4myLearn Learning Challenge Model

Level 2: Neuro Capabilities (Internal)

Level 2 deals with interaction of the emergence of biologically based individual differences in motor, sensory, cognitive, and affective capabilities and external stimulus which promotes or hinders further development.

Motor LD kids often appear clumsy, uncoordinated, have poor timing, and rhythm due to asymmetry in their motions, and grounding and balance challenges. Frequently they have poor spatial orientation, or poor proprioception, less awareness of space on one side of their body, and often fail to develop recognition that other objects continue to exist outside of their direct perception. They may have poor muscle tone.

Proprioception is complex sense that gives the ability to use muscle control and balance to resist gravity. It is the greatest sensory stimulus for brain growth because gravity is a constant source. Poor proprioception has the greatest impact on brain development. Being forced to move through space when ungrounded can led to fears, anxiety, and insistance on calming behaviors.

LD kids miss many of their gross motor developmental milestones as an infant. Differences in sensorimotor functioning are detected in LD kids as early as 6-12 months old.
Sensory Almost all LD kids have unique mixes of undersensitive and oversensitive sensory processing. Basic sensory processing is intact. Complex processing is selectively reduced. Many LD kids cannot use more than one sense at a time. When they are forced to use multiple senses together, they become overloaded.

Sensory systems frequently consist of multiples pathways, each with a specific job. One pathway can be intact, whiles others incomplete. Both visual and auditory systems have interacting pathways for localizing objects in space, and separate pathways for visual and auditory details like color or pitch. Touch-sensitive children frequently will dislike light touch, oversensitive Meissner's corpuscle pathway, but will be soothed by deep touch, undersensitive Pacinian corpuscle pathway.

Differences in sensory processing are detected in LD kids as early as 9-12 months old.
Memory LD kids have more difficulty carrying out multiple instructions at a time. They can become excessively tired due to amount of concentration and effort required. They are not impaired on metamemory tasks, but rarely make spontaneous use of memory strategies, like chunking of related features. Primary modules exist, but are not in unprompted use.
Cognitive LD kids excel in complex visual-spatial thinking, but have challenges in complex symbolic thinking. Primary modules exist, but are not in unprompted use.
Affective (Emotion and Social) Differences in the dopamine/oxytocin system function flattens social drive and bonding, therefore the child learns less from and about humans, including about self. Multi-sensory integration challenges organize the brain's temporal and parietal polysensory regions to overprocess primary representations, leading to extended selective attention. Differences in shared attention and self regulation appears in LD kids as early as 3 months old.