Language-Learning Disabilities

1. Labeled lazy, dumb, careless, immature, or “not trying hard enough”
2. High in I.Q., yet may not test well academically
3. Has unusual developmental stages (crawling, walking, talking)
4. Thinks with images or feelings, not the sound of words (little internal dialogue)
5. Seems to “zone out”, or daydreams a lot
6. Excellent memory for long-term memory like movies, but poor memory for sequences like math facts or phone numbers
7. Bedwetting beyond appropriate age
8. High or low tolerance for pain

When limited literacy skills, (see the list on Dyslexia) other areas of trouble:

1. Attendance and follow-through
2. Remembering names and faces
3. Determining direction and spatial relationships
4. Taking longer to answer questions, giving clear answers
5. Putting thoughts into words, stutters under stress, mispronounces long words, or transposes phrases or words when speaking
6. Remembering multi-step oral instructions
7. May need questions reworded
8. Taking telephone messages
9. Time management
10. Change
11. “Shutting down” with new instructions
12. “Giving up” too easily

WARNING: The following symptoms are only descriptive of categories of behaviors. They should never be used to self-diagnose but rather to guide you toward the need for proper professional assessment.

Non-Verbal Learning Disabilities

Typically, they show:

1. Good reading ability
2. Very poor arithmetic ability
3. Excellent memory for things they hear
4. Poor memory for things they see
5. Great verbal expression and verbal reasoning
6. Problems with written expression (often because of poor handwriting)
7. Problems with sense of direction, estimation of size, shape, distance
8. Problems reading facial expressions, gestures, social clues, tones of voice

Chief Characteristics:

1. Tactile-perceptual deficits, usually on the left side of the body
2. Coordination difficulties, again often more marked on the left side of the body
3. Problems with visual-spatial organization
4. Reliance on rote behaviours (which may or may not be appropriate) in new situations
5. Trouble understanding nonverbal feedback in social situations
6. Problems with social perception, social judgement and social interaction
7. Distorted sense of time
8. Very strong rote verbal abilities (e.g. large vocabulary)
9. Reliance on language as the primary means for social relating, information-gathering and relief from anxiety
10. Difficulties with arithmetic and, later, with scientific concepts and theories
11. Inattention and hyperactivity earlier in childhood and social withdrawal and isolation later labeled lazy, dumb, careless, immature, or “not trying hard enough”