Legal Definition
"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.
Such term includes such conditions as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia.
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."
Such term includes such conditions as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia.
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."
SO NOW YOU ARE PROBABLY WONDERING OK...SO...
THERE ARE 3 BASIC PARTS TO THIS DEFINITION TO UNDERSTAND:
PART I: Learning disability, what is it?
Learning disabilities (LD) are variety of disorders that can affect a persons ability to obtain, remember, recall, understand, and organize information taken in through the five senses.
For example: Your best friend may be able to listen to your teacher as they ramble off a number of directions with multiple steps and easily compelte each steps without asking for them to be repeated. While on the other hand you may struggle with remember the second of the twelve steps the teacher orally spoke.
This issue does not impede on your intelligence it is all about the different way you and your friend process and organize information. It is NOT that you cannot complete the task as well as your friend, it is JUST that you simply need the information to be given in a different way.
There is a variety of ways people learn information, you may just need to find the best method for you. You do not learn slower, just DIFFERENTLY.
For example: Your best friend may be able to listen to your teacher as they ramble off a number of directions with multiple steps and easily compelte each steps without asking for them to be repeated. While on the other hand you may struggle with remember the second of the twelve steps the teacher orally spoke.
This issue does not impede on your intelligence it is all about the different way you and your friend process and organize information. It is NOT that you cannot complete the task as well as your friend, it is JUST that you simply need the information to be given in a different way.
There is a variety of ways people learn information, you may just need to find the best method for you. You do not learn slower, just DIFFERENTLY.
PART II: Difficulty in learning
This means there is a difficulty in your brain's processing ability (neurological), which affects your learning in the specific areas of:
- Speaking
- Listening
- Reading (Dealing with your ability to recognize words and your ability to comprehend something you have read).
- Mathematics (Dealing with calucation and reasoning).
PART III: The exclusionary clause
This means that your learning difficulty is NOT due to other causes such as:
- A visual, hearing, or motor disabiltiy
- Mental Retardation
- Emotional disturbance
- Cultural factors
- Environmental or economic disadvantage
- Low level English ability in speaking, writing, or reading