Perceptual disabilities are a type of learning disorder or learning disability. Perceptual disabilities is one of the types of specific learning disabilities defined by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), because of that, children with perceptual disabilities are considered eligible for special education services.

To understand perceptual disabilities, it is important to understand two things. the four stages of learning, which are:

• Input (the initial entry of information into the brain);
• Integration (the processing and interpretation of that information);
• Memory (the storage and ability to recall that information); and
• Output (the ability to convey that information through language or motor output).

Because perceptual disabilities occur at the input stage, it is important to clarify two things. First, perceptual disabilities do not mean that there is a problem with the sensory acquisition of information. People with perceptual disabilities may have nothing the matter with their sight and hearing. The disability is how that information is handled. Second, because perceptual disabilities cause problems at the initial stage of information processing, other stages may be affected as well.

Perceptual disabilities may be categorized by the particular sensory area that is affected.

• Seeing—Visual perceptual disabilities may result in problems with organization, positioning, judging distance, and hand-eye coordination. The ability to read social cues, such as facial expressions, may also be impacted.

• Hearing—Auditory perceptual disabilities may lead to an inability to distinguish differences between sounds, trouble staying focused on a primary auditory input, or having trouble keeping up with auditory input.

• Smell and taste—Perceptual disabilities in these areas may result in an unusual level of sensitivity or insensitivity and may affect the ability to distinguish odors and tastes.

• Touch—Tactile perceptual disabilities may either result in a dulled sense of touch, or one that is unusually sensitive to stimuli.

Perceptual disabilities may also affect the proprioceptive sense, which has to do with body self-awareness, and the vestibular sense, which has to do with balance and equilibrium.

Research on perceptual disabilities in ongoing, and still being explored are the causes. One current focus is a disorder known as Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) or sometimes Sensory Integrative Disorder (SID) with the aim of discovering if it is among the conditions that result in perceptual disorders.