Many children with average or above-average intelligence struggle at school due to learning disabilities.

At least 5 per cent of school children could have some form of learning disability (LD), and the government is doing little to help, experts say.

"We have found learning disabilities in 5 to 10 per cent of children aged from four to 12 years old," said Dr Kullaya Korsuwan, head of the Special Education Department at Srinakharinwirot University.

She explained a simple intelligence test could distinguish LD sufferers from slow learners.

LD was generally defined as a significant gap between a person's intelligence and the skills the person had achieved at each age level.

Children with a learning disability were as smart or smarter than their peers, but they had difficulty reading, writing, spelling, reasoning, recalling and/or organising information when left to figure things out by themselves, or if taught in conventional ways.

"These children need teachers' help. The government should help by providing money for special education and teachers," Kullaya said.

Asst Prof Charnwit Pornnop-padol works at the child and adolescent psychiatry department at Siriraj Hospital's Faculty of Medicine.

He said children with LD should receive assistance from kindergarten level or at least during their first few years in primary school. "If assistance arrives late, it's difficult to help them because they will already feel they are failing at school and have lost self-esteem," he said.

According to Srinakharinwirot University's research, as many as eight out of 10 children with LD suffered from dyslexia.

Dyslexia is a language-based disability in which a person has trouble understanding the written word. It is also known as reading disability or reading disorder.

The university's research corresponds with National Statistical Office data. It found in 2000 that more than 1.6 million children aged between six and 14 years old were unable to read and write properly.

Janya Thong-ampai, a Suphan Buri school director, said it was only in early 2005 that her school was able to identify children with LD.

"Before that, I was wondering why some students were very slow to write or often misspelled even when we had been prepared to teach autistic children or slow learners," she said.

Janya said teachers at her school now provided reading and writing tutorials for students with LD.

"The teachers are willing to do so even if that means they have to work harder. Our school hopes that we can help children with LD to live happily in society," she said.