Learning Disability vs Intellectual Disability
Learning disability and intellectual disability are two terms that we often tend to confuse with one another as if there is no difference between them. In fact, these refer to two particular disabilities that are different from one another. In Intellectual disabilities, the individual has a lower IQ than average and has difficulty in engaging in day to day activities due to a certain lack of skills. Learning disability, on the other hand, is an umbrella term, which is used to refer to a variety of disabilities in learning. Through this article let us examine the differences between these two types of disabilities.
What is Intellectual Disability?
An individual with an intellectual disability displays intelligence that is considered as below average. Such an individual may have difficulty in carrying out daily activities as he or she lacks the necessary skill set. Sometime back, people with intellectual disabilities were considered as mentally retarded. However, nowadays this term is not much in use and has been replaced by the term ‘intellectual disability.’ There are certain characteristics that can be observed in a person who suffers from an intellectual disability. He would have difficulty in communicating effectively, solving problems, reasoning, making decisions and learning. The IQ of an individual who has an intellectual disability is usually less than 70.
These disabilities can be identified by specialists through observing the behavior of children and their interactions with others. If the child displays behavioral issues, where they would display uncontrollable anger and frustration, have difficulty in remembering things and taking care of oneself such as eating, dressing, and encounter difficulties in solving problems, there is a tendency that such a child may be suffering from intellectual disabilities. However, it is vital to get the opinion of a specialist before coming to conclusions.
Person with intellectual disability has lower IQ
What is Learning Disability?
A learning disability should not be considered as an intellectual disability mainly because it refers to the issues or problems that the child encounters in the process of learning, and these are not intellectual problems. When speaking of learning disabilities, this can apply to a number of problems. However, this does not denote that the child has a lower IQ or lacks skills, but that his patterns of learning are different from the majority. A child can display disabilities in terms of listening, reading, writing, speaking, mathematical problem-solving and calculations, etc. These are usually viewed as learning disabilities.
Since learning disabilities are varied, it can be quite difficult to identify whether the child is suffering from a learning disability or not. These also differ according to different stages of childhood. A very young child may have difficulty in identifying colors, letters, problems in pronouncing, rhyming, coloring within the lines, tying the shoe laces, etc. But a much older child can have difficulty in solving math problems, reading aloud, writing, difficulty in comprehension, etc.
Dyslexia is a type of learning disability
Some of the most common learning disabilities are Dyslexia ( Difficulty in reading), Dysgraphia (difficulty in writing), Dyscalculia (Difficulty in mathematics), Aphasia (Difficulty in language comprehension), Auditory processing disorder (Difficulty in hearing sound differences), and visual processing disorder (Difficulty in understanding maps, charts, pictures, etc.)
This highlights that intellectual disabilities and learning disabilities are two different things.
What is the difference between Learning Disability and Intellectual Disability?
• Areas of Difficulty:
• An individual with an intellectual disability displays intelligence that is considered as below average.
• An individual with learning disabilities has difficulty in the process of learning.
• Characteristics:
• A person with an intellectual disability may have difficulty in carrying out daily activities as he or she lacks the necessary skill set.
• However, those with learning disabilities do not have any difficulty in carrying out daily activities. They are perfectly capable of functioning without such difficulty, but display disabilities in terms of listening, reading, writing, speaking, mathematical problem-solving and calculations, etc.
• IQ level:
• An individual with an intellectual disability displays a lower IQ.
• However, an individual with learning disabilities does not display a lower IQ.
• Signs and Symptoms:
• A person with intellectual disability displays uncontrollable anger and frustration, have difficulty in remembering things and taking care of oneself such as eating, dressing, and encounter difficulties in communicating effectively, solving problems, reasoning, making decisions and learning.
• In the case of learning disabilities, identification is quite difficult as learning disability is varied and differ according to different stages of childhood.
Images Courtesy:
- IQ Curve by Alessio Damato, Mikhail Ryazanov (CC BY-SA 3.0)
- Visual-dyslexia by Charlesjsharp (CC BY 2.5)
As someone who is now in her adult years, I found this easy to read quick breakdown of the difference between intellectual disability, considering being self aware but often times misusing the correct expression to express my own learning disability from the standpoint which I described myself throughout vulnerable conversations as “intellectually disabled” often times getting odd looks in return which showed me that my feelings hurt so much more than my current state of them when it finally happened to make sense now at age 28 why those looks made sense AT the time of conversation which was deemed wrong to my fault for uninformed disregard for my own identity in the learning disability of dyslexia which I’ve carried in diagnosis since I was a little girl in grade 4 by the time of diagnosis. I find as I have aged, it has become more and more pronounced creating consequences in certain life relationships and circumstances where the symptoms aren’t any better despite having had no issues gaining confidence for self esteem purposes when it comes to being treated condescendingly more often that not, needless to say I struggle duly with writing and comprehension of charts but have never struggled with anything other than reading an analog clock, as I still to today, I can just ever so slowly and embarrassed and overdrawn emotionally due to traumatic stress that gets worse and worse the longer I take to adapt my brain and act as quickly and normally like a functional lay person of my own age to jump to the correct answer, on a bright note, I eventually got the whole tying my own shoe laces thing down by the time I was in 9th grade but now as an adult I’m still going to struggle a little bit and make an akward knot that falls apart faster than it takes me to afford my own slip on shoelaceless boots on a social assistance disability salary! I am very appreciative of this reminder and shall bookmark it in my favourites so I can later reference back to it in the future in connection with the million more mistakes I’ll make misidentifying my own self correcting brain before mistakes happen (*in the hopes to one day build a filter so that I don’t overshare or add unnecessary emotional stress to burden on strangers and add stress to my friendships or family or spouse unnecessarily*)