Post#15 Learning Disabilities What? An overview
Yasik was four and a half when he entered the English-speaking world. He tried at first to hold on to Russian but, probably at first reluctantly, later in frustration, he gave up and started to work with English. Forest Gump was his go-to mentor.
I have journal entries of some of Yasik’s early language, cute words and incomplete or even wrong phrases. ‘Telephone’ came out first as ‘Sillyphone’ and ‘tuddle’ for ‘puddle’. Forest Gump was first ‘Forest Gunk’. It was ‘mockbark’ for ‘bookmark’. Did he flirt with copyright infringement with his rendition of the ABC song, singing ‘eno, meno, p and now I say my ABC’? When Yasik had to give in on some challenge to our authority, it was ‘No look’.
Were these the first signs of a learning disability or the first forays into language learning as the lone Russian in a new world? Or some mix of ‘set and setting’, nature and nurture for this child?
These are the questions this set of posts considers.
In Who?, I provided an outline of Yasik’s slide from happy confidence to determination never to put himself in a place of learning again. To make the point of the power of external pressure dictating an expectation to read, Naomi Fisher wants us to recognize, however improbable it may sound to our minds, that when anyone is living in an environment where no one reads, not being able to read is not a problem[i]. Entering a world full of the expectation to read, our son was swamped.
What? looks at what may have overwhelmed Yasik.
I start with the current language for the “spectrum of experiences”[ii] outside a standard understanding of ‘normal’ even though, given the title of Roy Grinker’s book, Nobody’s Normal: How Culture Created the Stigma of Mental Illness,[iii] likely few can unquestionably place themselves within the parameters of ‘normal’.
But…, if there is a place for a ‘normal’ standard it may be the ‘Simple View of Reading’ (SVR) which says that good reading comprehension requires two broad types of abilities: good word recognition skills and good oral language comprehension.[iv] Grok adds this: It’s often formalized as a multiplicative model: Comprehension = Decoding × Comprehension (meaning if either is weak or zero, overall comprehension suffers).
When readers see language symbols on a page, they can read and understand them.
But not everyone can read and understand what they have read. Struggling to recognize the letters, words, phrases, and sentences on a page is a frustrating aspect of the experience of those outside the SVR standard.
Starting from the outer edges of the lexicon built for the struggle to read, I move to the specific designations associated.
I begin with a comment and caution from Sally Shaywitz concerning learning disabilities in general. She states: Learning disabilities is a general term referring to a range of difficulties which have not yet been delineated or scientifically validated.[v]
With this in mind we turn to the terms now used to define the world too often lumped together as learning disabilities.
Neurodiversity: a biological fact, not a perspective, an approach, a belief, a political position, or a paradigm, not a trait that any individual possesses or can possess. But rather, a person whose neurocognitive functioning diverges from dominant societal norms.[vi]
Neurodiversity is the idea that some children and adults have naturally different brains, and these differences should not be thought of as a disorder… [but rather a disability in the sense that these differences are products of] the inaccessible world, rather than something which is located in a person. For example, if a person cannot walk, the degree of their disability is determined by the world around them … and accommodations are made [or need to be made] in order to reduce their level of disability.[vii]
Yet, moving to the heart of this lexicon: SLD, (Specific Learning Disorder), according to the DSM-5, refers to neurodevelopmental impairment that remains persistent (lifelong) in reading, mathematics, and written expression but is not related to intelligence nor laziness.
When comedian Phil Hanley’s learning disability became apparent in school, he wrote, I tried to pray away my disability[viii] but over the course of his memoir we see that he makes peace with its persistence.
According to Google, The official Canadian definition of a Learning Disability (LD) describes them as neurological disorders affecting information processing (acquisition, organization, retention, understanding, use) in individuals with average or higher intelligence, distinct from intellectual disabilities, impacting areas like language, reading, writing, and math due to underlying processing issues (memory, attention, executive functions) … LDs are specific, not global, impairments.
