Q.
What are learning disabilities?
A.
Learning disabilities are a group of disorders that affect a person’s
ability to either interpret what they see and hear or to link
information from different parts of the brain. Learning disabilities
may affect a person’s ability to speak, listen, read, write,
spell, reason, recall, organize information or to do mathematics.
These disorders are seen in people who have normal intelligence
but due to some differences in the connections in the brain, they
affect various speech, articulations, coordination and academic
aspects of the development.
Q.
What are the causes of learning disabilities? How do they occur?
A.
Though, at present, what exactly causes learning disability is
not known, a leading theory is that they arise from subtle disturbances
in brain structures and functions.
In
many cases, the disturbance may begin before birth. If the brain
disturbance occurs early in pregnancy, the fetus may die or the
baby may have mental retardation. If these disturbances occur
later in pregnancy they may show up as learning disabilities.
Some
learning disabilities may run in families indicating an inheritance.
However, a parent’s learning disability may be slightly different
than in the child.
Other
factors that are associated with learning disabilities are:
- Tobacco,
alcohol and drug use by mother during pregnancy.
- Problems
during pregnancy or delivery.
- Children
with neurofibromatosis and Tourette syndrome.
- Children
with cancer exposed to radiation to the skull.
- Low
birth weight babies.
- Head
trauma in children.
- Children
exposed to lead and cadmium.
It
has been found that there may be variations in the brain structure
called planum temporale, a language related area found on both
sides of the brain. In people with dyslexia, the two structures
are found to be equal in size. In people who are not dyslexic,
however the left planum temporale is found to be noticeably larger.
Last created on 20-01-2001
Last updated on 18-11-2006
