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Discovering that your child has a learning disability is like finding yourself in a maze of assessments, diagnosis, and decisions. Part of the challenge for parents is understanding the definition of the disability and how to get the right help for their child. 

At Rockwood Prep, we put together this basic glossary of terms and definitions, that we like to call Name That Learning Disability. We hope that it will be helpful to you.

But, first, what is a learning disability?

Learning disabilities are a group of neurological disorders are often manifested as a difficulty in learning, sorting, and storing information. Children with learning disabilities may have difficulty with skills such as speaking, reading, writing, reasoning, listening, or performing mathematical calculations. Much of the time, learning disabilities are not identified until a child reaches school age.

ADHD

Although ADHD is not considered a learning disability, research indicates that from 30-50 percent of children with ADHD also have a specific learning disability. ADHD can make learning extremely challenging because of the difficulty of staying focused and paying attention, difficulty controlling behavior and hyperactivity. 

Autism

Autism, or autism spectrum disorder (ASD), refers to a broad range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication. Children with autism spectrum disorders may have trouble communicating, reading body language, learning basic skills, making friends, and making eye contact.

Aphasia/Dysphasia 

Aphasia and Dysphasia are a language-based learning disorder that involves problems with verbal language skills, such as the ability to retell a story and the fluency of speech, as well as the ability to understand the meaning of words, parts of speech, directions, etc.

Visual Processing Disorder

Problems in visual perception include missing subtle differences in shapes, reversing letters or numbers, skipping words, skipping lines, misperceiving depth or distance, or having problems with eye–hand coordination. Visual perception can affect gross and fine motor skills, reading comprehension, and math.

Auditory Processing Disorder

Professionals may refer to the ability to hear well as “auditory processing skills” or “receptive language.” The ability to hear things correctly greatly impacts the ability to read, write, and spell. An inability to distinguish subtle differences in sound, or hearing sounds at the wrong speed make it difficult to sound out words and understand the basic concepts of reading and writing.

Dyspraxia

Dyspraxia is also known as a Sensory Integration Disorder that is characterized by difficulty in muscle control, which causes problems with movement and coordination, language and speech, and can affect learning. Although not a learning disability, dyspraxia often exists along with dyslexia, dyscalculia, or ADHD. Motor difficulty refers to problems with movement and coordination whether it is with fine motor skills (cutting, writing, buttoning a shirt) or gross motor skills (running, jumping). 

Dyscalculia

Dyscalculia is a specific learning disability that affects a person’s ability to understand numbers and learn math facts. Individuals with this type of learning disability may also have poor comprehension of math symbols, may struggle with memorizing and organizing numbers, and have difficulty telling time, or have trouble with counting.

Dysgraphia

Learning disabilities in writing can involve the physical act of writing or the mental activity of comprehending and synthesizing information is known as Dysgraphia. Problems may include illegible handwriting, inconsistent spacing, poor spatial planning on paper, poor spelling, and difficulty composing writing as well as thinking and writing at the same time.

Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that affects reading and related language-based processing skills. The severity can differ in each individual but can affect reading fluency, decoding, reading comprehension, recall, writing, spelling, and sometimes speech and can exist along with other related disorders. 

Executive Function

Executive Function is an inefficiency in the cognitive management systems of the brain that affects a variety of neuropsychological processes such as planning, organization, strategizing, paying attention to and remembering details, and managing time and space. Although not a learning disability, different patterns of weakness in executive functioning are almost always seen in the learning profiles of individuals who have specific learning disabilities or ADHD.

Non-Verbal Learning Disability

A disorder which is usually characterized by a significant discrepancy between higher verbal skills and weaker motor, visual-spatial and social skills. Typically, an individual with a Non-Verbal Learning Disability (NLD or NVLD) has trouble interpreting nonverbal cues like facial expressions or body language and may have poor coordination.

Oral/Written Language Disorder

Individuals with an Oral/Written Language Disorder and Specific Reading Comprehension Deficit struggle with understanding and/or expressing language often in both oral and written forms. These individuals often exhibit Specific Language Impairment related to deficits in semantic processing and syntactic processing.

About Rockwood Preparatory Academy

Rockwood Preparatory Academy provides education and therapies to the special needs community. Our responsibility not only lies with our students but is also extended to all individuals with learning disabilities and developmental delayed attributes. That’s why we also provide critical therapies, social |behavioral skills groups, and other enriching activities to the entire special needs community. 

Our signature My Turn® programs and modalities greatly enhance the overall development of children with special needs in a positive, joyful environment.

Students, ages 5- 18 attending Rockwood Prep spend part of their day setting and achieving academic goals, while learning how to adapt and thrive with their unique set of social, behavioral, and educational challenges. The second part of the school day includes fin and innovative activities and therapies with tangible wins and successes.

To request a tour of the school or to learn more, email us.

Source: https://ldaamerica.org/

Dyslexia is a language-based learning disability that includes difficulty in the use and processing of linguistic and symbolic codes, alphabetic letters representing speech sounds, or numeric representing numbers or quantities.

Children with Dyslexia usually experience difficulties with spelling, reading, writing, and pronunciation. According to NIH research, of those who are placed in special education for a learning disability, around 80% of those have dyslexia.

Cluster symptoms play a role in diagnosing Dyslexia. Here’s an adapted checklist that you can use to help with early diagnosis of Dyslexia, courtesy of www.dyslexiasupportservices.com.au.

