1. Dyslexia. Dyslexia is the number one learning disability that affects people of all ages. It affects a person's reading and language processing skills.
Someone who has a severe learning disability will: have little or no speech. find it very difficult to learn new skills. need support with daily activities such as dressing, washing, eating and keeping safe. have difficulties with social skills.
ADHD is not a learning disability, as it does not affect a person's ability to learn a specific skill set, such as reading, writing, or mathematics. However, some effects of ADHD, such as difficulty concentrating, can lead to some challenges in learning.
There are different types of learning disability, which can be mild, moderate, severe or profound. In all cases a learning disability is lifelong. It can be difficult to diagnose a mild learning disability as the individual will often mix well with others and will be able to cope with most everyday tasks.
Severe ID is characterized by intellectual and adaptive functioning that are approximately four or more standard deviations below the mean (less than approximately the 0.003rd percentile) (10). The measured IQ of persons with severe ID falls between 20–25 and 35–40 (10,13,15).
Autism is sometimes referred to as a spectrum, or autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Autism is not a learning disability, but around half of autistic people may also have a learning disability.
The four major types of disabilities include physical, developmental, behavioral or emotional, and sensory impaired disorders.
Autism spectrum disorder and ADHD are related in several ways. ADHD is not on the autism spectrum, but they have some of the same symptoms. And having one of these conditions increases the chances of having the other. Experts have changed the way they think about how autism and ADHD are related.
Autism is very distinct from ADHD, but the core symptoms of ADHD-Combined type, i.e., attention deficit, impulsivity, and hyperactivity, would appear to also be features of autism. ASD and ADHD are neurobiological disorders characterized by similar underlying neuropsychological “deficits”.
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is not a learning disability; however, it does make learning difficult. For example, it is hard to learn when you struggle to focus on what your teacher is saying or when you can't seem to be able to sit down and pay attention to a book.
F72 Severe
Approximate IQ range of 20 to 34 (in adults, mental age from 3 to under 6 years). Likely to result in continuous need of support.
Profound and multiple learning difficulties
These may include physical disabilities, sensory impairment, autism and severe medical needs such as epilepsy. They have considerable difficulty communicating, very limited understanding, and many show challenging behaviour.
At least 1 in every 59 children has one or several learning disabilities. 1 in 5 children in the U.S. have learning and thinking differences such as ADHD or Dyslexia. As of 2021, 2.8 million kids are actively getting services involving special education.
Over three-quarters (76.8%) of people with disability reported a physical disorder as their main condition. The most common physical disorder was musculoskeletal disorder (29.6%) including arthritis and related disorders (12.7%) and back problems (12.6%).
What are hidden disabilities? Some disabilities don't have physical signs so we cannot always tell if someone has one. Hidden disabilities include autism, mental health, acquired/traumatic brain injury, sensory processing, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, partial sight and hearing loss.
The main symptoms of ADHD include inattention, poor concentration, inability to sit still for long periods of time, and reacting without thinking. These symptoms can cause problems with learning and look similar to a learning disability, but not because of processing problems in the brain.
Learning Disabilities
Fifty percent of children and adolescents with ADHD also have some type of learning disability (LD), such as dyslexia or auditory processing disorder. An LD may explain why a child with ADHD on medication can sit still and stay focused and yet do poorly academically.
In our recent study, published in Psychological Medicine, we asked 36 adolescents with OCD and 36 healthy adolescent controls to complete two memory tasks to measure learning and cognitive flexibility. Adolescent OCD patients showed significant impairments in both learning and memory.
A learning disability can be mild, moderate or severe. Some people with a mild learning disability can talk easily and look after themselves but may need a bit longer than usual to learn new skills. Other people may not be able to communicate at all and have other disabilities as well.
Asperger's Syndrome is a form of autism, which is a lifelong disability that affects how a person makes sense of the world, processes information and relates to other people. Autism is often described as a spectrum because the condition affects people in many different ways and to varying degrees.
Asperger's is now considered a developmental disorder on the autism spectrum and is no longer considered a separate diagnosis.