Are you the parent of a child that is struggling with reading, writing, or math? Have you been told by special education personnel that your child does not need to be tested for a learning disability? This article will discuss signs and symptoms of learning disabilities.

The National Center on Learning Disabilities has a checklist that is available to help you determine if your child has a learning disability. The checklist is separated into 8 categories: Gross and Fine Motor Skills, Language, Reading, Written Language, Social/Emotional, Attention, and a category called other.

Below are some of the things that are on the checklist:

1. Has trouble with buttons, hooks, snaps, zippers and trouble learning to tie shoes.

2. Demonstrates poor ability to color or write within the lines.

3. Grasps pencil awkwardly.

4. Demonstrates early delays in learning to speak.

5. Mis- nounces words frequently.

6. Confuses similar looking letters and numbers.

7. Has difficulty recognizing and remembering sight words.

8. Has trouble naming letters.

9. Avoids writing and copying.

10. Uses uneven spacing between letters and symbols.

11. Spells poorly.

NCLD states that the more characteristics that you check the more likely that your child is at risk of having a learning disability.

Susan Barton of Bright Solutions also has Warning Signs of Dyslexia. These signs, are a lot of the same signs, mentioned previously from the National Center on Learning Disabilities. Delayed speech, difficulty with hand writing and shoe tying, slow inaccurate reading, difficulty with spelling, poor pencil grasp, guesses letters based on shape and context.

Susan Barton also includes these warning signs for Dyslexia, which is a specific type of learning disability:

1. Left Right Confusion

2. Difficulty Learning Confusion

3.Auditory Processing Delays

4. Letter or number reversals

5. Difficulty telling time with hand clock

6. Trouble with Math

7. Messy bedroom, backpack, desk

8. Poor Written Expression

9. Limited Vocabulary.

If your child has a lot of these characteristics you might want to go the NCLD web site and down load the Learning Disabilities Checklist. Fill it out for your child, and send a copy to school personnel. Ask for your child to receive psychological testing to determine if they have a learning disability.

By: JoAnn Collins