Do most students who are identified as learning disabled have a true disability?

Answer 1

As a person who is dyslexic and who has two children who are dyslexic and who had 15 or more family members with learning disabilities I would have to say YES there are a battery of test that have to be done before a child can be classified with learning disabilities and it's rare that they would classify someone who shows no signs of a disability. The real problem is getting them to give you a diagnoses that you can do something with it. Even when I told the dept of ed what I knew that A had because it ran in the family and she had all of the symptoms they only classified her as learning disabled not dyslexic because they don't have teachers trained to deal with dyslexia or any other specific learning disability. The only teachers who are taught to deal with specific learning disabilities are those in schools for children with learning disabilities. That's why I fought so hard to get her from the public school system to the school for children with LD and she's doing much better and is much happier.

Answer 2

Our students are put through a whole battery of tests, all given in a one-to-one situation where you can just see if the kid is really trying or not. If anything, I see kids who miss Learning Disability by 2 or 3 points, meaning they perform like other LD kids but their numbers are just a few points too high to qualify. That means they will not receive services, so they go on to struggle.That is equally as sad as these other cases where kids are labled LD when maybe they are depressed or had a bad day. Yes, depression can look like many other problems in kids.
Now ADD/ADHD I could really argue about. The tests given for that have lots of room for error depending on the evaluator. I have had kids who were bouncing off the walls and been told they were not and kids who were quiet as a mouse and told they were.

Answer 3

When my son was in kindergarten I noticed some problems. I let them go because he was only 5. By 2nd grade I had to fight with the school because they didn't feel there was a problem although he was behind the whole class. He was finally tested, he's not dyslexic but he has a learning disability.

Well now he is 16, his reading & math level are both at a 6 grade level. And he's having a hard time going to school because of this.

I believe that MOST of them do have a learning disability but some may not.

Answer 4

My mother is a special ed teacher and she has worked in two states. While she says very rarely the students in her class are purely learning disabled they all have learning disabilities that mostly stem from emotinal unstability and disabilities. This is really not considered a true learning disability it contributes to the stunting of the fundemental growth of education in this child. My mother also says that purely learning disabled kids might not make it into special ed due to the fact there has to be indicators that lead to this decision. the indicators are limited to the teachers themselves who have no specialized training to truly recognize these things or awful grades not bad ones terrible ones. So to answer your question most kids who are labled with learning disabilities truly have emotional ones.

Answer 5

The term learning disability covers a variety of conditions. Some vary from very mild to severe, from physical to mental impairment . Some don't even seem impaired at all until you look beneath the surface.......the answer is yes

Answer 6

I don't know but the evaluation standards are sketchy . . . I don't think the public school system is adequately funded to deal with minor cases of "temporary" disability. I do not think they are uncaring, just underfunded.

Answer 7

That's hard to say. Most schools in USA don't want kids in special ed.
But some want them in so they can get more funds. They have 'quotas' so the will put a child in who doesn't need the help.
This hurts the kids in so many ways.
Schools are corrupt with special ed.

Answer 8

Principles receive funding on a per student basis. SPECIAL NEEDS=MORE $ per student. So my answer is no.