A learning disability is not a sensory impairment. Many researchers believe the problems students with LD have are related to the processing of the information their senses give them. So, while a student with LD may have 20/20 vision, he or she may have difficulty integrating the information from the eye into the brain. Thus, a child with a visual perceptual learning disability might have trouble distinguishing shapes (a 7 might look very similar to a 1) or position (a letter b might be perceived to be no different from a letter d, for example).
The processing problem may not be visual - it may be auditory or tactile/kinaesthetic. And it can be a problem with how the brain receives information from each of these senses, or how the brain organizes this information, or how the child is able to express the information his or her brain has received and organized. Thus, any area of a child’s learning may be affected - language, numeracy, fine or gross motor, reasoning, memory, metacognition, attention, organizational, social skills, etc.Students who have learning disabilities may exhibit a wide range of traits, including problems with reading comprehension, spoken language, writing, or reasoning ability. Hyperactivity, inattention, and perceptual coordination problems may also be associated with learning disabilities. Other traits that may be present include a variety of symptoms, such as uneven and unpredictable test performance, perceptual impairments, motor disorders, and behaviors such as impulsiveness, low tolerance for frustration, and problems in handling day-to-day social interactions and situations.