• CHAPTER ANNOTATION

1. INTRODUCTION TO LEARNING DISABILITIES
2. DEFINING LEARNING DISABILITIES
3. CLASSIFICATION OF LEARNING DIFFICULTIES
4. PREVALENCE AND ETIOLOGY OF LEARNING DISABILITIES
5. ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING DISABILITIES
6. READING DIFFICULTIES
7. WRITTEN LANGUAGE DEFICITS
8. MATH UNDERACHIEVEMENT
9. MOTOR COORDINATION DEFICITS
10. ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER
11. SOURCES AND LITERATURE

1. INTRODUCTION TO LEARNING DISABILITIES

The term learning disabilities was first introduced by Kirk in the USA in 1963. It referred to a heterogeneous group of disorders manifested by a considerable discrepancy between a child’s apparent capacity to learn and his or her level of achievement. The new term consequently replaced names such as perceptually handicapped, brain-injured, neurologically impaired, etc. However, there is no universal definition of learning difficulties (LD). The definitions mentioned below belong among the most widely used.