FamilyConnect

Children with learning disabilities make up the largest group of children receiving special education services in the United States. While cognitive or intellectual disabilities affect a child’s overall capacity for learning, children with learning disabilities typically have average or above-average intelligence. However, learning disabilities can affect a child’s ability to read, write, spell, or understand mathematical concepts. Many children with learning disabilities perform on or near grade level in some school subjects but struggle in others.

It may be difficult for an educator or other professional to determine whether a child’s difficulties in learning are a result of his learning disability or his visual impairment. It is often hard to separate one from the other. For that reason, it is particularly important that anyone who assesses your child to determine if he has a learning disability has input from a teacher of students with visual impairments in selecting materials to use for the assessment, modifying the testing environment so that your child can complete the assessment, and interpreting the information gathered. If it is determined that your child has a significant learning disability, a group of specialists will need to work together with other members of your child’s educational team to design instruction that will help your child in the areas in which he has difficulty learning.