Learning Disabilities - difficulties in acquiring basic learning skills (reading, writing, and math), due to neurological causes. This means that learning difficulties do not result from mental retardation, environmental retardation, or impeding emotional problems. In most cases, the disability causes a large gap between the individual's overall ability and the level expected from him according to his age, and between his actual level of functioning. Learning disabilities result from poor neurological functioning in the areas of language and visual conceptualization or from a disorder in attention-paying processes. They occur at different levels of severity, beginning with minor disabilities which do not prevent normal daily functioning and inclusion in regular education, to disabilities that require individual treatment at regular schools, and until disabilities that demand assistance in separate learning settings, whether in special classes at regular schools or in special education schools.
Didactic Evaluation - the process of identifying and mapping out behaviors and learning strategies of the one being evaluated in each of the fundamental skills. The evaluation is a tool for locating difficulties, abilities, and identifying coping methods. The purpose of the evaluation is to identify learning difficulties and disabilities and to attempt to explain their source (as much as possible). Mapping of the strong points and the points that need to be strengthened (the difficulties and disabilities), allows building an appropriate intervention program that will enable the one being evaluated to narrow learning gaps, to progress, and to improve achievements while taking into account his difficulties on the one hand and his abilities on the other.
Remedial Instruction - the purpose of remedial instruction is to assist struggling students at all ages, in coping with the requirements of school. This intervention requires an evaluation, preparation of a work program, and performing different methods, according to the abilities and difficulties of the individual or group. This is specific remedial instruction for academic difficulties and for the emotional and social aspects of the disability.
Strategy - the ability to plan and conduct activities in order to reach a certain goal. The goal of reading strategies, for example, is to improve reading comprehension, i.e., the ability to understand the main idea and to answer questions when needed.
Automation - the ability to perform basic skills (e.g., reading, writing, or math), automatically, in other words, as a process that's carried out with minimal effort, quickly, effectively, and accurately.
Orthography - the ability to recognize a word as a complete structure and the ability to write it according to it's proper form.
Literacy - the person's ability to use language (listening, speaking, reading, and writing), for a variety of needs such as: practical, daily, literature, artwork, and academic studies.
Letters Aleph-Hei-Vav-Yud - letters that serve both as consonants and vowels.
Naming - the ability to retrieve from memory names of objects, numbers, letters, or colors. This is the ability to call an item by name quickly and correctly. Quick naming aids to fluent reading. When naming is slow, there will likely be difficulties in learning to read.
Phonological Awareness - distinction of the sound components of the word. The phonological awareness is formed on the basis of pronunciation. Such, auditory skills are built, which allow isolating the consonant sound in the word, and similarly identification and preservation of the series of sounds of the word in memory. This awareness, makes possible isolating syllables, consonants, and vowels and to consciously manipulate them.
Phonological awareness includes phonologic awareness (to the sound structure of the word), morphologic awareness (to the verbal structure and its components), syntactic awareness (to the sentence structure), semantic awareness (to the meaning of the word), and pragmatic awareness (matching the use of the words to the given situation.)
Phonological Terms
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Phoneme - a sound - the smallest linguistic unit in a word - can be a lone consonant or vowel
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Consonant - a name for every sound in a language, either by itself or together with a vowel
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Vowel - the dotted signs in written Hebrew. There are 9 vowels.
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Combination - the combination of a consonant and vowel.
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Syllable - unit of speech which is a word (e.g., cup), or part of a word (e.g., mon- key)
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Alphabet - written symbols that represent every consonant and vowel in the spoken and written language.
Reading - reading is communication, transferring a message from the sender to the receiver. During reading, a decoding process, understanding, search for meaning, processing visual information, and linguistic and cognitive process take place. Reading is the ability to use written information for functional needs and enjoyment.
Reading has two components: a technical component (decoding) and a semantic component (reading comprehension).
Reading relies on identification, breaking down, and merging consonants and vowels that comprise the language, experience and previous knowledge, command of the spoken language, and linguistic knowledge.
The effectiveness of reading is very important for reading comprehension. The pace, fluency, speed, and intonation are necessary for reading with meaning.
