Latino English language learners
Demographers in the United States report that there has been a significant increase in immigrant children in the United States over the past two decades. This information is vital because it has been and will continue to affect both students and how educators approach teaching methods. Various teaching strategies are more successful for students that are linguistic or culturally diverse versus traditional methods of teaching used for students whose first language is English. It is then also true that the proper way to diagnose a learning disability in English language learners (ELL) differs. In the United States, there has been a growing need to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to provide effective school psychological services, specifically for those professionals who work with immigrant populations.Currently, there are no standardized guidelines for the process of diagnosing English language learners (ELL) with specific learning disabilities (SLD). This is a problem since many students will fall through the cracks as educators are unable to clearly assess if a students delay is due to a language barrier or true learning disability. With an unclear diagnosis, many students will suffer because they will not be provided with the tools they need to succeed in the public education school system. For example, in many occasions teachers have suggested retention or have taken no action at all when they lack experience working with English language learners. Students were commonly pushed toward testing, based on an assumption that their poor academic performance or behavioral difficulties indicated a need for special education.
A more comprehensive list of reading assessments may be obtained from the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory.The purpose of assessment is to determine what is needed for intervention, which also requires consideration of contextual variables and whether there are comorbid disorders that must also be identified and treated, such as behavioral issues or language delays. These contextual variables are often assessed using parent and teacher questionnaire forms that rate the students behaviors and compares them to standardized norms. However, caution should be made when suspecting the person with a learning disability may also have dementia, especially as people with Downs syndrome may have the neuroanatomical profile but not the associated clinical signs and symptoms. Examination can be carried out of executive functioning as well as social and cognitive abilities but may need adaptation of standardized tests to take account of special needs. Types
Learning disabilities can be categorized by either the type of information processing affected by the disability or by the specific difficulties caused by a processing deficit. By stage of information processing
Learning disabilities fall into broad categories based on the four stages of information processing used in learning: input, integration, storage, and output. Many learning disabilities are a compilation of a few types of abnormalities occurring at the same time, as well as with social difficulties and emotional or behavioral disorders. Input
This is the information perceived through the senses, such as visual and auditory perception. Difficulties with visual perception can cause problems with recognizing the shape, position, or size of items seen.