By Elizabeth Hamilton, M. Ed.
For Variety

MOST children experience academic difficulties in school at one time or another. Some may struggle with a specific subject while others may have difficulty adjusting to a certain style of teaching. However, if your child has significant, ongoing academic and/or social problems at school, then he may have a learning disability.
A learning disability is a neurobiological disorder that affects the way a child receives, processes, or expresses information. Common learning disabilities include:
Dyslexia is a reading disability typified by problems in receptive or expressive, oral or written language. Children experience difficulty in reading, spelling, writing, speaking, or listening.
Dyscalculia causes children to have problems doing arithmetic and grasping mathematical concepts. While many people have problems with math, a person with dyscalculia has a much more difficult time solving basic math problems than his or her peers.
Dysgraphia is a writing disorder that causes children to have difficulty forming letters or writing within a defined space. These children need extra time and effort to write neatly.
Auditory, memory and processing disability describes problems children have in understanding or remembering words or sounds because their brains fail to understand language correctly. This can often be mistaken by parents and doctors as a hearing problem but, in fact, an individual with this disability is not able to process or memorize information.
According to the National Institutes of Health, learning disabilities affect one in seven people. Parents, therefore, need to be familiar with the common signs of a learning disability in order to get the right help for their child as soon as possible. The earlier a learning disability is diagnosed, the better chance your child will have of succeeding in school and in life.
Children with learning disabilities commonly exhibit difficulties in a number of areas such as:
Spoken or written language
• pronouncing words and learning new vocabulary
• following directions and instructions and gets confused easily
• understanding requests and responding to questions
• discriminating among sounds
• understanding concepts
• reading comprehension
• spelling
• writing stories and essays
• performing well on group tests
• reading and writing — exhibit reversals
• copying accurately from a model
• completing work — usually requires extra time
Attention and concentration
• completing a task
• acting before thinking  
• restlessness
• daydreaming
• distractibility
Memory
• remembering directions
• learning math facts
• learning new procedures
• learning the alphabet
• remembering names
• remembering events
• studying for tests
• short-term and long-term memory
Organization
• managing time
• completing assignments
• organizing thoughts
• locating belongings
• carrying out a plan
• making decisions
• setting priorities
• discriminating size,
shape, color
• temporal (time) concepts such as knowing the time, date, year
• poor organizational skills
• abstract reasoning and/or problem-solving
• thinking — frequently disorganized 
Behavioral/Social
• impulsive or hyperactive
behavior
• low tolerance for frustration
• peer relationships — difficulty making and keeping friends
• social judgment 
• exhibiting behavior often inappropriate for situation
• failing to see consequences for his actions
• adjusting to environmental changes such as changes in daily routines
• making decisions
• interpreting non-verbal cues
• working cooperatively
• lags in developmental mile-stones — fine motor skills, language, etc.