Aug 4, 2018, WDRB, Louisville, KY: Child psychologist outlines three learning disorders An expert outlines the three classified learning disorders, how to recognize them and conquer the new school year. http://www.wdrb.com/story/38812150/child-psychologist-outlines-three-learning-disorders ... A learning disorder will affect your child or several of their classmates, according to a local psychologist. As children go back to school, an expert outlines the three classified learning disorders, how to recognize them and conquer the new school year. According to Dr. Wright, there are three learning disorders. "Dyslexia is the most common of the three learning disorders. It accounts for 90 percent of individuals with the learning disorder," Dr. Wright said. Warning signs include difficulty processing sounds, decoding words, spelling and reading. Children are usually diagnosed with the hereditary condition around nine or ten years old. For Will, it was earlier, which is preferred…. Math disorder, or dyscalculia, is another disorder and much less common. Warning signs include poor visual and spatial skills and not understanding how numbers work. The third learning disorder is the inability to write coherently, or dysgraphia. Symptoms include trouble with motor skills like holding a pencil or forming letters, poor spelling and having a difficult time transferring thoughts onto paper so it makes sense. "About 50 percent of kids with learning disorders also have ADHD. They come together often times. So, when a parent comes to us and they say, 'I'm concerned my child might have ADHD,' we will always rule out learning disorders as well," Dr. Wright said. "ADHD is biologically based. it is not caused by bad parenting. It is something that you're born with, it runs in families." Dr. Wright says when it comes to ADHD, the cards are stacked against them because insurance companies don't pay for a full ADHD evaluation. "We are supposed to diagnose ADHD based on rating scales alone and parent teacher reports without doing the neuro-psychological assessment that is truly needed." A controversial topic when it comes to diagnosing ADHD is some say school is getting more difficult and some children just aren't ready for the workload. Dr. Wright said she and her team are very cautious about assessing young children….
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Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless.
John Stone,
UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic.
They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years.
Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
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