Learning disabilities affect someone’s ability to read, write, or process information. There are ways to get around the disabilities, but it takes time and training with a specialist. Most people notice signs of learning disabilities when they are school-aged, but some may not detect them until adulthood. In the guide below, we will explain the different types of learning disabilities and how to get an accurate diagnosis for them.
Common Types of Learning Disabilities
Here are some of the most common types of learning disabilities:
- Dyslexia: Difficulty in reading and writing. Letters become jumbled or transformed as the person reads. Dyslexia may also cause issues with reading comprehension or make it difficult to form sentences.
- Dyscalculia: Difficulty with math and numbers. Dyscalculia symptoms can change as a person ages. As a child, a person may have issues recognizing numbers or counting. As an adult, they may struggle to solve basic math problems or memorize times tables, orders of operation, etc.
- Dysgraphia: Difficulty in writing. People with dysgraphia often have bad handwriting, and they may struggle to spell or formulate their thoughts on paper.
- Dyspraxia: Difficulty with motor skills. Motor skills dictate a person’s coordination and movement. Thus a person with dyspraxia may bump into things, have difficulty speaking, have issues with eye movements, or struggle to type. Dyspraxia can also affect the senses, making a person sensitive to touch, light, taste, and/or sound.
- Auditory Processing Disorder: This affects how the brain processes sound. It is not a hearing impairment, but it alters the way the brain registers auditory information. This can lead to issues with following spoken directions, distinguishing foreground noise and background noise, understanding similar sounding words, remembering songs or spoken stories and learning how to read as a child.
- Visual Processing Disorder: This affects how the brain processes visual information. Someone with visual processing disorder may struggle with hand-eye coordination or telling the difference between objects that look alike. This is not an issue with eyesight, but rather the link between the eyes and the brain.
ADHD and Autism Are NOT Learning Disabilities
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism may affect a person’s ability to learn, but they are not learning disabilities. ADHD makes it difficult to focus, and autism creates a range of issues in social settings. Both conditions may require treatment, but the treatment is not the same as learning disorder therapy.
It’s also important to note that learning disabilities are often misdiagnosed as ADHD. This is why you should work with a psychological testing center with a high accuracy rate and a proven track record. A misdiagnosis may cause a person to go through years of frustration in a treatment program that is not actually designed for his or her needs.
Learning Disability Diagnosis and Psychological Testing in Michigan
The best way to figure out if you or a loved one have a learning disability is to get professional psychological testing. This will detect what learning disabilities are present if any, and allow you to seek the appropriate treatment path. Here at Oakland Psychological Clinic, we offer high-rated psychological testing in Michigan. We receive frequent referrals from schools and doctors in Michigan communities because we have strong accuracy rates for our testing services.
If you would like to schedule a psychological evaluation for yourself or a family member, contact the Oakland Psychological Clinic nearest to you.