Other and more common labels for SLD are ‘learning disorder’, ‘learning disability’ or ‘learning difference’ (LD). Another term: ‘Low-achievement’ (LA) is defined as at-risk for academic failure, with and without learning disabilities and with or without specific cognitive deficits.[ix]
Areas of communication that may be affected are word reading accuracy, spelling, grammar, or calculation as well as fluency and comprehension in degrees from mild (affecting only some academic areas) to severe (needing support and or accommodation). Intellectual disability, vision or hearing problems, a neurological condition, adverse conditions such as economic or environmental disadvantage, lack of instruction, or difficulties speaking/understanding the language, emotional disturbances or lack of educational or cultural opportunity are outside the LD criterion[x].
Time and again, two words are found in the LD definitions. Given a person’s otherwise normal capabilities, difficulty in certain areas, not global, are “unexpected” and “specific” deficits, not anticipated based on the child’s overall abilities. A ‘deficit’ being observable impairments in function relative to age peers.[xi]
Where in these definitions do we find what overwhelmed Yasik? Was what we were seeing unexpected and specific or what should be expected as Yasik navigated a new language, a new culture, and a new set of expectations—all at once?
Footnotes
[i] Fischer, Naomi A Different Way To Learn: neurodiversity and self-directed education Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2023, 21
[ii] Nerenberg, Jenara Divergent mind: thriving in a world that wasn’t designed for you HarperOne, 2021, 5
[iii] Grinker, Roy. Nobody’s Normal: How Culture Created the Stigma of Mental Illness, W.W. Norton, 2021
Forbes, Samuel, Prema Aneja “Why there’s no such thing as normal in child development” December 23, 2024 https://theconversation.com/why-theres-no-such-thing-as-normal-in-child-development-244681
Fisher, Naomi A Different Way to Learn: neurodiversity and self-directed education Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2023, 30
[iv] https://readinguniverse.org/article/explore-teaching-topics/features-of-structured-literacy-instruction/different-learning-disabilities-in-reading#:~:text=Problems%20with%20phonological%20skills%2C%20such,impact%20of%20poor%20word%20recognition
[v] Shaywitz, Sally, M.D. and Jonathan Shaywitz, M.D. Overcoming Dyslexia, 2nd ed. Alfred A Knopf, 2020, 94
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, 149-152
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, 83, 84
Nicolson, Roderick and Angela J. Fawcett Dyslexia, Learning and the Brain MIT Press, 2010, 221-222
[vi] Walker, Nick, PhD NEURODIVERSITY: SOME BASIC TERMS & DEFINITIONS https://neuroqueer.com/neurodiversity-terms-and-definitions/, 2014
[vii] Fischer, Naomi. Changing Our Minds; how children can take control of their own learning Robinson, 2021, 134-135
[viii] Hanley, Phil. Spellbound: my life as a dyslexic wordsmith Henry Holt and Company, 2025, 49, 131, 165
[ix] Kivirähk-Koor, Triin, Kiive, Evelyn “Differences in Cognitive and Mathematical Skills of Students with a Mathematical Learning Disability and Those with Low Achievement in Mathematics: A Systematic Literature Review” Education Sciences; Basel Vol. 15, Iss. 3, (2025): 361. DOI:10.3390/educsci15030361
[x]https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/specific-learning-disorder/what-is-specific-learning-disorder
[xi] Dennis, Maureen; Spiegler, Brenda J; Simic, Nevena; Sinopoli, Katia J; Wilkinson, Amy; et al. “Functional Plasticity in Childhood Brain Disorders: When, What, How, and Whom to Assess” Neuropsychology Review; New York Vol. 24, Iss. 4, (Dec 2014): 389-408. DOI:10.1007/s11065-014-9261-x
“What are some signs of learning disabilities” https://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/learning/conditioninfo/signs
Official Definition of Learning Disabilities Adopted by the Learning Disabilities Association of Canada January 30, 2002 Re-endorsed on March 2, 2015
