Effects on Physical & Cognitive Development

Children with learning disabilities are frequently at (or even above) grade level for intelligence yet struggle in certain areas of learning. Learning disabilities are an information processing disorder that interferes with a child’s ability to learn and use the learned information skillfully. A child with a learning disability shows a disparity between expected skills (age and intelligence level) and academic performance.

One research study concluded that children with learning disabilities have lower intelligence than their non-learning-disabled peers. The study found that learning disabled children have an imbalance in their speech information processing, which falls behind their other processing abilities (Llang & Li, 2019).

In addition to difficulties with core subject areas, the cognitive functions associated with learning disabilities can cause problems with the higher-level skills needed to succeed in school and beyond. Affected higher-level skills may include organization, time management, abstract reasoning, memory (short and long term), and attention. These cognitive function difficulties can affect relationships and employment (Types of learning disabilities, n.d.).