Learning Disabilities
This article will argue that students with learning disabilities may face academic, social, and personal problems by providing more strategies, more guidance, and stricter policies to help kids struggling with learning disabilities or disorder .A learning disorder/disability is explained as a condition that gives rise to difficulties in acquiring knowledge and skills to the level expected of peers of similar age. Learning disabilities consist of dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, ADHD, APD, LPD, NVLD, dyspraxia, executive functioning, visual perceptual/ motor deficit, and memory. Learning disabilities impact on reading skills, math skills, and writing skills. Any learning disability can be controlled and helped thoroughly.
Dyslexia, to begin with, is a learning disability that has effects on the reading skills. It causes a challenge in identifying speech sounds and getting to learn how they relate to words and letters. Dyscalculia, on the other hand, is a learning disability that affects math skills. It causes difficulties in making mathematical calculations. Dysgraphia can be described as a learning disability affecting writing skills. It causes poor handwriting, problems with spelling, and trouble putting thoughts on paper (Blair, 2016). Dyspraxia is a learning disability that affects physical abilities and causes difficulties in kid’s daily activities and to perform less. ADHD, LPD, APD, NVLD, executive functioning, and memory are learning disabilities that affect neurological abilities and speech and hearing.
Some schools fail to support children with learning disabilities, and it causes academic challenges and or issues. Some students drop out, skip school, and are isolated due to not getting the resources or attention they need to succeed in school (Fletcher, 2016). Academic concerns children with learning disabilities may face bullying, underachievement, and failing grades. Students with a learning disability encounter misunderstanding of subjects and or confusion. Without the proper help and guidance from fellow teacher’s students, suffering cannot get help.
Social issues students may face harassment from peers or other students due to their learning disorder (Miller, 2011). They also may experience anxiety and depression from bullying amongst peers. Some kids also face low self- esteem and emotional troubles from rejection among peers. Teachers sometimes ignore students who need extra assistance because they do not want to take time out to help individuals who may need guidance. Social anxiety is also caused by students facing a learning disorder and sometimes requires seeing a therapist.
Personal problems children with a learning disability experience are acting out in school or at home. Because they do not have the proper medication or resources to help guide them to do work or to do better, they also may face financial issues because their parents may not afford to get them the extra help or assistance they need to do better. Their learning disability is a personal issue that others cannot relate to. Children with disabilities are facing more problems than regular students on a daily that is why they require more attention.
Kids with learning disabilities get treated differently from regular kids because they receive and process information differently than other kids. They also see, hear, and understand things differently. Children with learning disabilities may get more attention than regular students. Kids with learning disorders also get bullied more than an average or regular student. I think all children should be treated equally and fairly.
There is discrimination in schools against children with learning disorders. In some school’s individuals refuse to give or provide those students with the proper help or guidance that they need to function in school. Bullying is a form of discrimination against kids who learn differently than others. Individual students are looked at or treated differently because of their learning disability. Authority figures should take- the action or be fired for discrimination against students.
There are differences between general education student and those with learning disabilities. Students with a disability may be in a different classroom setting from regular students. Children with learning disorders may need a little extra assistance or help than general education students. Kids with disabilities function differently from regular students and learn differently from them. Children and regular students are different but still the same because they are students.
APD is hearing impairment; it affects hearing loss in the ears and sometimes speech. Social, behavioral disorders sometimes cause different reactions out of children that cause disruptions. Kids with APD ears and brains sometimes do not coordinate. It is hard at times to understand a child with auditory processing disorder because of how they perceive things. APD requires careful observation of specific individuals.
Visual and motor perception can be an issue such as cerebral palsy, which causes motor functions and movement of the body. Children with visual perception deficiency show struggles of wearing footwear, which causes physical change. They also often have a hard time completing puzzles. Visual impairment issues cause problems with identifying colors and letters. Visual perceptual training helps everyday living struggles.
Executive function affects our memory; it affects our long and short-term memory. The cognitive part of the brain, which affects the way we think, causes impulses, and helps regulate emotions. It sometimes helps us avoid bad decisions and limit responses. Executive function can be active in early childhood and affective throughout adulthood. It can be triggered through daily activities.
ADHD affects adolescents and sometimes follow through adulthood. ADHD falls into the category of mental disorders as well as a learning disability. Children cannot sit still or pay attention if they have ADHD. A lot of kids may not focus in school because they have a disability that causes them to be distracted most of the time. The proper medication can resolve the issue of children and help them.
Many kids sometimes get frustrated because they cannot understand their work. It causes some kids to act out in school. Learning disabilities affect cognitive, visual, and spatial reasoning. Having trouble telling right from left is a sign of a learning disorder. Children are suffering on a daily; guidance would be helpful to help them.
Most people find it difficult to comprehend that a child can have learning disabilities and be gifted at the same time. Special needs children with learning problems that result from both their high abilities are often poorly served and also mostly not identified. Difficulties in learning often lead to significant interference with academic as well as occupational performance and thus interfering with general daily life activities (Siegel, 2006).Students with Learning disorders do however manage to get an education as they are still able to maintain average or above average intelligence levels even with the learning difficulties.
