WHATIFWHENYOUTRIEDTOREADANYTHING
ITALLLOOKEDLIKETHIS!

ORW HATI FTH EWOR DSDI DNT
BE GINA ND ENDI NPLA CEST THA TMADE SEN SE?

TAHA IF EHT SRETTEL EREW NI ESREVER REDRO?
OTU FO ODERR?
Can you imagine, if that was how you saw things? What if you were asked to read something out loud, at school or work and the words seemed to be all over the page?
w re o n al o pa
T o s e t a e lv eg e.
e ds m c er h
h d t
And, what if in addition to all of that, people called you dumb, lazy, or stupid, and YOU know you're not?

Those are just some of the learning problems that children (and adults) go through everyt day. Yes, it make learning difficult, but NOT impossible! Children, and adults, with learning disabilities are not that different than their peers.
What IS different, is HOW THEY LEARN!



There are four steps that must occur for learning to happen:
1. INPUT : where information is entered into the brain by the senses - visual, hearing, touching
2. INTEGRATION: the information that is received is processed and interpreted
3. MEMORY: informations must be used or stored and later retrieved
4. OUTPUT: information must be sent out through language or motor activities

I'll be making each step into a link that talks about each one and how it has its own learning problems, and steps that can be taken to help a person with those issues.



Since my focus on these pages IS learning disabilities and NF, thats what I'm going to focus on here. Most of my information is coming from a small booklet titled "Achieving in spite of...A booklet on learning disabilities" Published by The National Neurofirbromatosis Foundation Inc.

The NNFinc found that children and adolescents with NF tend to have a set of "characteristics".

---> General Cognitive (IQ) Average skills are most common, above average does occur.

---> Language Language dysfunction is common but may not be identified.

---> Memory Memory for stories is stronger than memories for pictures, shapes and other visual forms.

---> Attention Further research on attentional skills in NF is needed *NOTE* I've found that some researchers say that ADD/ADHD is more common in NF, and other say it isn't! Confusing huh?

---> Visual-perception Averages skills for simple visual discrimination & visual perception of figure-ground relationships

---> Visual-spatial Dysfunction occures in complex, problem solving for visual-spatial information

---> Motor Dysfunction is common and may affect developement of moter based skills (such as daily living, work or recreationa skills) expected for one's age.

---> Visual-motor intergration Dysfuntion is common and may affet fluency and efficiency of writing, copying, and drawing skills

---> Reading Average skills are common

---> Math Learning disablities are likely to occur

---> Written experssion learning disabilities are common but may not be identified

---> Learning disabilites learning disabilities or low academic achievementare more likely found in those students with more than one area of dysfunction in development

---> Problem behavior Behaviors associated with being anxious or depressed are common in children and adolescents with NF

---> Adaptive behavior average social skills are common

---> Psychosocial Withing a family the child with NF is likely to be less competent in many skills than a brotehr or sister who does not have NF. Social problems are common. Children and adolescents with NF often have difficulty being accepted by other children at school and in the community




Areas that a child/adolescent might have "disfunction" in and a discription of what the problem could be.....

~*~ Weak attention to verbal information Poor listening skills and distractability in situations such as school or in groups where much talking occures. Difficulty listening for long periods of time.

~ *~ Weak verbal memory Poor memory for rules of language or sequences of words

~*~ Weak understanding of word meaning Limited vocabulay, poor reading comprehension, trouble with word problems in math.

~*~ Weak interpretation of languageDifficulty with multiple meanings of words such as in ambiguity, irony and metaphor.

~*~ Weak verbal reasoningPoor verbal problem-solving skills.

~*~ Poor understanding of language in social situations Trouble with interpreting a persons's meaning or intentions in social situations. Trouble using language appropriate to sicalsituation (verbalsocial skills).

~*~ Difficulty distinguishing sounds Problems with sound-symbol association in reading and phonics.

~*~ Weak word finding Limited vocabulary. Slow word retrieval.

~*~ Disorganization in communication Problems tarting and organizing spoken or written language for describing events or telling stories. Limited speaking or making statements tht don't make sense.

~*~ Weak weak visual-spatial skills Difficulty with skills of interpreting position or directin and orienting oneself to surroundings.

~*~ Weak simultaneous processing of visual-spatial information Difficulty interpreting, organizing or working precisely with spatial information such as maps, diagrams, graphs, adn complex chars, mustic nd mathematics. Poor spatial panning and visual organization for writing and drawing and organizing material spatially on a page.

~*~ Weak visual-motor intergration Slow, uncoordinated adn imprecise copying, writing numbers and wrods or drawings. Poor mechanical and construction skills for arts and crafts or for building or fixing things. Poor athletic skills for atching, hitting or kicking a ball.

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