Learning disorders

A learning disability is one or more dysfunctions in a person's capacity to learn. A learning disability is not a lack of intelligence.

(a) It is a breakdown in dynamic functioning, in the sense that everything that one does is for an audience of self and others. The capacity to reflect metacognitively is lacking. The individual is not actively involved in learning or in ensuring that outcomes are as favourable as possible for self and audience. The learning disabled do not recognize their own impact on outcomes (low power of potency, low sense of efficacy), so they do not request clarification, or alter productions in response to feedback.

(b) People with learning disorders are poor at prioritizing, focusing and editing, which is a breakdown in the perception that outcomes are mutually construed, and that priorities are audience and context specific.

(c) They do not notice schema, form, patterns or scripts in area in which they are deficient. They therefore learn material as distinct entities rather in terms of their relationships which overloads the memory span and precludes the effecting of connections, generalizations and taking of short-cuts. They have a poor sense of rhythm of schema so consequently, poor pace and distribution.

(d) They have poor use of inner language to: edit and repair language and behaviour; reflection on attribution, meanings and explanations, assigned, and ask self whether there are alternative possibilities, particularly other-centred ones; rehearse situations before they occur and while they are in process so that productions will be concise, focused, pleasant, protective of self and others, other-centred and have outcomes that are as comfortable for self and audience as possible; reflect on adequacy of one's productions in terms of the view one wants self and others to have of self and compare own productions with those of others; and plan in advance and preventatively.

(e) People with learning disorders are impervious to internal and external nuance, detail, subtle differences, and some aspects of implicit or intentional information in deficit areas.

(f) They have poor ability to differentiate most important issues from those that are less important, be it in determining which values can be compromised, what to attend to, what to remember, amount of time to spend, energy to expend, and so on, so they tend to be overwhelmed by complexity and disorganized.

(g) They have a limited repertoire of possibilities and do not realize that there might be alternatives. They tend to be rigid, concrete and literal on some level. They are, therefore, poor risk-takers, resist change and try to control rather than negotiate change.