to Canada with 90% of his brain already developed. We don’t know exactly what his ‘developmental age’ was at the time? Much of his adolescent pruning happened outside the home and school environment. He has yet to enjoy the neural burst that comes with parenting. Nonetheless it is evident that all along he has just kept right on learning, his way.
Having been in Canadian west coast and middle-class school system for 3 years, Yasik was given the learning disability assessment provided by his school district in the 1990s, done when he was in grade 3 and almost 9. The second assessment done by a private organization was a requirement for entering a private school for disabled learners. Both assessments noted that Yasik exhibited anxiety about exposing the weaknesses in his reading skills and language limitations. The assessment noted “the significant difference in chronological age and the self-concept that would go with such a situation- weak language skills leading to low risk-taking, fear of failure and anxiety”. He asked for lots of cookie breaks.
[i]Shaywitz, Sally, M.D. and Jonathan Shaywitz, M.D. Overcoming Dyslexia, 2nd ed. Alfred A Knopf, 2020,30
Hall, Susan L & Louisa C. Moats, Ed.D Parenting a Struggling Reader: a guide to diagnosing and finding help for your child’s reading difficulties. Harmony, 2002, 47-49
[ii] Stanovich, Keith What Intelligence Tests Miss; the psychology of rational thought Yale University Press, 2009, 20
Mukherjee, Siddhartha The Gene: an intimate history Scribner, 2016, 346
[iii] Bosco-Ruggiero, Stephanie, MA, Gloria Russo Wassell, MS, LMHC, and Victor Groza, PhD adopting older children: a practical guide to adopting and parenting children over age four New Horizon Press, 2014, 180
[iv] Pressman, Dr. Aliza The 5 Principles of Parenting: your essential guide to raising good humans S&S/ Simon Element, 2024, 64
[v] https://neuroqueer.com/neurodiversity-terms-and-definitions/,
[vi] Shaywitz, Sally, M.D. and Jonathan Shaywitz, M.D. Overcoming Dyslexia, 2nd ed. Alfred A Knopf, 2020, 192-193
[vii] Walker, Nick, PhD. NEURODIVERSITY: SOME BASIC TERMS & DEFINITIONS https://neuroqueer.com/neurodiversity-terms-and-definitions/, 2014
Nerenberg, Jenara Divergent mind: thriving in a world that wasn’t designed for you HarperOne, 2021, 5,15
[viii] Schumacher, Johannes, Per Hoffmann, Christine Schmäl, Gerd Schulte‐Körne, Markus M Nöthen Genetics of dyslexia: the evolving landscape J Med Genet . 2007 Feb 16;44(5):289–297. doi: 10.1136/jmg.2006.046516 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2597981/#:~:text=A%20child%20with%20an%20affected,family%20members%20are%20also%20affected.&text=There%20is%20an%20estimated%203,when%20strict%20criteria%20are%20applied. PMCID: PMC2597981 PMID: 17307837
Hall, Susan L., & Louisa C. Moats, Ed.D. Parenting a Struggling Reader: a guide to diagnosing and finding help for your child’s reading difficulties Harmony, 2002,90, 92-93
https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/specific-learning-disorder/what-is-specific-learning-disorder
Shaywitz, Sally, M.D. and Jonathan Shaywitz, M.D. Overcoming Dyslexia, 2nd ed. Alfred A Knopf, 2020, 28-33
Adlof, Suzanne M; Hogan, Tiffany P. Understanding Dyslexia in the Context of Developmental Language Disorders Language, Speech & Hearing Services in Schools (Online); Washington Vol. 49, Iss. 4, (Oct 2018): 762-773. DOI:10.1044/2018_LSHSS-DYSLC-18-0049
[ix] Eide, Brock, M.D., and Fernette Eide, M.D. The Mislabeled Child: how understanding your child’s unique learning style can open the door to success Balance, 2006,22,23
Shaywitz, Sally, M.D. and Jonathan Shaywitz, M.D. Overcoming Dyslexia, 2nd ed. Alfred A Knopf, 2020, 112-116
[x] Mukherjee, Siddhartha The Gene: an intimate history Scribner, 2016, 350
[xi] https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/specific-learning-disorder/what-is-specific-learning-disorder
Shaywitz, Sally, M.D. and Jonathan Shaywitz, M.D. Overcoming Dyslexia, 2nd ed. Alfred A Knopf, 2020, 112-116, 27
Mukherjee, Siddhartha The Gene: an intimate history Scribner, 2016, 350
Fisher, Naomi A Different Way to Learn: neurodiversity and self-directed education Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2023, 21
[xii] Burnett, Dean The Idiot Brain: a neuroscientist explains what your head is really up to HarperCollins Publishers, Ltd., 2016, 115, 116, 118
[xiii] Hall, Susan L., & Louisa C. Moats, Ed.D. Parenting a Struggling Reader: a guide to diagnosing and finding help for your child’s reading difficulties Harmony, 2002, 89
Shaywitz, Sally, M.D. and Jonathan Shaywitz, M.D. Overcoming Dyslexia, 2nd ed. Alfred A Knopf, 2020, 102
Cherry, Kendra “Theories of Intelligence in Psychology” November 3, 2022 https://www.verywellmind.com/theories-of-intelligence-2795035
Hall, Susan L., & Louisa C. Moats, Ed.D. Parenting a Struggling Reader: a guide to diagnosing and finding help for your child’s reading difficulties Harmony, 2002, 89
