The terms Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) and Learning Disabilities (LD) are used interchangeably. There is no difference in meaning.

The formal introduction of the term Learning Disabilities occurred in the early 1960s. It replaced such labels as minimal brain damage, minimal brain dysfunction syndrome, slow learners, central nervous system dysfunction, and perceptual impairments that were previously used to describe children with relatively normal intelligence who experienced learning disorders due to neurological dysfunction.

In later years, the U. S. Department of Education changed the term Learning Disabilities to Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD). The addition of the word “Specific” was used to further clarify the fact that Specific Learning Disabilities are separate and distinct disability category such as blindness, mental retardation, and deafness. SLD is not just a label used to describe generic learning problems. The term LD continues to be used but the correct and most appropriate term to describe this cluster of neurobiological deficits that severely interferes with a child’s or an adult’s ability to process information despite having the intellectual capacity to learn is Specific Learning Disabilities.