The best known learning disability is almost certainly dyslexia. Many have heard of dyscalculia as well (although it did get a red squiggle indicating a misspelling). There’s the LD I have – nonverbal LD – which is even less known. And there are LDs like dyspraxia. But what about LDs we haven’t discovered yet?
Anything an adult knows that a baby doesn’t know was learned at some point. And adults know a lot of things that babies don’t.
I see no reason that there can’t be LDs for any of the vast number of things that are learned, or any combination. Some of these could be subsets of existing LDs – for example, dyspraxia involves difficulty planning and coordinating physical movement. But what if a person had this for only some parts of his/her body? I, for example, have tremendous problems with anything that involves coordination of my mouth. I can’t whistle, I can’t blow a bubble in bubblegum, it took me forever to learn to swallow a pill (and, even now, I can only do it “dry” – that is, if I try to put water in my mouth while the pill is there, I choke).
So, who are we ignoring that we could be helping?
I welcome your comments.
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