1.
WHAT ARE LEARNING DISABILITIES?
As
parents you are familiar with the term learning disability.
Yet, it seems that there are so many types, and each educator
or other professional you work with uses different terms
or ways to describe your son or daughter. The following
outline might be helpful in putting these terms and concepts
in perspective.
Let me quickly outline a simple scheme describing what the
brain must do in order for learning to take place. The first
step is input, getting information into the brain, primarily
from the eyes and the ears. Once this information has arrived,
the brain needs to make sense out of it, a process called
integration.
Next,
the information must be stored and later retrieved, the
memory process. Finally, the brain must send some kind of
message back to the nerves and muscles--its output. Let's
review each area of possible learning disability.
