Is Developmentally Delayed the same thing as having a Learning Disorder?
831413
No it is not the same. \nDevelopmentally delayed means that your son has not acquired certain benchmarks of development within the normal age range of meeting them.\n\nLearning Disorder is a general term that implies a child has some difficulty learning.\n\nI understand your fear of the "label" but think of it this way---------\nAn IEP is an Individual Education Plan. Where there are specific goals that you, your child, and your child's teachers want him to achieve. Having an IEP means lessons have to be individualized for your child and will receive any and all help in achieving it. Your child will receive more specific instruction and given time to master new skills. He will also be placed in the least restrictive environment. Which means he will be place where he will do his best and the environment will be best for him.\n\nIf it is a speech delay your child will receive speech therapy.\nIf it is physical delays your child may receive physical therapy.\n\nDon't view this as a negative-------- view it as a positive thing. Getting help before he falls too far behind and if there happens to be a learning disability then they will catch it and adjust his learning environment.\n\nJust added after reading responses------\n\nThe No Child Left Behind Act was implamented to ensure that all children recieve the best possible education. It holds the teachers and schools accountable for what their students learn or don't learn.\nAlthough I do not agree with everything about the NCBA, I do like the fact that if the school fails my child I can take him elsewhere. This holds true for any child.
150135
It's hard to say.  Some impairments involve the inability to understand the steps of a problem.  Some students just can't concentrate long enough to bother solving the problem.  Some may not hear the question, or understand it if they do.  Some students may not understand patterns, even simple number order.  Some may not be able to record data, or copy simple addition problems to paper.  Some students are unable to read from a black/white board or book.  Some reverse numbers while some cannot see columns.\n\nThere are varieties of impairments.  A special education teacher/professional can help you determine the type of impairment and even the severity.\n\nThere are all sorts of things that can determine the level of success a child achieves in school.  If I were the parent, I would request a thorough psycho-social evaluation.    Good luck.
24677
that depends I assume there is some delay to correct. We would need to know the challange (dislexia, speech?} or the symptoms if the cause is not yet known
114832
Everyone has learning disabilities, some common enough and severe enough to have names (like Dyslexia). The question is: Do you have any? If you're still in school, the counselor can help you with an assessment to discover and treat them. There is hope!
55535
help,\n\nI'm not sure you'll find many articles out there that addresses ADD and/or learning disabilities as an inherited condition.  I've never seen any, so I can't begin to answer what the chances are for a child born to one or both parents who have suffered the same.\n\nI would say that all one can do is to pay close attention to the child's development, and to take quick action if any developmental problems present itself.  I know this isn't much help...best of luck.
1003882
A learning disability is a diagnosable, clinically significant difference between ability and achievement.  Testing is used to determine the type of deficiency that exists and the severity of the deficiency. A learning disability can be best described as an inability to acquire or relate specific information. It is not a form of mental retardation or intelligence impairment. Learning disabilities can exist in various areas, such as math, reading, or writing. Some of the more common types of learning disabilities are arithmetic deficit, auditory processing, constructional dyspraxia, dsysgraphia, dyslexia, language comprehension, long term memory deficit, reading deficit, short term memory deficit, spatial organization, spelling dyspraxia, traumatic brain injury, visual processing and writing deficit.  Some students may have combinations of these disabilities or have these disabilities in combination with social/emotional adjustment problems.  Accommodation plans try to help compensate for specific deficits.
246961
The syndrome Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity \n\nDisorder (ADHD) defies a concrete definition. There are no blood tests, brain scans, or psychological tests that definitively diagnose it.\n\nADD/ADHD is not an imaginary disorder.  It is a chronic developmental disorder which is genetically based.  It is not a learning disability, but can co?exist with learning disabilities in approximately 25 to 33 percent of those diagnosed with ADD/ADHD.
1063178
No... being in special education does NOT mean you are stupid.\n\nAs a matter of fact, there is only ONE out of 13 categories in which a person is a very slow learner...Mental Retardation.\n\nALL the other categories are NORMAL or higher smarts, with something keeping that person from being able to learn as fast as they should given their smarts. That something could be a learning or language disability, or health issues, or emotional problems, or physical disabilities, or hearing or vision problems, or social skills difficulties, and so on.\n\nIf you are in special ed, you learn DIFFERENTLY than most people. You are NOT stupid.