Fluent reading is the ability to read text quickly and smoothly, effortlessly and automatically, so that only minimal attention is given to the technical part (identification and decoding) of the reading.
Reading is Comprised of a Number of Processor Types:
Phonological Processor - responsible for converting letters to their corresponding sounds and for translating the graphic symbol to the appropriate sound (translating the grapheme to phoneme and the phoneme to grapheme).
Orthographic Processor - responsible for identifying the word and reading it as a complete structure without needing to break it apart and put it back together.
Semantic Processor - responsible for giving meaning and the ability to relate to the content of the word based on previous knowledge and experience in the language.
Context Processor - responsible for the ongoing construction and understanding of content. Context has great importance in understanding a conceptual unit or word within a sentence.
Global Reading - the ability to identify words and read them quickly and completely.
Global Approach to Reading - an approach to teaching reading whose starting point is the complete word as a meaningful structure. This approach is appropriate for children with good Gestalt perception. In professional literature, it is also called the Top Down Approach.
Phonological Decoding- slow and sequential identification of letters or syllables in combining them to form a whole word.
Fluent Reading - accurate and quick identification, measured by correct intonation, at the appropriate pace, and with understanding. This is a learned skill.
The Phonics Approach to Reading - an approach for teaching reading whose starting point is recognition and use of vowels as the basis for forming words. This approach is appropriate for children with sequential perception. In professional literature, it's also called the Bottom Up Approach.
Grapho-Phonemic - the connection between the written letter (graph) and the sound (phoneme)
Dyslexia - a reading disability characterized by difficulties in acquiring spoken language, reading, spelling, and verbal and written expression. These difficulties reflect a lack of effectiveness of phonological processing in the brain and they aren't connected to age, I.Q., developmental disability, or sensory impairment.
Reading Comprehension - the ability to understand the meaning of written text; the ability to understand the main idea and series of events.
Reading comprehension includes three levels:
First level - locating information through reading lines of text
Second level - the level of explanation, reaching conclusions and more, through reading between the lines
Third level - evaluation and criticism of the text; reading beyond the lines of written text.
A disability in reading comprehension likely indicates a reading disability, language disability, and/or ADHD.
Writing - it's a language skill acquired after the development of speech and reading, even though that already at a young age children are encouraged to practice writing. The ability to write is the product of cognitive development and neuro-fine motor development, and it's dependent on the ability to match and transfer messages between neurological systems to the motor systems in the body: the muscles. Therefore, acquiring writing skills requires lots of time and practice.
The graphic representation in the process of writing combines motor skills and visual skills and it's dependent on coordination and eye movement, for example, fine hand-eye coordination, arm control, hand control, finger muscles, proper perception of graphic patterns and symbols, and kinesthetic memory (memory of movement) of letters and symbols.
Dysgraphia - means the lack of ability to sketch properly the shape of the letter or symbol. Dysgraphia is a writing disability characterized by writing letters that aren't shaped properly or sloppy and illegible letters that pass over and under the lines, backwards shaped letters, shivering or fragmented lines, errors in copying shapes, disorganized writing, irregular spacing between letters, words, or lines, and also by extensive erasing and repeating a line several times. In cases of dysgraphia, it's possible to see that the writer applies too strong or weak pressure on the writing utensil.
Oral and Written Expression - means verbal processing, organization of information, and the ability to restore spatial and auditory content. Both with verbal and written expression, several functions are required, among them: short-term memory, understanding language structure and syntax of language rules, vocabulary usage, and more.
Language disabilities harm one's ability of verbal and written expression.
Priming - collection of information before reading for better understanding of the subject or written message. This is a process in which the reader is aided by pictures, titles, graphical design of the text, semantic clues, sources of information, and personal previous knowledge.
Mathematical Language - this language is connected with different thought activities, including counting, measurement, calculation, quantification, abstraction, and reasoning. It includes in it both simple calculations learned in school and the understanding of extensive numerical systems, and connections between numbers. The lack of readiness to acquire mathematical skills, whether because of a lack of exposure and experiences or because of a lack of appropriate stimuli, this is likely to harm the child in the rest of his/her studies.
