bicycle. people with fine motor difficulties may have trouble with handwriting, buttoning shirts, or tying shoelaces. by function impaired deficits in any area of information processing can manifest in a variety of specific learning disabilities. it is possible for an individual to have more than one of these difficulties. this is referred to as comorbidity or co-occurrence of learning disabilities. in the uk, the term dual diagnosis is often used to refer to co-occurrence of learning difficulties. reading disorder (icd-10 and dsm-iv codes: f81.0/315.00) reading disorder is the most common learning disability. of all students with specific learning disabilities, 70–80% have deficits in reading. the term "developmental dyslexia" is often used as a synonym for reading disability; however, many researchers assert that there are different types of reading disabilities, of which dyslexia is one. a reading disability can affect any part of the reading process, including difficulty with accurate or fluent word recognition, or both, word decoding, reading rate, prosody (oral reading with expression), and reading comprehension. before the term "dyslexia" came to prominence, this learning disability used to be known as "word blindness." common indicators of reading disability include difficulty with phonemic awareness—the ability to break up words into their component sounds, and difficulty with matching letter combinations to specific sounds (sound-symbol correspondence). disorder of written expression (icd-10 and dsm-iv-tr codes 315.2) the dsm-iv-tr criteria for a disorder of written expression is writing skills (as measured by a standardized test or functional assessment) that fall substantially below those expected based on the individual's chronological age, measured intelligence, and age-appropriate education, (criterion a). this difficulty must also cause significant impairment to academic achievement and tasks that require composition of written text (criterion b), and if a sensory deficit is present, the difficulties with writing skills must exceed those typically associated with the sensory deficit, (criterion c). individuals with a diagnosis of a disorder of written expression typically have a combination of difficulties in their abilities with written expression as evidenced by grammatical and punctuation errors within sentences, poor paragraph organization, multiple spelling errors, and excessively poor penmanship. a disorder in spelling or handwriting without other difficulties of written expression do not generally qualify for this diagnosis. if poor handwriting is due to an impairment in the individuals' motor coordination, a diagnosis of developmental coordination disorder should be considered. by a number of organizations, the term "dysgraphia" has been used as an overarching term for all disorders of written expression. math disability (icd-10 and dsm-iv codes f81.2-3/315.1) further information: dyscalculia sometimes called dyscalculia, a math disability involves difficulties such as learning math concepts (such as quantity, place value, and time), difficulty memorizing math facts, difficulty organizing numbers, and understanding how problems are organized on the page. dyscalculics are often referred to as having poor "number sense". non icd-10/dsm nonverbal learning disability: nonverbal learning disabilities often manifest in motor clumsiness, poor visual-spatial skills, problematic social relationships, difficulty with mathematics, and poor organizational skills. these individuals often have specific strengths in the verbal domains, including early speech, large vocabulary, early reading and spelling skills, excellent rote memory and auditory retention, and eloquent self-expression. disorders of speaking and listening: difficulties that often co-occur with learning disabilities include difficulty with memory, social skills and executive functions (such as organizational skills and time management). management spell checkers are one tool for managing learning disabilities. interventions include: mastery model: learners work at their own level of mastery. practice gain fundamental skills before moving onto the next level note: this approach is most likely to be used with adult learners or outside the mainstream school system. direct instruction: emphasizes carefully planned lessons for small learning increments scripted lesson plans rapid-paced interaction between teacher and students correcting mistakes immediately achievement-based grouping frequent progress assessments classroom adjustments: special seating assignments alternative or modified assignments modified testing procedures quiet environment special equipment: word processors with spell checkers and dictionaries text-to-speech and speech-to-text programs talking calculators books on tape computer-based activities classroom assistants: note-takers readers proofreaders scribes special education: prescribed hours in a resource room placement in a resource room enrollment in a special school or a separate classroom in a regular school for learning disabled students individual education plan (iep) educational therapy sternberg has argued that early remediation can greatly reduce the number of children meeting diagnostic criteria for learning disabilities. he has also suggested that the focus on learning disabilities and the provision of accommodations in school fails to acknowledge that people have a range of strengths and weaknesses, and places undue emphasis on academic success by insisting that people should receive additional support in this arena but not in music or sports. other research has pinpointed the use of resource rooms as an important—yet often politicized component of educating students with learning disabilities. helping individuals with learning disabilities many individuals with learning disabilities may not openly disclose their condition. some experts say that an instructor directly asking or assuming potential disabilities could cause potential harm to an individual’s self esteem. in addition, if information about certain disabilities were made aware, it may be beneficial to be mindful about one’s approach regarding the disability and avoid vocabulary that may insinuate that the learning disability is an obstacle or shortcoming as this may potentially be harmful to an individuals mental health and self esteem. research suggests that accumulating positive experiences such as success in interpersonal relationships, achievements, and overcoming stress leads to the formation of self-esteem leading to the acceptance of one’s disability and a better life outcome. this suggests that working with the disability may result in more positive outcomes rather than attempting to fix it. as an instructor or tutor, it may be helpful to consider asking the needs of individuals with disabilities as they know their disability the best. some question to consider: what part of the assignment do you want to focus on? where in our space would you most prefer to work? what tools or technologies do you tend to use most