New Survey Finds Americans Are Confused About Learning Disabilities
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- 55% of Americans wrongly believe that corrective eyewear can treat certain learning disabilities.
- 43% incorrectly think that learning disabilities are correlated with the IQ.
- 22% incorrectly believe learning disabilities can be caused by too much screen time; 31% believe a cause is poor diet; 24% believe a cause is childhood vaccinations.
- Specific learning disabilities like dysgraphia (difficulty with handwriting), dyscalculia (difficulty with math) and dyspraxia (difficulty with motor skill development) were most often confused as an autism spectrum disorder, difficulty with emotional connections, and an anxiety disorder, respectively.
- 30% admitted to making casual jokes about having a learning disability when someone makes a reading, writing or mathematical mistake.
About the Survey
The survey, underwritten by the National Center for Learning Disabilities, was conducted by Lindberg International and the findings are based on responses from a random sampling of approximately 2,000 American adults (male and female) across the United States via an online survey. The margin of error is 4.4%. 12% of the respondents cited having a learning disability, and 8% of the parents surveyed have a child with a learning disability. For an executive summary visit LD.org.
About the National Center for Learning Disabilities
NCLD is the largest organization in the US fighting for parents and children with learning disabilities. For more than three decades NCLD has worked from Capitol Hill to the classroom to support the 15 million Americans with LD. The National Center for Learning Disabilities’ (NCLD) mission is to ensure success for all individuals with learning disabilities in school, at work and in life.