• Family history of reading and/or spelling difficulties
• Has difficulty in paying attention, sitting still, or listening to stories
• Finds it hard to carry out two or more instructions at a time
• Often doesn’t like reading books
• Reads below the standard level
• Difficulties with comprehension
• Problem remembering homework assignments
• Poor short-term memory
• Often has difficulty separating sounds into words, isolating sounds in words, or blending sounds to make words
• When reading will often lose their place on a line
• Can read a word on one page, but doesn’t recognize it on the next page
• Has poor handwriting, badly formed letters
• Has neat handwriting but writes very slowly
• Writing is very messy with many words crossed out
• Has trouble learning colors, days of the week, months of the year, and their birthdate
• Can think at a high level in mathematics, but needs a calculator for simple equations
• Has trouble retaining facts
• Has extreme difficulty in telling time
• Poor concentration
• Seems to daydream frequently

Children with Dyslexia have a unique and wonderful brain function. And, although they struggle with reading, spelling, writing, and at times math. difficult. They often have strengths and gifts in other areas controlled by the right hemisphere of the brain. They are particularly strong in creative areas and design. Most children with dyslexia are artistic or they have athletic, musical, cooking and mechanical ability, along with great imaginations.  

There are many other cluster symptoms associated with dyslexia. To get help for your child, email us.

About Rockwood Preparatory Academy

Rockwood Preparatory Academy provides education and therapies to the special needs community. Our responsibility not only lies with our students but is also extended to all individuals with learning disabilities and developmental delayed attributes. That’s why we also provide critical therapies, social |behavioral skills groups, and other enriching activities to the entire special needs community. 

Our signature My turn® programs and modalities greatly enhance the overall development of children with special needs in a positive, joyful environment.

Students, ages 5- 18 attending Rockwood Prep spend part of their day setting and achieving academic goals, while learning how to adapt and thrive with their unique set of social, behavioral, and educational challenges. The second part of the school day includes fin and innovative activities and therapies with tangible wins and successes.

To request a tour of the school or to learn more, email us.

Well, Hello Rachel Meyers!

Ms. Meyers brings exciting expertise in both Applied Behavior Analysis and Administration to her new role as ABA Director at Rockwood Prep. Her responsibilities will include the ongoing training and mentoring of the school’s Behavioral Tech Team as well as the continued development and build-out of the specialized behavior program for children and teens.

Ms. Meyers was named as MVP for her record-setting home run hits while attending Phoenix College. She harnesses that same all-star attitude and skillset when working with children with Autism. 

Additionally, Ms. Meyers obtained a Master’s in Healthcare Administration from Grand Canyon University. Prior to joining Rockwood Prep, Ms. Meyers worked as a highly sought-after Behavior Technician at _____________.  

If you have questions for Ms. Meyers, you can reach here at rachel@rockwoodprep.com.

Why Applied Behavior Analysis Works

Understanding the cause and effect of behaviors in ABA, or Applied Behavior Analysis, is key to tapping into increasing positive behaviors and actions, while decreasing negative behaviors.

ABA Therapy is can benefit children with varied learning disabilities, but is especially helpful for children with autism.

ABA Therapy Programs Can:

• Decrease problematic behaviors
• Increase communication skills
• Improve attention, focus, and memory 
• Enhance social skills and confidence

Rockwood Prep is committed to integration of ABA therapy because can easily be adapted to meet the unique needs of each child. The customization of the ABA program works with each learner’s needs, interests, and family situation. The emphasis is always on positive reinforcements and enjoyable learning.

About Rockwood Preparatory Academy

Rockwood Preparatory Academy provides education and therapies to the special needs community. Our responsibility not only lies with our students but is also extended to all individuals with learning disabilities and developmental delayed attributes. That’s why we also provide critical therapies, social |behavioral skills groups, and other enriching activities to the entire special needs community. 

Our signature My turn® programs and modalities greatly enhance the overall development of children with special needs in a positive, joyful environment.

Students, ages 5- 18 attending Rockwood Prep spend part of their day setting and achieving academic goals, while learning how to adapt and thrive with their unique set of social, behavioral, and educational challenges. The second part of the school day includes fin and innovative activities and therapies with tangible wins and successes.

To request a tour of the school or to learn more, email us.

Privacy Matters

At Rockwood Preparatory Academy, we follow industry standards on information security management to safeguard sensitive information, such as medical information, financial information, and any other personal information entrusted to us. 

Additionally, it is important for you to know that we do not share or sell your personal information. 

In order to give you the best possible experience on our website, we collect certain information digitally and store it in log files, This information includes Internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, Internet service provider (ISP), referring and exit pages, the files viewed on our, operating system, clickstream data, and a date/time stamp.

We use this information to analyze trends, administer our website, track website visitor’s movements, and gather helpful demographic information about our site visitors.

We ask parents to provide their email address so that we can communicate school-related information. We are committed to giving you content (whether by email or on our website) that’s relevant, interesting, and personal to you and your student. You may opt-out from receiving our email messages by responding to the Unsubscribe link found in the footer section of every email we send. 

We use cookies and other similar technologies on our website to keep track of your local computer’s settings such as notification settings. Cookies are pieces of data that sites and services can set on your computer browser or device that can be read on future visits. We may expand our use of cookies to save additional data as new tracking and recording features are added. In addition, we use web beacons and single-pixel gifs to record log data such as open rates for emails sent by our system. Please note that you can disable cookies by changing your browser settings.

We also use third-party website analytic tools such as Google Analytics on our website to collect certain information about your use of our website. 

No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. So, we cannot guarantee the absolute security of your personal information. However, we take steps to protect your information from unauthorized access and accidental loss. We only keep your personal information for as long as reasonably required, and only for as long as U.S. Data Protection Legislation allows.

If you would like to speak with us about this Policy and any of our safeguards, please contact:

Rockwood Preparatory Academy

2510 E Hunt Hwy.

Queen Creek, AZ, 85143

or by email: info@rockwoodprep.com.   

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