About Language-Based Learning Differences

In the early 2000’s, critical research findings helped us better understand children who struggle in school, particularly those with language-based learning differences. Their differences (and often, their extraordinary gifts) are often rooted in their neurobiology – the nature of their brains.

Many people show great gifts through their creative, expressive, or athletic talents. However, when the same individuals are placed in situations where they are required to process language or decipher mathematical expressions, these people often experience difficulties that can betray their abilities and talents.

Children and adults struggling in this way may be diagnosed with a language-based learning difference, which may include dyslexia, dysgraphia, and/or dyscalculia. Children with language-based learning differences face significant obstacles in schools, where instruction is often delivered in larger groups by teachers who lack specialized training to support their learning needs.

Intensive Intervention Works

In order for children with language processing challenges to learn, they require a specialized, highly structured, intensive educational program that is delivered in a small group setting using simultaneous multisensory practices which literally builds new pathways in their brains over time. Functional MRI’s are now able to show this change in brain structure resulting from deliberate, sequential reading instruction. 

With the assistance of a number of learning strategies, young people who once were among the most severe drop-out risks are able to transition to and prosper in general education and even honors-level coursework. In fact, because of their creative and intellectual gifts, children who develop strategies to manage their learning differences frequently emerge from effective learning support programs to become top students in high school and college.