1. PRESENTATION BY GULRUKH

3. Learning Disability
 Definition:
 "Specific learning disability" is defined as follows by IDEA:
 The term "specific learning disability" means a disorder in one or more of the basic
psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written,
which disorder may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write,
spell, or do mathematical calculations.
 Disorders included. Such term includes such conditions as perceptual disabilities, brain
injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia.
 Disorders not included. Such term does not include a learning problem that is primarily the
result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, of mental retardation, of emotional
disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.

4. Components from 6 different
Definitions:
 By their nature are heterogeneous disorders.
 Represent specific types of under achievement (i.e. a person demonstrates appreciably less
ability in some skills than in others)
 Are probably the result of some central nervous system (CNS) dys-funtion.
 Involve some form of psychological process (i.e. Intrinsic) disorder
 Can be manifested in academic disorders
 Can be manifested in spoken language disorders.
 Don’t result from other conditions such as mental retardation, behaviour disorders, and so
forth
 Can be manifested in thinking disorders. (derailment, poverty of
speech, tangentially, illogicality, perseveration, neologism)

7. TYPES OF LEARNING DISORDERS:
Dyslexia 315.00(F81.0)
a language-based disability in
which a person has trouble
understanding written words. It may
also be referred to as reading
disability or reading disorder.
Dyscalculia
315.1(FB1.2)
a mathematical disability in
which a person has a difficult
time solving arithmetic problems
and grasping math concepts.
Dysgraphia 315.2(F81.
81)
a writing disability in which a
person finds it hard to form letters
or write within a defined space.

8. TYPES OF LEARNING DISORDERS
disabilities in which a person has
difficulty understanding
language despite normal
hearing and vision.
a neurological disorder which
originates in the right hemisphere
of the brain, causing problems
with visual-spatial, intuitive,
organizational, evaluative and
holistic processing functions.

9. DYSLEXIA:
 Dyslexia is the name for specific learning disabilities in reading.
 Dyslexia is often characterized by difficulties with accurate word recognition,
decoding and spelling.
 Dyslexia may cause problems with reading comprehension and slow down
vocabulary growth.
 Dyslexia may result in poor reading fluency and reading out loud.
 Dyslexia is neurological and often genetic.
 Dyslexia is not the result of poor instruction.
 With the proper support, almost all people with dyslexia can become good readers
and writers.

10. SIGNS & SYMPTOMS
 The Dyslexia Research Trust6 includes these as the most common signs and symptoms
associated with dyslexia:
 Learning to read - the child, despite having normal intelligence and receiving proper teaching
and parental support, has difficulty learning to read.
 Milestones reached later - the child learns to crawl, walk, talk, throw or catch things, ride a
bicycle later than the majority of other kids.
 Speech - apart from being slow to learn to speak, the child commonly mispronounces words,
finds rhyming extremely challenging, and does not appear to distinguish between different
word sounds.
 Slow at learning sets of data - at school the child takes much longer than the other children to
learn the letters of the alphabet and how they are pronounced. There may also be problems
remembering the days of the week, months of the year, colors, and some arithmetic tables.

11. SIGNS & SYMPTOMS
 Coordination - the child may seem clumsier than his or her peers. Catching a ball
may be difficult.
 Left and right - the child commonly gets "left" and "right" mixed up.
 Reversal - numbers and letters may be reversed without realizing.
 Spelling - may not follow a pattern of progression seen in other children. The child
may learn how to spell a word today, and completely forget the next day. One
word may be spelt in a variety of ways on the same page.
 Phonology problems - phonology refers to the speech sounds in a language. If a
word has more than two syllables, phonology processing becomes much more
difficult. For example, with the word "unfortunately" a person with dyslexia may be
able to process the sounds "un" and "ly", but not the ones in between.