Nonverbal Learning Disabilities are a form of learning difficulty where individuals display sufficient verbal expression, vocabulary, or reading skills but have a problem with visual-spatial tasks, problem-solving skills and reading body language, or recognizing social cues. Children who have learning challenges often perform below average academically due to several factors such as emotional issues ,psychological as well as behavioral issues. Such children have the potential to achieve similar academic levels of their age mates once they are provided support with evidence based instructions. Affected individuals as a result of this disability often face high levels of unemployment due to limited employment opportunities.
Students who usually have poor cognitive abilities but cannot be referred to as disabled are called slow learners. Such students are not viewed as mentally ill or retarded because they are capable of achieving a moderate level of academic success even though this may be achieved at a much slower rate than the average normal child. Researchers argue that about 67.5% of teachers and learning instructors were not aware of any children with learning difficulties in the school. The students of private schools usually belong to middle and high socioeconomic status, paying high fees for education. These schools are better equipped to provide all the necessary services to the students.
In society today, there are result-oriented schools that focus on producing toppers. They are not interested in keeping the so-called slow child in their classrooms.
Such an attitude pegs back the child’s learning progress and results in the worsening of the prediction of the problem. SLDs leads to unexpected academic underachievement. Teaching authorities are too demanding and lack patience for slow learners.
The methods and styles of teaching adopted by the teachers differ from school to school and have regional differences. Some schools put a lot of focus on phonetics and teach accordingly, while some take the traditional rote learning pattern where the child is made to cram the alphabets without understanding their formation and sound. Rote learning methods put more effort into grades and good marks and ignore the overall development of the child. It is challenging to achieve this technological sophistication in all the classrooms. Methods of teaching, such as sight words, result in reading difficulty that mimics dyslexia.
The teaching methods must be modified to suit these students since they have behavioral problems, as well. Incredible educators have experience in teaching physically challenged students. They don’t possess the theoretical and practical skills necessary for teaching learning disabled students. Ultimately, it is seen that it was a big challenge for the schools to find qualified professionals in this area. There is a need for more educators willing to help in school systems.
Students with learning disabilities can however be helped by break the learning process into small steps. It will also help to give attention to individual students one by one, a more personal approach and Giving feedback and replies to them. Other methods include Use of graphs, graphics, and diagrams as well as Use objects to help and direct the students.
Provide pictures and independent practices. Parents should help at home with their children to be more trained. Tutors should develop an effective scoring guide or matrix and provide models of examples of each performance level. Teachers and instructors can Set the learning environment by informing the students what the learning goals are, and what are the expectations are for quality performance and . Teachers should avoid any shaming of student’s work as a public example of shoddy work for the class to see. That is public ridicule and it should not be in any home or classroom.
The teacher is to make sure the student understands the instructions for a task and Correct any miscommunication or misunderstanding before he begins the actual work. Follow up on him regularly to ensure he is carrying out the task correctly and ensure that he corrects any errors before he finishes.
In conclusion, students with learning disabilities face academic, social, and personal problems by providing more strategies, more guidance, and stricter policies to help kids struggling with learning disabilities. To help remedy the situation, have them posted and use them as a basis of all interactions and class projects — use of graphic organizers to assist students in understanding the relationships between ideas. Instruction needs to include specific, step-by-step instructions that are explicitly stated by the teacher and accustomed to the student. Come up with models of quality work that students can see and analyze. Incorporate both written and spoken explanations of how the work fulfills academic expectations.
Work Cited
Blair, Clancy. “Developmental Science and Executive Function.” 1 Feb. 2016 doi: 10.1177/0963721415622634
Cho, Milim. Et. al. “Effects of Visual Perceptual Intervention on Visual Motor Integration and Activities of Daily Living Performance of Children with Cerebral Palsy” 17 Feb. 2015 doi: 10.1589/jpts.27.411
Fletcher, Claire M. “Developmental Dysgraphia as a Reading System and Transfer Problem.” 23 Feb. 2016 doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00149
Gibbs, John and Jeanette Appleton and Richard Appleton. “Dyspraxia or Developmental Coordination Disorder.” 2007 Jun. doi: 10.1136/adc.2005.088054
Miller, Carol A. and David A. Wagstaff. “Behavioral Profiles Associated with Auditory Processing Disorder and Specific Language Impairment.” Published 27 April. 2011 doi: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2011.04.001
Rapin, Isabelle. ” Dyscalculia and the Calculating Brain.” 2016 Aug. volume 61. Pages 11-20
Siegel, Linda S. ” Perspectives on Dyslexia.” 2006 Nov. doi: 10.1093/pch/11.9.581
Wilens, Timothy E. and Thomas J. Spencer. “Understanding Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder from Childhood to Adulthood.” Published 2010 Sep. doi: 10.3810/pgm.2010.09.2206