786657
A diagnosis of mental retardation requires that a person's IQ test below 70 points and the person must have dysfunction in at least two areas of adaptive behavior.  Adaptive behavior include things like language/communication, social skills, daily living skills etc.\nIntelligence is arguably an arbitrary social construct, but the word exists in the medical and school fields to help identify people who need extra help learning and functioning (i.e. adapting). It's equivalent to "slow".
660006
Persons who score below a 70 IQ on standard tests administered by psychologists and psychometricians are 'certified' to be developmentally disabled. In the 1950s, people who had a developmental disability were called retarded. Today they are called students with special needs that are mainstreamed in special education classes. They  also referred to as having a developmental disability. Special education teachers have classes for those with developmental disability. This is different from those with I.Qs above 70 who may be bright but have learning disabilities which is a visual problem that can be corrected with certain eye exercises that build brain dendrons. Those with developmental disabilities formerly called mentally retarded are divided into trainable or educable.\n\nIn the days before 1930, trainable retarded persons with IQs under 50 were called imbeciles. Educables, with IQs over 60 were called morons, and those who had IQs below 25 were called idiots. Today, those terms are vile and of course, not used. Instead, students are placed in sheltered workshops based on their potential and abilities. Special education students now hold jobs and are independent in most cases. Check out the many bakeries and restaurants or schools hiring those to do a wide variety of work, such as making donuts, sanitation, and factory box production.
608510
It can affect both depending on how and when the dyslexia is recognized and the behavior of the people around the dyslexic person.  Like many learning disabilities there is often a stigma attached to it and people can take on the negative aspects of people's reactions.  Are you asking because you have dyslexia, or think perhaps you may have?
983035
They are more likely to have them depending on the cause of the learning disabilities.  \nJust so you know most people with dyslexia get it from pregnancy issues, such as, but not limited to, women drinking and/or doing drugs while they are pregnant, and malnutrition to the mother while pregnant and/or nursing, being deprived of oxygen during birth.  \nDo more research on the learning disabilities, if they are caused by genetics chances are high, if they are caused by abnormalities during pregnancy then the mother needs to take care of herself.
838427
Everyone's different.  That's the main thing.\n\nI was diagnosed as dyslexic when I was eight.  I'm in college now.  I take all my own notes, and make good grades (or did last I checked, which was semester before last - don't ask).  I've never liked to read, and generally can't make myself do it for more than a minute or two.  I run into problems just trying to read a few sentence word problem for physics, let alone 50 pages of Greek history, but I've learned ways to do well without doing much fo the reading.\n\nSpecial classes may have helped you.  I was in mainstream classes my whole life, though, so that's certainly not the only way to adapt.  But my mom is a psychologist with a lot of experience with learning disabilities, so that helped a lot.  To me, one of the main things was just that I've known since I was little that the reason I had trouble with certain things was that I was dyslexic, and not that I just wasn't smart enough.  I would think that being in special classes might have done the same thing for you (depending on the classes of course - being put in special classes can also have exactly the opposite effect on kids).\n\nDyslexia varies a lot in it's severity.  It's not really an all or nothing thing - there are different degrees of it.  Dyslexia is diagnosed basically based on a failure to learn certain skills (most notably reading) where there's no overall cognative deficit.  There are other diagnostic criteria that can be used, but the most common reason a kid is diagnosed as dyslexic is because based on their overall intelligence they should be reading at or above grade level, but they're significantly behind.  The thing is, there are a million and a half different physical anomilies that could cause that, so not all dyslexic kids are the same.\n\nShe might be more severely dyslexic than you are.  She may have given up trying when she was little because she was told she was stupid, rather than that she was dyslexic, so she's further behind now.  Or, as politically incorrect as this sounds, she may just not be as bright.  Also, some people do use it as an excuse to be lazy and get out of doing work.\n\nI'm rather tired right now, so that wasn't nearly as coherent or comprensive as I'd like it to be, but there's lots of information out there on dyslexia if you want to look for it.  One website I've come across that I like is:\nhttp://www.dys-add.com/index.html\nThere are even whole books written on dyslexia.  I don't know any off the top of my head, but I can find some titles when I'm home over Thanksgiving - just email me if you're interested :)
1126407
It is called savants syndrome which is when someone with a developmental disorder has an amazing talent.  The person is called an idiot savant.
