The "Disability" Label

I will have to say that from Day 1 when I heard the term 'learning disability' I have cringed. My husband and 3 of my children have auditory processing disorder.  However, They are not disabled. Their ears work just fine.  They all have average to above average intelligence levels as does every person I have met yet with APD, which means that their minds work just fine too.  To have to refer to people who don't have anything wrong with them as 'disabled' just does not work well for me.  

I am not delusional.  I know that they are at a disadvantage when it comes to learning in the traditional classroom.  I know that they are at a disadvantage when it comes to social situations and they often misinterpret what they hear in those settings.  Those with auditory processing disorders usually also struggle with short term memory, executive function, comprehension, organization and/or social situations.  But they are not disabled.  

They learn differently.  Because the traditional way in which information is obtained is difficult for them, they have learned to compensate by finding new ways to learn.  While many of us can listen to information and learn it, they have to see it, touch it, tear it apart and figure it out.  Those who learn differently have a tendency to think outside the box and can teach those who are good at traditional learning a thing or two.  NASA actually looks for people who have been diagnosed as dyslexic as they know those people have had to work exceptionally hard to get where they are and that they think outside the box.  

Personally, I am leaning towards an overall label of something like "learning differences" and then sub labels of the areas where that learner struggles.  So for my oldest son, he would be learning differences: auditory and social.  My second son has a learning difference: auditory, visual, short term memory and organization.  My husband has a learning difference, specifically he struggles with auditory, executive function and  social.  A dear friend of mine has a learning difference.  He struggles with auditory, processing and organization.  

We need to find a way to specify the exact ways in each learner needs help.  To just find one label really does not do the learner justice.  There is never just one way in which the learner is affected.  And every individual person is affected differently.  As you identify your learner, figure out the ways he/she struggles, make sure they understand and then give them the tools they need to succeed.  If they struggle with organization, find ways to help them get organized.  If they struggle with short term memory, find ways to work their memory.  The most important piece, however, is to stop calling them 'disabled' and to empower them and teach them how to make the best of the way their brain was wired and they will succeed.