The evaluation and treatment of learning disorders in children and adolescents

Learning Disorders





Approximately 5 percent of students in public schools are determined as having some type ofLearning Disorder. The diagnosis is usually made in the early grades of elementary school when the specific deficits in acquiring basic skills first become apparent . Learning disorders may not be identified until the later grades in children with especially high IQs whose intelligence may provide something of a buffer until they are faced with more advanced learning tasks.





Learning Disorders constitute a child's inability to develop and perform the skills of reading, writing, or arithmetic far below what is anticipated given his or her age, IQ, and schooling.Reading disorder, also known as Dyslexia, is characterized by slow reading speed and problems with comprehension and reading accuracy . The Disorders of Written Expression are characterized by difficulties with spelling, grammar, and paragraph organization. Individuals with Mathematic Disorder have problems learning to count, copy numbers, perform simple calculations, and think spatially. 





Kaynaz Nasseri is a psychology therapist specializing in the evaluation and treatment of Learning Disorders in children and adolescents. Her psychotherapy practice is located in Newport Beach, but she helps patients that visit her from all of Southern California, including Orange County, San Diego, and Los Angeles are exact and circumscribed deficits as opposed to Mental Retardation, which includes problems in most of the intellectual functions that reflect general intelligence. No one is perfect in reading, writing, or arithmetic. Learning disorders must be differentiated from normal variations in academic achievement as well as from scholastic challenges due to a lack of educational opportunity, poor motivation, or insufficient teaching. Learning Disorder does not refer to the expectable range of strengths and weaknesses in various school subjects that all of us have. For instance, a child who is a math whiz but relatively less skilled at reading does not have a Reading Disorder. Parents and kids infrequently put too much pressure on themselves to be perfect at everything, and may assume that anything less than great result must constitute a problem. 





The recent emphasis on Learning Disorders has been useful in identifying children that require special services in school and that might otherwise fall through the cracks. Early detection and remedial education can help correct many learning disabilities and reduce the child's tendency to become dejected, feel dumb, have low frustration tolerance, and lose interest in school. However, the label is sometimes loosely applied to children who are doing just fine but not well enough to fill their own or their parents’ perfectionist expectations . The diagnosis should be made only after careful individualized testing, especially in borderline cases.





Kaynaz Nasseri is a psychology therapist specializing in the evaluation and treatment of Learning Disorders in children and adolescents. Her psychotherapy practice is located in Newport Beach, but she helps patients that visit her from all of Southern California, including Orange County, San Diego, and Los Angeles