frequently when you write? are you comfortable reading your paper out loud or would you prefer if i read it? how do you learn best (i.e. do you learn best by doing, seeing, or hearing)? society and culture school laws schools in the united states have a legal obligation to new arrivals to the country, including undocumented students. the landmark supreme court ruling plyler v. doe (1982) grants all children, no matter their legal status, the right to a free education. this ruling suggests that as a country we acknowledge that we have a population of students with specific needs that differ from those of native speakers. additionally specifically in regards to ell's the supreme court ruling lau v. nichols (1974) stated that equal treatment in school did not mean equal educational opportunity. thus if a school teaches a lesson in a language that students do not understand then they are effectively worthless. this ruling is also supported by english language development services provided in schools, but these rulings do not require the individuals that teach and provide services to have any specific training nor is licensing different from a typical teacher or services provider. issues regarding standardized testing problems still exist regarding the fairness of standardized testing. providing testing accommodations to students with learning disabilities has become increasingly common. one of such issues that introduce iniquity to those with disabilities is the handwriting bias. the handwriting bias involves the tendency of raters to identify more personally with authors of handwritten essays compared to word-processed essays resulting in awarding a higher rating to the handwritten essays despite both essays being identical in terms of content. several studies have analyzed the differences in standardized scores of handwriting and word-processed (typed) essays between students with and without disability. results suggest handwritten essays of students with and without disabilities consistently received higher scores compared to word processed versions. critique of the medical model learning disability theory is founded in the medical model of disability, in that disability is perceived as an individual deficit that is biological in origin. researchers working within a social model of disability assert that there are social or structural causes of disability or the assignation of the label of disability, and even that disability is entirely socially constructed. since the turn of the 19th century, education in the united states has been geared toward producing citizens who can effectively contribute to a capitalistic society, with a cultural premium on efficiency and science. more agrarian cultures, for example, do not even use learning ability as a measure of adult adequacy, whereas the diagnosis of learning disabilities is prevalent in western capitalistic societies because of the high value placed on speed, literacy, and numeracy in both the labor force and school system. culture there are three patterns that are well known in regards to mainstream students and minority labels in the united states: "a higher percentage of minority children than of white children are assigned to special education"; "within special education, white children are assigned to less restrictive programs than are their minority counterparts"; "the data — driven by inconsistent methods of diagnosis, treatment, and funding — make the overall system difficult to describe or change". in the present day, it has been reported that white districts have more children from minority backgrounds enrolled in special education than they do majority students. "it was also suggested that districts with a higher percentage of minority faculty had fewer minority students placed in special education suggesting that 'minority students are treated differently in predominantly white districts than in predominantly minority districts'". educators have only recently started to look into the effects of culture on learning disabilities. if a teacher ignores a student's culturally diverse background, the student will suffer in the class. "the cultural repertoires of students from cultural learning disorder backgrounds have an impact on their learning, school progress, and behavior in the classroom". these students may then act out and not excel in the classroom and will, therefore, be misdiagnosed: "overall, the data indicates that there is a persistent concern regarding the misdiagnosis and inappropriate placement of students from diverse backgrounds in special education classes since the 1975". social roots of learning disabilities in the u.s. learning disabilities have a disproportionate identification of racial and ethnic minorities and students who have low socioeconomic status (ses). while some attribute the disproportionate identification of racial/ethnic minorities to racist practices or cultural misunderstanding, others have argued that racial/ethnic minorities are overidentified because of their lower status. similarities were noted between the behaviors of "brain-injured" and lower class students as early as the 1960s. the distinction between race/ethnicity and ses is important to the extent that these considerations contribute to the provision of services to children in need. while many studies have considered only one characteristic of the student at a time, or used district- or school-level data to examine this issue, more recent studies have used large national student-level datasets and sophisticated methodology to find that the disproportionate identification of african american students with learning disabilities can be attributed to their average lower ses, while the disproportionate identification of latino youth seems to be attributable to difficulties in distinguishing between linguistic proficiency and learning ability. although the contributing factors are complicated and interrelated, it is possible to discern which factors really drive disproportionate identification by considering a multitude of student characteristics simultaneously. for instance, if high ses minorities have rates of identification that are similar to the rates among high ses whites, and low ses minorities have rates of identification that are similar to the rates among low ses whites, we can know that the seemingly higher rates of identification among minorities result from their greater likelihood to have low ses. summarily, because the risk of identification for white students who have low ses is similar to that of black students who have low ses, future research and policy reform should focus on identifying the shared qualities or experiences of low ses youth that lead to their disproportionate identification, rather than focusing exclusively on racial/ethnic minorities. it remains to be determined why lower ses youth are at higher risk of incidence, or possibly just of identification, with learning disabilities. learning disabilities in adulthood a common misconception about those with learning disabilities is that they outgrow it