and fight it as if it were an infection. This may lead the formingbrain cells to settle in the wrong places. Lack of oxygen during deliverycan impair brain function and result in a LD as well (NIMH, 1999). It is also a fact the LDs seem to run in families. This may indicate agenetic link of some kind. Although LD can run in the family, there isusually a slight difference in the disability. For example, a parent thatmay have a writing disorder may have a child that has difficulty expressinghim/herself in speech (NCLD,1999). There could be another reason why LDs run in the family. It is possibleto attribute some learning difficulties to the family environment. Forexample, if a parent has a disability where s/he has difficulty expressingthemselves through language then they are more likely not to talk as much totheir children or the language they use may be distorted or they may use thewrong words often enough so that the child is unaware the s/he is using thewrong words also. The child lacking a good model to follow when acquiringlanguage skills may then acquire a disability of his/her own (NCLD, 1999). Another possibility is that toxins in the childs environment may effectthe development of the childs brain in early childhood. In a study conductedby the National Institute of Health, a connection was made between the amountof lead in the environment and learning disabilities (NIMH,1999). Thoughmany of the possible reasons a child may have developed a learning disabilitycan not be changed, environmental causes can. Many learning disabilities are not noticed until a child enters theformal learning environment (Council for Learning Disabilities (CFLD), 1999). Therefore, teachers are often the first to observe a childs persistentdifficulties in mathematics, reading or writing and must be knowledgeableabout what to look for and how to identify a LD. A student withhyperactivity is relatively easy to identify due to ...
