Learning disorders can be difficult to diagnose, but it is crucial that they do not go undetected. Learning disorders need to be distinguished from inadequate schooling and normal variation in academic abilities among children. Left untreated, learning disorders can impact a patient’s self-esteem, trigger various behavioral problems and cause poor academic achievement that tends to compound over the years as the child grows older. About 40 percent of children with learning disorders eventually drop out of school, according to the American Psychiatric Association (APA).

There are several warning signs that can help parents or teachers recognize a learning disorder in preschool-aged children. These include:

• Delays in language. The child is unable to form sentences after age 2.
  
  
• Trouble with speech. The child's speech is not understandable more than half of the time after age 3.
  
  
• Trouble with coordination. The child is unable to tie shoes, button, cut and hop by the time they are ready to enter kindergarten.
  
  
• Short attention span. The child is unable to sit still while being read a short story after age 4 or 5 (attention span increases with age during this period).

Before diagnosing a learning disorder, other conditions must be ruled out. A physician will likely perform a complete physical examination of the child and compile a thorough medical history. A child’s vision and hearing will be tested, and testing of the child’s intelligence will be performed using standardized tests to rule out mental retardation or other intelligence deficits.

The child may also undergo psychological testing to detect any social problems, anxiety or depression that may be causing problems. In addition, some academic struggles that appear to be associated with learning disorders are actually the result of lack of opportunity, poor teaching or certain cultural factors (such as children learning in a setting where their primary language is not used).

If a physician suspects a learning order, psychologists or other specialists may be consulted to administer standardized tests that can provide clues about the patient’s disorder. For example, reading disorder can be diagnosed through tests that evaluate the process a child uses to read and the quality of the patient’s reading skills. Meanwhile, a patient with suspected mathematics disorder may take a test that measures the ability to perform basic math skills and to organize objects in a logical way.

In addition, experts recently devised a new neurophysiological test that enables professionals to detect learning disorders in patients as young as 8 years of age. The tool, which is known as the Biological Marker of Auditory Processing (BioMAP), uses noninvasive electrodes placed on the patient’s scalp and an earpiece that delivers carefully calibrated sounds into the patient’s ear. As the patient watches a video, the tester is able to measure the brain’s responses to the sounds and assess whether the patient has sound encoding problems related to a learning disorder.

Disorder of written expression is more difficult to diagnose than other disorders. Standardized testing has not been developed (aside from spelling tests) that can sufficiently and objectively measure the extent of a child’s difficulties in the area of writing. Typically, the child is instead asked to copy, write to dictation and write spontaneously, and the results are analyzed.

A specific learning disorder is diagnosed if the patient’s deficit in a specific area such as reading, writing or mathematics meets the following criteria:

• Levels of reading/writing/mathematics (as measured by standardized testing) are substantially lower than would be expected given the patient’s age, level of intelligence and level of education.
  
  
• Level of reading/writing/mathematics significantly interferes with school performance and day-to-day activities that require such skills.
  
  
• If the patient has a sensory deficit (impairment of one of the five senses), the reading/writing/mathematics difficulty must be in excess of that typically experienced by others with the same deficit.

In some cases, patients are diagnosed with a level of learning deficiency that does not fit the criteria for any one of the three APA recognized learning disorders. This may include problems in all three areas of learning.