589694
It's probably just a slight delay in development, nothing to really worry about. Just in case though, here are the 'official' red-alert signs for autism (one of the main disorders associated with delays speech), from a meta-analysis by Filipek et al., 1999\n\nTable III. Parental Concerns that are RED FLAGS for Autism\n\nCommunication Concerns\n\nDoes not respond to his/her name\nCannot tell me what (s)he wants\nLanguage is delayed\nDoesn't follow directions\nAppears deaf at times\nSeems to hear sometimes but not others\nDoesn't point or wave bye-bye\nUsed to say a few words, but now he doesn't\n\nSocial Concerns\n\nDoesn't smile socially\nSeems to prefer to play alone\nGets things for himself\nIs very independent\nDoes things "early"\nHas poor eye contact\nIs in his own world\nTunes us out\nIs not interested in other children\n\nBehavioral Concerns\n\nTantrums\nIs hyperactive/uncooperative or oppositional\nDoesn't know how to play with toys\nGets stuck on things over and over\nToe walks\nHas unusual attachments to toys (e.g., always is holding a\ncertain object)\nLines things up\nIs oversensitive to certain textures or sounds\nHas odd movement patterns\n\nAbsolute indications for immediate further evaluation:\n\nNo babbling by 12 months\nNo gesturing (pointing, waving bye-bye, etc) by 12 months\nNo single words by 16 months\nNo 2- word spontaneous (not just echolalic) phrases by\n24 months\n\nANY Loss of ANY Language or Social Skills at ANY Age\n\n\n\n\nThis may also help, from the same study\n\nTable IV, Ask Specific Development Probes:\n"Does (s)he . . ." or "Is there . . ."\n\nSocialization\n. . . cuddle like other children?\n. . . look at you when you are talking or playing?\n. . . smile in response to a smile from others?\n. . . engage in reciprocal, back-and-forth play?\n. . . play simple imitation games, such as pat-a-cake or\npeek-a-boo?\n. . . show interest in other children?\n\nCommunication\n. . . point with his finger?\n. . . gesture? nod yes and no?\n. . . direct your attention by holding up objects for you to\nsee?\n. . . anything odd about his/her speech?\n. . . show things to people?\n. . . lead an adult by the hand?\n. . . give inconsistent responses to name?\n. . . to commands?\n. . . use rote, repetitive, or echolalic speech?\n. . . memorize strings of words or scripts?\n\nBehavior\n. . . have repetitive, stereotyped, or odd motor behavior?\n. . . have preoccupations or a narrow range of interests?\n. . . attend more to parts of objects (e.g., wheels)?\n. . . have limited or absent pretend play?\n. . . imitate other people's actions?\n. . . play with toys in the same exact way each time?\n. . . strongly attached to a specific unusual objects(s)?\n\nI really hope this helps, one thing I've learnt in my studies of autism is the sooner it is recognised, the better the final outcome/treatment prognosis\n\nThere are also language delay disorders, which do not involve a social element like autism does. Go to www.pubmed.org and search for 'language delay', you'll get many many studies on the topic
208262
Sweetone referred you to the DSM-IV.  That is the Daignostic and Statistical Manual, Fourth Edition.  YOu will find a copy in any university library if they offer a teachign degree or degrees in psychology.  \n\nThey are two separate categories, though connected - ADHD includes hypercativity while ADD does not.  They aren't necessarily identified as specific learning disabilities - there is not yet agreement about that.  The terms did not really come into common usage until the 1980's and it was not really until the 1990's that most people involved in he school system for example would have heard of them.\n\nMany people believe as one of the previous posters does, that these disorders do not exist.  However, recent research using the latest MRI and other imaging technology has showm differences in brain function and brain activity in individuals with ADHD and ADD.\n\nThe websites I've attached may help you.
6937
The most important thing to know is that you made it to 17 without this knowledge and without special support. Think what you can accomplish with the support and assistance you deserve. Most psychologists/psychiatrists who can accurately diagnose this kind of learning disability would also communicate with the parents, the counselors, and the teachers about the modifications necessary for you to learn most effectively. Are you sure that yours is not going to do this?