I tire of people, especially supposedly educated people, discounting or downplaying learning disabilities. A common misconception is that learning disabilities are just variants of behavior that need to be addressed, that the child must just learn to behave or think normally.

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! When someone has a learning disability their brains work differently. You don't change that. You teach the child that the way they are is not wrong or bad. Then you give them the tools to function in a society built for "normal" people - those who are fortunate to have brains who work like the the majority of other people.

ADHD is probably one of the learning disabilities that is most often dismissed by the ignorant. I cannot tell you how often I hear educated people, even teachers, vocalize that ADHD kids just need to be disciplined to focus. That's like telling a deaf person they just need to discipline themselves to hear (See: What It Feels Like to Have ADHD).

The brain of an ADHD person processes information and makes connections differently. Though some suggest it may be outgrown, there are appearing more studies like this one which suggests that it is never outgrown. What most likely happens is people with ADHD learn to alter their behavior to make it more acceptable to those without ADHD. Many work hard at it, and succeed because they have worked harder that all the "normals" who consider ADHD people "spacey" or dumb. 

Oh how I wish that for one day I could change the world so it was fashioned for ADHD people - where they make the rules and set the standards for what is normal. That way, all of us "normal" people could see what its like to live in a society, educational system, and work environment not friendly to the way we think! Maybe I would do a day like that for every learning disability. Perhaps then normal people would show some empathy and not dismiss learning disabilities, and those that have them.

Why do people dismiss learning disabilities? Because people relate the behavior they see around them to how they perceive the world. When they see behavior that they consider abnormal or bad, they search for the most common explanation that makes sense to them. "That kid doesn't sit still or pay attention because they have no discipline at home!" That could be true, unless a medical specialist using scientific research that has been validated through countless observations, experiments and a peer-review process concludes, "No, this child has a learning disability that involves how their brain works." At that point the person has to abandon their folksy, home-spun, truism and defer to science and medicine.

You would think. Unfortunately, there are some people who cannot wrap their head around a scientific explanation that uses more than one catchy phrase to sum up a complex situation. No, they think their narrow experience makes them smarter than all the scientists and medical professionals so they ultimately fall back to their original conclusion.

Maybe they need to pay attention.