christian counseling today
Vol. 20 no. 2
27
Visual Processing:
The child/adolescent
should be assessed if there is a suspected diffi-
culty processing visual information, even though
a thorough vision exam by a professional shows
no vision problems (or if corrective lenses have
addressed eyesight). A student with these difficul-
ties may be asked, “Weren’t you paying attention?
Didn’t you see it?” Small visual details can greatly
impact mathematic calculations and spelling, for
instance.
Auditory Processing:
Once hearing is
determined to be normal, auditory processing
assessment can be done to determine if the child
is not able to make sense of what he or she is
hearing. This can affect early reading skills, in
particular, as well as listening comprehension. A
student who performed fine in school through
the early grades, yet suddenly has great difficulty
in high school, could have issues with listening
comprehension. Stigmatization might look some-
thing like this: people with auditory processing
problems may not be able to tune out back-
ground noise. They may tell other students to be
quiet—which may negatively impact friendships.
In the cafeteria or physical education classes,
they may be unable to understand what is being
said and need to have information repeated, thus
calling attention to themselves and holding other
students back.
Listening, Reading and Oral
Comprehension:
These are frequently unad-
dressed. Listening comprehension is a learning
disability, but because of its relatively low
incidence is often overlooked in assessments,
particularly in the schools. By high school, a
teen who has struggled for years with diffi-
culty comprehending what he or she has heard
may end up becoming a fringe student or even
a dropout. By the time a student is enrolled
primarily in lecture-oriented classes, he or she
may have simply given up. If you combine a
listening comprehension problem with a fine
Learning disabilities
can occur in many
areas related
to achievement.
A child with a
learning disability
typically has a
significant gap
between potential
(e.g., intelligence)
and performance
(e.g., achievement),
which is caused
by a processing
difficulty that is
brain-based.
