Knowledge
Breaking Barriers: A Journey Through Learning Disabilities
“Every child deserves an education that guarantees the safety to learn in the comfort of one’s own skin.”-Dena Simmons
Learning disability refers to a heterogeneous group of disorders manifested in terms of difficulty in the acquisition of learning, reading, writing, speaking, reasoning, and mathematical activities.
Learning disabilities may be observed as distinct handicapping conditions in children of average to superior intelligence, adequate sensory-motor systems, and adequate learning opportunities.
★ The term does not include children who have learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor handicaps, mental retardation, emotional disturbance, or environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantages.
Causes of learning disabilities
Although there is no single, specific cause for learning disabilities, however, there are some factors that could cause a learning disability:
- Heredity
- Problem during and after birth
- Stress during infancy
- Increased exposure to toxins
★ Learning disabilities are not caused due to physical or mental illness, economic condition, or cultural background; neither do they indicate that the child is weak or lazy.
Types of learning disabilities
- Dyslexia: Dyslexia is a language-processing disorder that impacts reading, writing, and comprehension. It may exhibit difficulty decoding words or identifying individual sounds within words.
- Dysgraphia: Children with dysgraphia have trouble converting their thoughts into writing or drawing. Individuals with dysgraphia may exhibit difficulty with letter spacing, poor motor planning and spatial awareness, and trouble thinking and writing simultaneously.
- Dyscalculia: Dyscalculia involves learning disabilities related to mathematical calculations. Individuals with dyscalculia struggle with math concepts, numbers, and reasoning.
- Auditory processing disorder: In auditory processing disorder, individuals have difficulty in processing sounds. Individuals with APD may confuse the order of sounds or be unable to filter different sounds.
- Language processing disorder: language processing disorder arises when an individual has specific challenges in processing spoken language, impacting both receptive and expressive language.
- Nonverbal learning disabilities: These actually refer to difficulties in decoding non-verbal behavior or social cues. Non-verbal learning disability sufferers struggle with understanding body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice, or the non-verbal aspects of communication.
- Visual perceptual/visual motor deficit: Individuals with visual perceptual/visual motor deficits exhibit poor hand-eye coordination, often lose their places when reading, and have difficulty with fine motor activities.
★ In general, 5 percent of school-age children are affected by learning disabilities. Children with learning disabilities may also have ADHD.
The signs of LD may vary slightly during each stage of childhood.
● Preschool: The child may have some of these difficulties in preschool:
○ Developing speaking skills at the normal age (15-18 months) when speech typically develops in children
○ Pronouncing simple words
○ Recognizing letters and words
○ Learning numbers, rhymes, or songs
○ Concentrating on tasks
○ Following rules and directions
○ Using fine/gross motor skills to do physical tasks.
● Primary School: The child may have difficulty in:
○ Connecting letters and sounds
○ Differentiating between similar-sounding words or rhyming words
○ Reading, spelling, or writing accurately
○ Distinguishing right from left, for example, confusing 25 with 52
○ Using correct mathematical symbols for doing math problems
○ Remembering numbers or facts
○ Understanding the concept of time
○ Poor Hand-to-eye coordination
○ Tasks involving fine motor skills: holding a pencil, tying a shoe lace, buttoning shirt, and so on
○ Keeping track of own possessions like stationery items
★ With timely intervention and support, children with learning disabilities can be successful in school. Parents and teachers are the first persons to notice that the child is finding it difficult to read, write or learn and early detection can help the child benefit from treatment or therapy. Neglecting the condition may affect the child’s ability to cope with the condition.
★ Unfortunately it is very difficult for parents to accept the reality that their child is suffering from any kind of learning disability, and try to remain in a denial about it. They keep giving excuses for the dis-satisfactory performance of their children like the child is in bad company, he is not getting guidance from teachers, he is just naughty, nothing else, and sometimes parents blame each other and even the school for their child’s concern.
★ Misunderstanding learning disabilities is a major barrier in helping children to overcome this concern. If the learning disabled are left unaddressed, they will be burdened with low self-esteem, and negative attitudes towards life, they will accept they’re being labeled as low achievers and might also show symptoms of attention deficiency.
★ If we really want to help children with learning disabilities, the first and foremost step is to counsel parents and help them understand and accept the problem and provide their children with the necessary help.
★ With the support from parents, Schools can provide extra care to these children, can give them special classes according to their requirements, can use multisensory approaches, and identify their strengths and special abilities.
For helping students with learning disabilities, schools can take up the following measures
- Extra help: A reading specialist or other trained professional can teach your child techniques to improve his or her academic skills. Tutors can also teach children organizational and study skills.
- Individualized Education Program (IEP): The child’s school or a special educator might develop an IEP that will describe how a child can best learn in school.
- Therapy: Depending on the learning disorder, some children might benefit from therapy. For example, speech therapy can help children who have language disabilities. Occupational therapy might help improve the motor skills of a child who has writing problems.
- Social skills training: Children are supported to learn specific social skills – Joining the conversation, and responding to questions – by trained therapists or professionals.
- Occupational Therapy: It is provided to children suffering from learning disabilities to build tolerance for the external experience.
★ Parents and experts need to set goals and assess if the child is improving with the selected mode of intervention and support. If not, alternative methods can be chosen to help the child.
Not just individual schools or any educational institute, but even the government has provided various relaxations and support for children suffering from learning disabilities.
CBSE has been very supportive and has provided relaxation for learning disabilities that are
● Provision of a scribe for the child
● If the child has difficulty reading, the child is entitled to a reader
● CBSE also gives extra time to students with disability
● Children can opt for one compulsory language as prescribed by the board by default
● They can choose any four subjects offered by CBSE and the school they go to
● Children suffering from dyscalculia are allowed to use a calculator
★ While children with learning disabilities have difficulties in some areas of learning, they also have great aptitude, skill, and talent in other areas of their interest. Most often, we focus on the disorder and neglect the child’s talents or skills. It is important that parents and teachers recognize this hidden potential and encourage the child to pursue them.
“People with learning disabilities do not need to be fixed; they need to be accepted for who they are.”- Jordan Christian
Author – Dipinder Kaur, Principal, Lions Public School, Gurugram