Basics of LD: Do children outgrow learning disabilities?

Question:

Do children outgrow learning disabilities?

Additional Info:

Answer:

Often, learning disabilities continue throughout an individual’s life.

Students do not “grow out” of them; rather, with appropriate guidance and instruction, they may learn ways to overcome the difficulties that learning disabilities present. For example, students who have difficulty learning to read during the early school years may—given powerful instruction geared to their needs—acquire fundamental reading skills, but most of them are likely to also require powerful instruction to learn more advanced decoding skills, foundational strategies for comprehending what they have read, advanced strategies for making inferences about text, and so forth. That is to say, there is no magic bullet that cures LD. Most students with LD require continuing help with how to adapt to learning situations.

Still, many individuals with LD can learn how to do quite well in many occupations. There are popular accounts of great stories of individuals with learning disabilities who despite the odds have done quite well. Of course, though these stories are inspiring, they are just anecdotes. They represent the special cases in which individuals with marvelous talents have done quite well, just as have other individuals who did not have LD.