What’s Wrong With Marty?

TWO-YEAR-OLD Marty was like a perpetual-motion machine​—he couldn’t sit still. He didn’t go to bed until midnight but got up early in the morning​—raring to go! He not only got into things he shouldn’t have but also seemed to break everything. His coordination was so poor that he was always tripping over his own feet and bumping into things. “That’s a boy for you,” others would tell his mother. “He’ll get over it.”

But he didn’t. At five, Marty had considerable difficulty expressing himself, compared to other five-year-olds. He had trouble formulating thoughts in his mind. When he turned six, he couldn’t write the letters of the alphabet and he couldn’t identify colors. When he started school, the problems multiplied. He couldn’t sit still. He couldn’t seem to focus on group activity, even briefly. Yet the teacher described him as a sensitive boy, trying hard to do right.

Marty was very easily distracted too. Why, he couldn’t walk from the kitchen to the bathroom to wash his hands without doing many other things along the way. And then when he got there he had forgotten why he went!

Then there were the temper tantrums​—uncontrolled and often frightening displays of anger, wild crying, stamping and kicking the floor. Whenever Marty’s parents asked him to do something, it was always the same thing​—he didn’t listen. And the frequent spankings didn’t seem to help either. Marty’s mother was at her wit’s end!

A bad boy? No. Mentally retarded? No. Well, then, below average intelligence? No, in fact he has normal intelligence. Then what is his problem? Actually, Marty has a learning disability.

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Does your child have learning problems?