OVERVIEW OF SPECIAL NEEDS
Once again, biological differences among brains are common and significant. It isn't surprising when one child learns 20 percent faster than the next child, even though the slower one has no known learning disability. But as noted, differences in connectivity, myelination, brain volume, prior knowledge, nutrition, and a host of other factors may all influence learning, and a wide variety of combinations can come together to cause difficulties in school. Let's explore a few of the most common types of special needs.
Dyslexia
Statistically, the most common school-related academic disability is reading problems. The brain requires a special subset of skills to read. Reading involves getting meaning from print. Dyslexia is an imprecise term used when a student has difficulties in reading acquisition, despite an otherwise normal intellect and despite access to instructional, linguistic, and environmental opportunities. The term is not all encompassing because brain dysfunctions (e.g., hearing problems, environmental deprivation, visual problems, educational deprivation, disease) can cause reading disorders. Dyslexia is treatable.
Dyslexia is widely considered to be a brain- and language-based disorder because it involves a breakdown in how auditory language sounds (phonemes) translate into written language symbol sets that represent those sounds graphemes). Many people with dyslexia hear the spoken word just fine and may even have superior oral vocabularies, superior storytelling abilities, and exceptionally good memories for what they hear. Having said that, they may also have visual problems in reading, including tracking and focus issues.