Dyscalculia - a learning disability in math whose source is in psychological processes. It's characterized by difficulties in spatial perception, visual perception, and symbol recognition, poor language and communication skills, short memory, ineffective or inappropriate cognitive learning strategies. The ability to count, match, compare and understand the connections are dependent on the child's experiences in different games. For example, a child with ADHD tends less than other children to participate in activities that require focus, accuracy, classification, and matching, and a child whose motor development is delayed tends to participate less in spatial activities that promote spatial understanding and perception of shapes, distances, and amounts.
Therefore, among children with learning disabilities can be found a lack of basic skills, for example, the ability to sort, save, match, or create series. As such, a vicious cycle is created: where because of inherited disabilities and cognitive difficulties, the child tends to avoid activities that require these skills, and as a result of the limited experiences, the difficulties increase.
In addition to this, students with learning disabilities in math, are found in greater danger for a lack of verbal strategies, disruption of verbal-spatial perception and memory disorders, and they have difficulty transferring verbal and numerical information to equations of mathematical operations. These students frequently use the trial and error method to solve mathematical problems and have difficulty explaining problems or to demonstrate them.
Math Anxiety - math anxiety is an emotional reaction that disrupts the individual's thinking ability and functioning at the time when he/she must engage in a mathematical problem. The source of the anxiety is at times fear of failure or from damage in one's self image; however, at times it is physiological. In daily life, in general, a relatively low level of arousal is required, but in times of stress (when taking an exam for example) a high level of arousal is required. Children with learning disabilities are may develop math anxiety when their biological system of arousal does not respond properly in times of stress. Excessive arousal of stress causes general anxiety, disruptive thinking, a lack of organization, and a tendency to avoid performingu a task.
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD, ADHD) - defined as a combination of significant difficulties in the following areas: maintaining concentration, focusing on relevant stimuli, paying attention to details, high distractibility, difficulty in organization, forgetfulness and losing possessions and the like. Some of the children who suffer from this disorder display in addition characteristics of impulsivity and hyperactivity: (H) restlessness, need to move, difficulty waiting in line, speaking without thinking, and the like.
Attention deficit disorder is diagnosed by experts in the field (neurologists or child psychiatrists). Attention deficit disorder, or its scientific name ADD or ADHD, is considered today as the most common psychiatric disorder, and everything that's connected to it consumes many parents. From data of the Nitzan Association and the Israeli Ministry of Education it's indicated that a third of the children included today in the Israeli public school system suffer from mild or severe problems in the area of learning disabilities or ADHD. In contrast to the past, ADHD causes much less of a stigma for the child, and certainly not viewed as a curse that must be hidden out of embarrassment. Exactly the opposite! Many parents are not embarrassed to announce before the school council that their child suffers from some ADHD. Conversations on the topic of assessments, Ritalin, and new alternative treatments for treating the problem have become and irreplaceable part of many conversations amongst parents. Recently, advanced assessment methods have been developed, methods for treating the problem, and even workshops on the topic with the goal of easing the lives of the child and parent together.
Spatial Orientation - perception of space, which is reflected in organization of area and in control of fundamental concepts connected to space. Normal self-image, this is the basis for orientation in space. A disability in spatial orientation makes it difficult to distinguish direction, size, and shape and the relationship between them.
The ability to learn graphic signs, to perceive complex patterns of letters and numbers, a series of signs (a word or math equation) and relationships in space, are dependent on normal spatial orientation.
Memory - the ability to gather, store, and retrieve information. There are many types of memory and each one of them has a defined function. Long-term memory or short, visual memory, auditory memory, spatial memory, and working memory (which is a "system" for temporary storage and manipulation of information while performing cognitive tasks).
All learning is influenced, necessarily, by the learner's memory ability.
The terms in this list were taken, in part, from:
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"The Practical Guide to Remedial Instruction" by Moriah Telmor, Talpiot Publishing - The Academic College for Education, 2003.
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"Learning Disabled" by Tali Haiman, The Open University Publishing, 2000
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"Reading and Writing Assessment" by Neta Greenboum and Elinor Harel, 2005
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