Learning Disabilities In Children

Symptoms By Age

Early Intervention
If learning disabilities in children can be identified early, and treated appropriately, many are able to develop the skills needed for academic and life success. Most of the time, "appropriate treatment" means cognitive training that uniquely tackles the underlying causes of the learning disability. If that cause can be corrected, it is a lifetime change.

Symptoms Assessment By Age
If you are concerned that your child has a learning disability, we encourage you to conduct a simple assessment right now. This basic checklist may resonate with you. While some of these characteristics may surface as a part of normal development, recurring trends in one item or a consistent trend across a group of similar items, would indicate the existence of a learning disability, an at-risk child for whom further investigation is merited.

Preschool Symptoms
--- Delayed speaking
--- Difficulty rhyming
--- Slow to learn numbers, letters, colors, and/or shapes
--- Pronunciation and/or vocabulary issues
--- Problems with directions and tasks
--- Focus issues
--- Interaction difficulties with friends and peers

Kindergarten to Fourth Grade

--- Problems learning letter and sound connections
--- Coordination or balance issues
--- Difficulty learning to read
--- Struggles to engage in class

Fifth Grade through Middle School

--- Avoids reading
--- Laborious writing
--- Continued coordination/motor skills issues
--- Difficulty with word problems and comprehension
--- Struggles to make friends
--- Homework is time consuming or frustrating

High School, College, Adult Life

--- Slow reader or difficulty with comprehension
--- Writing remains a challenge
--- Difficulty with multiple choice tests
--- Memory weakness
--- Undue difficulty with homework or projects

When Gemm Learning Can Help

We cannot help all of the symptoms listed above, but we can help more than you might think. A wide range of learning disabilities are caused by auditory processing disorder, a difficulty that undermines language, listening to learn, reading, focus and even thinking and reasoning. Our learning disabilities programs tackle this underlying difficulty directly.