During a consultation, your doctor will use various techniques in his assesment of the symptom: Learning disabilities. These may include a physical examination or other medical tests. Your doctor may ask several questions when assessing your condition. It is important to remember that your consultation is a two-way process and any extra information you can share with your doctor may help them with their diagnosis.
Some of the questions your doctor may ask are listed below:
Why: to determine if acute or chronic.
Why: may detect prenatal infections, prenatal drugs and toxins, birth trauma, neonatal infection as a possible cause of learning difficulties.
Why: e.g. smiling, able to remain in sitting position unsupported, crawled, walked.
Why: assesses expressive language.
Why: assesses receptive language. Receptive language is usually well in advance of expressive language.
Why: the parent is usually the first to suspect a hearing problem.
Why: Many factors in the child's environment may contribute significantly to their ability to learn and consequent school problems. Determine if home environment is appropriately stimulating to enable good language development and presents opportunities for a wide variety of play experience.
Why: Children from deprived socioeconomic circumstances are at risk of learning difficulties and school problems (due to family disruptions, suboptimal medical care and nutrition, lack of early stimulation, low parental education and expectations).
Why: In some children there does seem to be an inherited basis for their learning difficulties.
Why: e.g. recurrent ear infections may result in hearing problem and speech delay; prolonged hospitalization may cause transient learning difficulties; Children with any form of chronic disease may have learning difficulties and school problems (due to multiple factors including the illness itself, side effects from medications, frequent absences from school or reduced self confidence due their perception as being different).
Why: e.g. chronic marijuana or cannabis use can interfere with cognitive, concentration and memory processes to limit learning.
Sometimes, other symptoms may be present and may help your doctor analyse your condition. These may include:
Why: may suggest attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Why: e.g. poor eye contact, aloneness, difficulties relating to peers - may suggest autism as cause of learning difficulty.
Why: Increasingly it is being recognised that children with subtle hearing problems are at a major risk of learning difficulties and school dysfunction. These children may develop subtle language and academic problems, as well as problems with attention and behavior.
Why: Children with any form of visual problems which affect acuity or eye movements will similarly be at risk of learning difficulties and school dysfunction.
Why: e.g. depressed mood, crying spells, anhedonia (loss of interest or pleasure), increase or decrease in appetite (usually decreased), weight loss or gain, insomnia or increased sleeping (usually early morning waking), fatigue, loss of energy, feelings of worthlessness, feelings of excessive guilt, poor concentration, difficulty making decisions - Depression may be mistaken for or imprecisely described as a learning disability.
Why: e.g. child begins talking late; adds new words slowly and has difficulty rhyming; inability to recognise words and letters on a printed page; a reading ability well below the expected level for age of the child; problems processing and understanding what they hear; may have difficulty comprehending rapid instructions, following more than one command at a time or remembering a sequence of things; reversal of letters (b for d) and reversal of words (saw for was) persisting after the age of 6.
Why: e.g. engaging in one-sided, long winded conversations, without noticing if the listener is listening or trying to change the subject; displaying unusual nonverbal communication such as lack of eye contact, few facial expressions or awkward body postures and gestures; showing an intense obsession with one or two specific, narrow subjects such as baseball, statistics, train schedules, weather or snakes; appearing not to understand, empathize with, or be sensitive to other's feelings; speaking in a voice that is monotonous, rigid or unusually fast.
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