
Overview
According to the federal regulations at
34 CFR 300.8(c)(10), a 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 the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations. These include conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. For more information regarding specific learning disability, visit the
Disability Areas page.
Dyslexia is a reading or language-based learning disability that makes it difficult to read, write, and/or spell. Young children may have trouble recognizing letters, matching letters to sounds, blending sounds into speech, pronouncing words (for example, saying “mawn lower” instead of “lawn mower”); learning and correctly using new vocabulary words; learning the alphabet, numbers, and days of the week or similar common work sequences; and rhyming. The diagram above provides a visual of some of the difficulties that students with dyslexia face in the classroom.