12. SIGNS & SYMPTOMS
 Concentration span - children with dyslexia commonly find it hard to
concentrate for long, compared to other children. Many adults with dyslexia
say this is because after a few minutes of non-stop struggling, the child is
mentally exhausted. A higher number of children with dyslexia also
have ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder), compared to the rest of
the population.
 Sequencing ideas - when a person with dyslexia expresses a sequence of
ideas, they may seem illogical for people without the condition.
 Autoimmune conditions - people with dyslexia are more likely to develop
immunological problems, such as hay fever, asthma, eczema, and other
allergies.

13. Types of Dyslexia:
 The types are identified by the nature of the problem within the central nervous system /brain.
 Trauma Dyslexia
 Usually occurs after some form of brain trauma or injury to the area of the brain that controls
reading and writing. It is a permanent brain injury rarely seen in today's school-age population
because it results from severe head injuries.
 Primary dyslexia
 It’s a dysfunction of, rather than damage to, the left side of the brain (cerebral cortex) and
does not change with age. Individuals with this type of dyslexia are rarely able to read above
a fourth-grade level and may struggle with reading, spelling, and writing as adults. Primary
dyslexia is passed in family lines through their genes (hereditary). It is found more often in boys
than in girls.
 Secondary/developmental
 Type of dyslexia is felt to be caused by hormonal development or malnutrition during the early
stages of fetal development. Poor parenting, abuse, neglect, and/or poor nutrition during the
developmental years 0 to 5 are also known causes. Developmental dyslexia diminishes as the
child matures. It is also more common in boys.

14. Dyslexics & Milestones

18. Treatment:

19. Integrative Approach:

20. Learning Disabilities Diagnostic Inventory- LDDI
 Description
 The learning disabilities diagnostic inventory (LDDI) is an assessment device composed of
items taken from the research and theoretical literature on specific learning disabilities
(LD) especially as it pertains to the neuropsychological aspects. The items represent
specific observable behaviours associated with LD in listening, speaking reading writing
mathematics and reasoning.
 Consists of:
 six independent scales, each with 15 easy-to-rate items.
 Stanines are used to identify the likelihood of intrinsic processing disorders in the six
areas—Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing, Mathematics, Reasoning
 also to conduct a profile analysis to determine the extent to which a student’s LDDI profile
reflects that which is associated with learning disabilities.

21. Learning Disabilities Diagnostic Inventory
 AGE RANGE:
 Identify learning disabilities in children ages 8 to 17.
 TIME PERIOD:
 The LDDI can be completed in 10 minutes by a teacher or speech-language pathologist who is
familiar with the student’s skills.
 Scales & Forms
 Listening
 Speaking
 Reading
 Writing
 Mathematics
 Reasoning

23. Worksheet:

30. LDDI SCORING
RAW SCORES
 Total number of points rated
for each scale.
 Don’t tell anything in
particular, just help in finding
out stanines.
STANINES
 Stanines are converted from
raw scores using the tables in
the appendix.
 Standard scores with a mean
of 5 and a standard deviation
of 1.96) and percentiles
 Identify the likelihood of
intrinsic processing disorders in
the six areas assessed by the
lddi.
 Conduct a profile analysis to
determine the extent to which
a student’s LDDI profile reflects
which is associated with
learning difficulties.
PERCENTILES
 Percentile ranks represent
values that indicate the
percentage of the distribution
of a representative sample of
individuals of the same age
group

31. Psychometrics of the Test:
 Reliability
Internal consistency reliability coefficients exceed .90 for all scales. evidence for
stability and inter-scorer reliability is also provided and coefficients are in the .80s
and .90s.
 Thus, the LDDI can be used with confidence to yield consistent results.
 Validity
These studies involved extensive item selection and differentiation examinations,
which included confirmatory factor analysis; as well as studies that examined the
lddi’s relationship to age, academic achievement, group differentiation, gender,
and ethnicity-all of which support the validity of the lddi scores. Factor analysis
research also validated the lddi’s factor structure. These studies all provide
evidence that the LDDI yields valid results that can be used with confidence to
identify the presence or absence of learning difficulties in children and
adolescents.

32. Controlling for Test Bias
 The LDDI was built to minimise the effects of bias
 First, the effects of bias were controlled and minimized through the inclusion of
minority groups in the normative sample.
 Second, the examination of reliability and validity information was presented for
the different racial, ethnic, and gender groups.
 A particularly powerful element of content-description validity is the demonstration
of excellent internal consistency reliability for the different racial, ethnic, and
gender groups.
 Finally, the use of differential item functioning analysis was used to reduce item
bias during item selection. Delta score values were used to remove items that
appeared to be biased against targeted groups.

33.  the LDDI will tell you the extent to which students’ skill patterns in a
particular area (e.g., reading, writing) are consistent with those individuals
known to have LD in that area (e.g., dyslexia, dysgraphia).

34. STRENGTHS AND
LIMITATIONS
INTERNAL CONSISTENCY
RELIABILITY COEFFICIENTS EXCEED
.90 FOR ALL SCALES. IN
ADDITION, EVIDENCE FOR
STABILITY AND INTERSCORER
RELIABILITY IS PROVIDED, AND
COEFFICIENTS ARE IN THE .80S
AND .90S. THUS, THE
LDDI CAN BE USED WITH
CONFIDENCE TO YIELD
CONSISTENT RESULTS.

35. STRENGTHS
CONTROLLING FOR TEST BIAS
LDDI WAS BUILT TO MINIMIZE THE EFFECTS
OF BIAS. NUMEROUS STEPS WERE TAKEN
TO DETECT AND ELIMINATE SOURCES OF
CULTURAL, GENDER, AND RACIAL BIAS.
FIRST, THE EFFECTS OF BIAS WERE
CONTROLLED AND MINIMIZED THROUGH
THE INCLUSION OF MINORITY GROUPS IN
THE NORMATIVE SAMPLE. SECOND, THE
EXAMINATION OF RELIABILITY AND
VALIDITY INFORMATION WAS PRESENTED
FOR THE DIFFERENT RACIAL, ETHNIC, AND
GENDER GROUPS. A PARTICULARLY
POWERFUL ELEMENT OF CONTENT-DESCRIPTION
VALIDITY IS THE
DEMONSTRATION OF EXCELLENT INTERNAL
CONSISTENCY RELIABILITY FOR THE
DIFFERENT RACIAL, ETHNIC, AND GENDER
GROUPS. FINALLY, THE USE OF
DIFFERENTIAL ITEM FUNCTIONING
ANALYSIS WAS USED TO REDUCE ITEM BIAS
DURING ITEM SELECTION. DELTA SCORE
VALUES WERE USED TO REMOVE ITEMS
THAT APPEARED TO BE BIASED AGAINST
TARGETED GROUPS

36. LIMITATIONS
THE LDDI IS LIMITED TO A
SINGLE LANGUAGE WHICH IS
ENGLISH, WHICH LIMITS NON-ENGLISH
SPEAKING CHILDREN
TO BE ABLE TO TAKE THE TEST.
ALSO, THE TEST IS RATED BY THE
EXAMINER SO THERE IS NO
MEASUREABLE SCORE THAT
CAN BE COMPARED AGAINST
OTHER CHILDREN’S SCORES; IT
IS OPINION-BASED AND VARIES
BETWEEN EACH EXAMINER

37. PRECAUTIONS:
 The examiner should heavily focus on the child during the assessment to
ensure a proper rating. If they are rated incorrectly, the consequences of a
poor rating could be devastating to the child’s future. The area should be
well lit and the seating comfortable for the child. Because there is a
listening section of the LDDI, the room should be quiet and easy to hear to
avoid all potential distractions and interruptions. The scale should not be
used as basis for planning individual instructional program

38. THANKYOU FOR
LISTENING
ANY
QUESTIONS!