General & Specific Learning Disabilities

Reading, Writing, Written Expression, Spelling, Arithmetic—essential skills for a student’s smooth academic progress and foundational tools for an individual’s professional and socio-economic advancement.

If you suspect that your child is struggling with these skills, it might be due to a Learning Difficulty of biological origin, such as Dyslexia, Dysorthographia, Dyscalculia, Mixed Learning Disorder, or a general learning difficulty caused by negative environmental factors or low intelligence.

The Greek Social Security agency (EOPYY) COVERS the cost of treatment

General & Specific Learning Difficulties: Similarities - Differences

Reading and Writing are the fundamental skills for our vocational and socio-economic development, as well as for our success-happiness. As opposed to speech, learning to read and write require appropriate education and practice.

Any Learning Difficulties have to be diagnosed and treated the earliest possible, preferably during the preschool period (e.g. with the objective, biological Pavlidis Test), otherwise, if not treated in good time and successfully, then daily school failure leads to feeling at a disadvantage, with reduced self-confidence and self-esteem, as well as other psycho-social problems.

Definitions of Learning Difficulties

There are numerous and various definitions of Learning Difficulties, but unfortunately there is no universally accepted international, positive-aetiological definition. What all definitions have in common is the exclusion criteria. In other words, due to lack of appropriate scientific knowledge we exclude all possible causes known to cause General Learning Difficulties and, if such causes cannot explain the difficulties, then the diagnostician takes into account the psycho-educational performance of the child in comparison to that expected for the average performance for his grade and age.

The best definition of dyslexia is the one adopted by the World Federation of Neurology and was given by its President Prof. Critchley (1981), in: Pavlidis and Miles (eds):

‘Developmental dyslexia is a learning disability which initially shows itself by difficulty in learning to read, and later by erratic spelling and by lack of facility in manipulating written as opposed to spoken words. The condition is cognitive in essence, and usually genetically determined. It is not due to intellectual inadequacy or to lack of socio-cultural opportunity, or to emotional factors, or to any known structural brain-deficit. It probably represents a specific maturational defect which tends to lessen as the child grows older, and is capable of considerable improvement, especially when appropriate remedial help is afforded at the earliest opportunity’.

Categories of Learning Difficulties

Learning Difficulties are distinguished into 2 categories: 1) General & 2) Specific.

General Learning Difficulties
They are usually of Secondary, Extrinsic or Environmental Aetiology. They are caused by negative psycho-educational and environmental circumstances, lack of effort, low IQ or significant sensory or cerebral lesions, which are related to the disorder (e.g., visual impairment does not allow one to read properly).

Students with a General Learning Difficulty are lagging behind in all subjects, whether examined in oral or written form, in humanities and sciences.

Specific Learning Difficulties (Dyslexia, Dysorthography, Dysgraphia, Dyscalculia)
They are usually Learning Difficulties of Primary – Biological aetiology, which make the child lag behind in specific types of subjects. They presuppose:

Normal or higher intelligence or, at least not low;

Biological – neurological cause. In other words, these inpiduals are born with dyslexia, etc, and the conditions are not caused by the environment.

Dyslexia and Dysorthography are the commonest Specific Learning Difficulties. More specifically, according to the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association), these difficulties are:

Reading disorder (Dyslexia)

Mathematics disorder (Dyscalculia)

Written expression disorder (Dysorthography)

Learning difficulties not defined otherwise

On the other hand, according to the ICD-10 (the Diagnostic Manual of the World Health Organisation), these difficulties are:

Reading specific disorder (Dyslexia)

Writing specific disorder (Dysorthography)

Arithmetic skills specific disorder (Dyscalculia)

Disorder of scholastic skills, unspecified

Pupils with Specific Learning Difficulty lag behind only is some school subjects; for example, they may be better in sciences/practical subjects and oral communication, while they are lagging behind in humanities/theoretical subjects and written expression, and that is why they are examined orally at all educational levels or they are given extra time during exams.

Specific Learning Difficulties cannot be caused by laziness (a lazy person is lazy in everything and in all school subjects), nor by the same causes as General Learning Difficulties (because, in that case, they would be the same as General Learning Difficulties).

Dysgraphia - Written expression disorder

The pupil’s writing competence is significantly lower than their oral expression of the same concepts and of their expected performance, according to their age, effort, intelligence and appropriate training.

The condition is characterised by difficulty in transferring thoughts in written form, i.e., write sentences that are grammatically and syntactically correct and organised paragraphs (they are usually too short, almost like a telegram and disconnected).

Usually such pupils make spelling mistakes/errors (although they know the grammatical rules, they cannot implement them correctly), they do not write in an orderly manner, their hand writing is often illegible or ‘bad’, e.g., non-uniform size, merging lines, scale and shape of letters, words, slow writing pace, etc. Dysgraphia and Dysorthography are independent of one’s ability to read correctly and fast, but they are very often associated with Dyslexia, which has as fundamental lifelong diagnostic criterion the very slow reading with mistakes. Furthermore, there is very often co-existent ADHD and mainly, Attention Deficit.

It is assessed with standardised tests, usually given inpidually. For a Dysgraphia-Dysorthography, Dyscalculia and Dyslexia diagnosis to be made based on the symptoms described above, it is necessary for these difficulties to also significantly interfere with school-academic performance or daily life.

Picture 1. Spelling – Report of a Dyslexic Child with Dysgraphia, 10 Years 2 Months Old

PICTURE 2. Spelling of a Dyslexic Boy with Dysgraphia, 9 Years Old

Dyscalculia - Mathematics disorder

The pupil’s mathematical competence is significantly lower than expected, according to their age, effort, intelligence and appropriate training.

The condition is characterised by a significant degree of one or more of the following difficulties:

Problem solving (Mathematical reasoning).

Performing arithmetic sums (sometimes the reasoning is right, but the result is wrong).

Multiplication tables.

Mental calculations.

Remembering mathematical equations and concepts.

Reading or writing mathematical symbols, especially those with similar appearances (e.g., “6” and “9,” “9” and “ρ,” “3” and “8,” or “3” and “ε”).

Reversing two digits when reading them (e.g., 37 as 73).

Understanding concepts of time.

Telling the time on a clock.

Managing time effectively (e.g., unnecessary breaks).

Following sequences in general (e.g., tying shoelaces, buttoning a shirt, tying a tie).

Understanding chronological sequences (e.g., yesterday, today, tomorrow).

Orientation (e.g., distinguishing between right and left).

Navigating directions.

Managing money and financial transactions.

This usually coexists with other Learning Difficulties, e.g., Dyslexia, Dysorthography, Dysgraphia and ADHD.

It is assessed with standardised tests usually given inpidually. The diagnosis of Dyscalculia is based on the symptoms described above and it is necessary for these difficulties to also significantly interfere with school-academic performance or daily life.

You cannot change your child as much as you can change yourselves. Implement the treatment in favourable conditions, when you and your child are not hungry, when you feel rested and without stress.

Show your child your endless love, understanding and kindness. Teach him/her through your positive example.

Your child is still the same child of yours, with or without the diagnosis of autism. Correct diagnosis does not create a problem; on the contrary, it helps you select the right treatment methods for your child.

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