| United States Office of Education |
| The term "specific learning disability" means a disorder in one or more basic psychologic processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations. The term includes such conditions as perceptual handicaps, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. Such terms do not include children who have learning disabilities which are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor handicaps, of intellectual disability, of emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage. |
| National Joint Commission on Learning Disabilities |
| "Learning disabilities" is a general term that refers to a heterogeneous group of disorders manifested by significant difficulties in the acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning, or mathematical skills. |
| These disorders are intrinsic to the individual, presumed to be due to central nervous system dysfunction, and may occur across the life span. Problems in self-regulatory behaviors, social perception, and social interaction may exist with learning disabilities but do not, by themselves, constitute a learning disability. |
| Although learning disabilities may occur concomitantly with other disabilities (eg, sensory impairment, intellectual disability, serious emotional disturbance), or with extrinsic influences (such as cultural differences, insufficient or inappropriate instruction), they are not the result of those conditions or influences. |
