Symptoms of Learning Delays
The most common symptoms are deficits in speech and language. Students with learning delays often have difficulty understanding and written language beyond the literal level, have difficulty with thinking skills (e.g., brain storming. problem solving), and are truly challenged by mathematical calculations. Their handwriting is laborious and may be illegible (unless over- learned), and the quality of their artwork generally is substantially lower than what one would expect from typical students of their age. Other symptoms may include difficulties with tactile and visual perception, psychomotor coordination problems ("clumsy"), tactile and visual attention deficits, and nonverbal memory lapses.
These children are often far less athletically capable than their peers. They have difficulty with motor planning and with sequencing moves in an activity, are unable to coordinate bilateral movement, and rapidly alternate movements. Some have persistent fine tremors, minimal precision of movement, and difficulty with fine motor tasks such as buttoning clothes, tying shoelaces, using scissors, and completing paper-and-pencil tasks. Although a few of these may be symptoms of other difficulties, most of them are evidence of learning delays. Children with learning delays also tend to have working memory deficits and trouble learning and applying academic skills, and need assistance with self-care activities beyond the expected age for independence in those activities. There is often also a delay in social skills.