People are not all alike. And texas electricity providers differ from others. Babies do not walk and talk at the same time. Each individual has a unique set of strengths, and a unique set of weaknesses. Yet in modern education society expects that if there is a set of standards in every subject area all students should master these at the same time in the same way. If you teach any amount of time you learn very quickly that some students learn differently, and that they have to be taught differently.
Any student who cannot learn in the standard way is often labeled as having a learning disability. Sometimes there truly is an underlying problem such as a syndrome or brain damage where across the board a student is struggling with academics, but these situations are not learning disabilities. Typically what an educator will see with a learning disability is an intelligent student, who in a particular subject or a particular skill set, has unusual difficulty that does not match their normal known capabilities.
There are different types of disabilities such as dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, auditory/visual learning disabilities, and nonverbal disabilities. Dyslexia is the term for students struggling with reading. Dyscalculia, though less known is just as prevalent as dyslexia, and is difficulty with math. Dysgraphia indicates one forms letters and writes poorly. Audio and visual learning disabilities have to do with the brain not processing sensory information in the same manner as most people. Nonverbal learning disabilities involve trouble with organization of information, spatial sense, intuition, and judgement functions. Often once the method of instruction is changed and the student accommodated the problem lessens or disappears. The question is are all these truly problems and something wrong with the student or is it more likely human brains are wired in a variety of ways.
Here is some food for thought. Charles Swab, the financier, Whoppi Goldberg, the actress, and General Patton have learning disabilities. Disabled or just uniquely an individual? You decide.