INDIAN PEDIATRICS 515 VOLUME 48 __ JULY 17, 2011 T he term ‘learning disability’ was first coined in 1963 by Dr Samuel Kirk, a psychologist, while delivering a speech at an education conference held in Chicago [1]. He had worked extensively with many students who were repeatedly failing in their examinations but were clearly “not retarded”. He observed that these so-called ‘scholastically backward’ students could be helped by specific methods of teaching. Till then, such children were being labeled as having “minimal brain dysfunction” or “strephosymbolia”, as they reversed their letters and made other errors in their spellings [2]. WHAT IS SPECIFIC LEARNING DISABILITY? Specific learning disability (SpLD) is a group of neurodevelopmental disorders manifesting as persistent difficulties in learning to efficiently read (dyslexia), write (dysgraphia) or perform mathe- matical calculations (dyscalculia) despite normal intelligence, conventional schooling, intact hearing and vision, adequate motivation and socio-cultural opportunity [3,4]. Children with SpLD present with academic problems such as reading slowly and incorrectly, skipping lines while reading aloud, making repeated spelling mistakes, untidy/illegible hand-writing with poor sequencing, and inability to perform even simple mathematics. They invariably fail to achieve school grades at a level that is matching with their intellectual abilities [3-5]. SpLD afflicts almost 5-15% of school-going children [3-6]. This invisible neurological handicap is believed to be a result of functional disruption in neural systems rather than an anatomic problem and is genetically inherited [3-5,7]. Dyslexia afflicts 80% of all children identified as having SpLD [4]. Children with dyslexia have deficits in “phonologic aware- ness”, which consistently distinguish them from those who are not reading-impaired [4,5]. The functional unit of the phonologic module is the “phoneme”, defined as the smallest discernible segment of speech; for example, the word “bat” Managing Specific Learning Disability in Schools in India SUNIL KARANDE, RUKHSHANA SHOLAPURWALA AND *MADHURI KULKARNI From the Learning Disability Clinic, Department of Pediatrics, Seth GS Medical College and KEM Hospital, Mumbai, India; and *Department of Pediatrics, Mumbai Port Trust Hospital; Mumbai, India. Correspondence to: Dr Sunil Karande, Professor of Pediatrics & In-Charge Learning Disability Clinic, Department of Pediatrics, Seth G S Medical College and KEM Hospital, Parel, Mumbai 400012, India. karandesunil@yahoo.com P E R S P E C T I V E P E R S P E C T I V E P E R S P E C T I V E P E R S P E C T I V E P E R S P E C T I V E Specific learning disability (dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia) afflicts 5-15% of school-going children. Over the last decade; awareness about this invisible handicap has grown in India. However, much needs to be done to ensure that each afflicted child gets an opportunity to achieve his or her full academic potential in regular mainstream schools. In order to achieve this ideal scenario, all ‘regular’ classroom teachers should be sensitized to suspect, and trained to screen for this disability when the child is in primary school. School managements should become proactive to set up resource rooms and employ special educators to ensure that these children receive regular and affordable remedial education; and be diligent in ensuring that these children get the mandatory provisions both during school and board examinations. Once specific learning disability is recognized as a disability by the Government of India, these children with the backing of the Right to Education Act, would be able to benefit significantly. Key words: Dyslexia; Education; Learning disorders .