Specific learning disability means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations.

Dyslexia

There are many types of specific learning disorders, the primary three involving math, writing, and reading. Of those, disabilities in reading are the most prominent. Today, a common way to refer to a reading disability is to call it dyslexia. There is much misinformation regarding this. Many refer to dyslexia in a way that portrays it as more severe or different than a reading disability when, in fact, they are the same thing. A good analogy would when a mother refers to her child as a one year old versus a 12 month old. They mean the same thing. Within reading disabilities, various aspects of understanding language can be compromised – comprehension, fluency, and/or decoding. 

When a reader struggles with phonetics, he or she will rely on orthographic cues to identify a word. Because they do not rely on letter to sound conversions, they often guess at words based on the context and the first word. They often approach learning to read by memorizing words. Thus, while fluency may seem average for these readers, the accuracy is lacking. Further, because these children do not perceive discrete sounds, interventions targeting phonological awareness are key. Neurologically, the area of the brain that organizes phonemes is located in the temporal and parietal lobes-the supramarginal gyrus. 

Opposite of this are readers who rely very heavily on phonemes while reading. Listening to them painstakingly sound out letters and words can wear parents and teachers down. Fluency suffers most, thus teaching these readers to pace themselves and to read same passages repeatedly can improve fluency. It is a good thing when your toddler asks you read the same book repeatedly every night before bed! The region of the brain impacted by this style of reading disability is the angular gyrus, which is located in the parietal lobe. 

Readers who struggle with comprehension often have working memory deficits that are apparent in other areas of their life in addition to not understanding what they read. These readers need a multi-sensory approach to learning and reading passages. Finally, there can be combinations of these reading deficits in some people. In any case, they typically have great strengths in other areas of intelligence and life.

Book recommendation: Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz