When someone has a Learning Disability, it means that he or she learns differently than most people, and that learning itself is usually more difficult than it is for most people. A Learning Disability is a condition that can effect anybody, regardless of age, ethnicity, or gender. It is diagnosed using four criteria. First, there must be a significant discrepancy between overall cognitive ability and achievement . Ability is usually estimated using a battery of intelligence tests.
Achievement means performance in some academic area, such as reading, spelling, or math.
The second criteria for a Learning Disability is a processing deficit . Sometimes, a person's ability to process information is impaired in some way. For example, a person's visual memory may be weak. This person has great difficulty remembering what he sees. Another person may have trouble processing the sounds she hears.