Learning Disabilities

Today on the Brain Beat podcast, Dr. Cheryl Silver takes over the mic.  As a pediatric neuropsychologist for the past 40 years, she’s had the opportunity to evaluate children, adolescents, and young adults with learning disabilities throughout the state of Texas.  After graduating from college in 1973 and getting her Phd some years later, Dr. Silver found a deep curiosity in the brains and behaviors of children who struggled to read and do math.  So today, with much experience under her belt, she walks us through the signs of learning disabilities in early childhood, what a learning disability actually is, and, perhaps even more importantly, what it isn’t. 

There’s a lot more to learning disabilities than just a diagnosis, and Dr. Silver knows that; it’s tedious work to get the care you need for your children, especially when insurance companies don’t consider private evaluations as medical care.  With that said, she provides advice on accessible treatment and accommodations for those with specific disabilities and lauds the brain for its adaptability and resilience.  So join Dr. Silver for this incredibly informative episode of Brain Beat and continue to learn about the immense intricacies of the brain that can impact our learning.

The Finer Details of This Episode: 

• What is a learning disability
• Early signs of learning disabilities
• Legal definitions of disabilities
• Getting a diagnosis
• Treatment and accommodations 
• The brain’s resilience 

Quotes: 

“A learning disability is usually thought of as a specific problem in learning; you might say a narrow problem in learning in a person who otherwise has good intelligence.”

“It sounds pretty specific, and that it should stand out to parents among other areas where the child seems to be developing normally and otherwise competent.”

“Learning disabilities happen, as I said, as a result of differences in the way the brain develops and the way that certain parts of the brain work.”

“I would say we know less about math disabilities than we know about reading disabilities.”

“One thing I tell parents that they need to know is insurance companies often will not pay for that kind of private evaluation. The insurance companies say we cover medical problems, and learning to read and learning to do math and learning to spell are not medical reasons.”

​”The parents need to get a written report, and the evaluator needs to know how to define the problem so that it meets the qualifications for considering it to be a learning disability.”

“So that really speaks then to the resilience and the need for the kinds of supports, interventions, and accommodations that you're describing throughout childhood so that kids can maintain that resilience and figure those pathways out for themselves, so that they are able to be successful, perhaps even in spite of something that may affect them– potentially lifelong.”

“ADHD is a disorder that can affect learning in a major way, but not because of these brain differences that create problems with written language or numbers, but it's a pervasive condition that affects a child's ability to pay attention.”

Links: 

National Academy of Neuropsychology Foundation website

Dr. Cheryl Silver Profile