Early Risk Indicators for Learning Disabilities

Biological and Environmental Risk Indicators:

• Family history of disabilities
• Prenatal substance exposure
• Late or no prenatal care
• Premature birth and/or low birth weight
• Exposure to environmental toxins or other harmful substances
• Abuse and neglect
• Hearing loss

Developmental Risk Indicators:

• Delay in gross and fine motor skills
• Auditory and visual perception problems (e.g., difficulties with auditory memory, phonological awareness, figure-ground discrimination, visual closure)
• Delay in speech and understanding and using language (e.g., limited vocabulary, difficulty understanding and following directions)
• Problems with attention (e.g., difficulty concentrating on a task, changing activities, or handling disruptions to routines; poor task persistence)

Emergent Literacy Risk Indicators:

• Poor phonological awareness skills (e.g., difficulty with rhyming, blending sounds to make words, letter-sound correspondence)
• Poor naming ability (e.g., slow response rate in naming objects, colors, letters, numbers)
• Poor number sense (e.g., difficulty understanding 5 is bigger than 4)
• Difficulty recognizing letters
• Inability to write own name