Why Can't I Learn like Everyone Else? Youth with Learning Disabilities (Youth with Special Needs)

By: Shirley Brinkerhoff

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Synopsis: When Charlie Begay starts first grade, he soon discovers that he simply cannot learn to read the way the other students do. Unable to understand why, he comes up with this explanation: "There's something wrong with my brain." Convinced that he is "dumb," Charlie goes about solving his problem in the only way he knows how, by "bartering" with his friend Jake: Charlie teaches Jake to skateboard, and in return, Jake reads their homework aloud and writes out Charlie's assignments for him. Their arrangement continues well into seventh grade. Then Charlie's father marries a woman who has a learning disability herself, and everything about Charlie's life begins to change. Millions of students today struggle with learning disabilities like dyslexia, dyscalculia, and dysgraphia. Yet many of these students have little or no idea why learning is so difficult and frustrating for them, that they have a learning disability, or that help is available. Instead, many students who struggle with learning decide they are unintelligent and give up on education. Up to 40 percent of young people with learning disabilities even decide to quit high school. Why Can't I Learn Like Everyone Else? Youth with Learning Disabilities examines the most common learning disabilities. It explains in a clear and understandable way how these conditions are diagnosed and what help is available to students who have them.