Parents get exasperated with their children when all the teachers complain that children are lazy and uninterested in studies. Even at home, they would throw temper tantrums when was told to do homework. Yet, one could not help feeling that there is something else behind their child’s stubbornness and reluctance when it came to studies. Finally, they will be diagnosed as being learning disabled. Today, such children are given therapy to help them cope with learning difficulties and do much better at school.
Learning disabilities in children may be detected only after a child begins school and faces difficulties in acquiring basic academic skills. However, there are a few things you can look out for to identify if your child needs help. Learning disability is a condition that affects a child and impairs his ability to carry out one or many specific tasks. These tasks include being able to read, write, speak, listen, and calculate. A learning disabled child is neither slow nor mentally retarded. An affected child can have normal or above average intelligence. This is why a child with a learning disability is often wrongly labeled as being smart but lazy. Learning disability can also be defined as a difference seen between a child's learning capacity and his actual learning ability This is because his brain finds it difficult to understand certain signals and prevents him from processing the information associated with those signals.
There is no one common factor that causes a learning disability in a child. In most cases, it is inherited. A child with a learning disability most likely has a parent who also displayed difficulties with learning skills but may not have been diagnosed. Learning disabilities have also been associated with impaired brain development due to a variety of factors such as premature birth, infection, oxygen deprivation, and exposing the foetus to drugs, alcohol or any other natural or artificial neurotoxins. After-birth causes include physical injury to the head, improper nutrition, and exposure to toxic substances, which interfere with normal brain development.
The earliest indication of a learning disability in a child is if he has difficulties in reaching basic developmental milestones. Some children take a little time to begin walking or speaking, which is perfectly normal. However, if your child still cannot walk by the age of two, he may have a learning disability. Besides not walking, he may also display uncoordinated movements. As he grows, he may display difficulty performing acts like fastening buttons or tying shoelaces, and have an awkward grasp over objects. A child who is confused by regular actions like brushing his teeth, dressing himself, etc. may have a learning disability. He may not be able to understand certain concepts like colour, size, or shape. He may get mixed up between the previous day and the next, and also not be able to understand the concept of time.
Many children are highly energetic. Sometimes, this energy can affect a child's ability to carry out assigned tasks and the child is perceived to be hyperactive. A hyperactive child has difficulty in focusing on one task at a time. He cannot sit still as he faces difficulties in normal interactions with other children of his age. The child could also be prone to temper tantrums when he is forced to socialise and will prefer to play by himself. Lack of attention usually occurs in tandem with hyperactivity. A child may appear not to listen when spoken to him directly and in many attempts he will ignore. He will also not remember what he was doing a few minutes back and will tend to misplace things like books, pencils, toys, etc. He may also have problems following simple instructions like picking up his toys.
A child with a disability in one learning area can sometimes have exceptional skills in other areas. For example, a child may be an advanced reader for his age but may not be able to solve simple mathematics problems like adding two numbers. He may read words or numbers backwards and not be able to distinguish between his left and right sides.
A learning disability cannot be diagnosed by a layperson. If you suspect that your child is facing difficulties with learning, talk to your child's school teachers and see if they confirm that your child is having difficulty at school. A child can overcome a learning disability to have a normal academic life and can even go to college and study professional courses.
Learning disabilities are problems that affect the brain's ability to receive, process, analyze, or store information. These problems can make it difficult for a student to learn as quickly as someone who isn't affected by learning disabilities. There are many kinds of learning disabilities. Most students affected by them have more than one kind. Certain kinds of learning disabilities can interfere with a person's ability to concentrate or focus and can cause someone's mind to wander too much. Other learning disabilities can make it difficult for a student to read, write, spell, or solve math problems.
Learning disabilities usually first show up when a person has difficulty in speaking, reading, writing, figuring out a math problem, communicating with a parent, or paying attention in class. Some kids' learning disabilities are diagnosed in grade school when a parent or a teacher notices the kid can't follow directions for a game or is struggling to do work he or she should be able to do easily. But other kids develop sophisticated ways of covering up their learning issues, so the problem doesn't get addressed until the teen years when schoolwork and life gets more complicated.
Those with verbal learning disabilities have difficulty with words, both spoken and written. The most common and best-known verbal learning disability is dyslexia, which causes people to have trouble recognizing or processing letters and the sounds associated with them. For this reason, someone with dyslexia will have trouble with reading and writing tasks or assignments. Some others with verbal learning disabilities may be able to read or write very well but struggle with other aspects of language, as they may be able to sound out a sentence or paragraph perfectly, making them good readers, but they can't relate to the words in ways that will allow them to make sense of what they're reading .Yet others have trouble with the act of writing as their memory struggle to control the many things that go into it, from moving their hand to form letter shapes to remembering the correct grammar rules involved in writing down a sentence.
Those with nonverbal learning disabilities may have difficulty in processing what they see. They may have trouble making sense of visual details like numbers on a blackboard. Someone with a nonverbal learning disability at times may confuse the plus sign with the sign for division. Some abstract concepts like fractions may be difficult to master for people with nonverbal learning disabilities.
The behavioral condition attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is often associated with learning disabilities because children with ADHD also might have a hard time focusing enough to learn and study. They are often easily distracted and have trouble concentrating. They may also be excessively active or have trouble controlling their impulses. But many with learning disabilities struggle for a long time before someone realizes that there's a reason they're having so much trouble learning. For most in their teen years, the first telltale sign of most learning disabilities occurs when they notice that there's a par between how much they studied and how well they performed. Or it may just be the feeling a person has that something isn't right. If this sort of worry haunts one, don't hesitate to share thoughts with a parent or a teacher.
Although a diagnosis of a learning disability can feel upsetting, it's actually the first step in resolving the condition. Once a particular problem has been pinpointed, parents and teachers can then follow strategies to help cope with the disability. And taking steps to manage the disability can often help restore a student's self-esteem and confidence. Ruling out vision or hearing problems is the first step in diagnosing a learning disability. A child may then work with a learning specialist who will use specific tests to help diagnose the disability. Often, these can help pinpoint that student’s learning strengths and weaknesses in addition to revealing a particular learning disability.
Students who have been diagnosed with a learning disability must work with a special teacher or tutor for a few hours a week to learn certain study skills, note-taking strategies, or organizational techniques that can help them compensate for their learning disability. Here teachers develop Individualized Education Program (or IEP), which helps define a person's learning strengths and weaknesses and make a plan for the learning activities that will help the student do his or her best in school. A student's IEP might include sessions with a tutor in a specialized classroom for a certain subject, with the use of special equipments to help with learning, such as books on tape or laptop computers for students who have dyslexia. If one has been diagnosed with a learning disability, he/she may need support just for the subjects that give him/her the most trouble. Normally schools have no special classrooms with teachers who are trained to help students overcome learning problems.
There's no cure for a learning disability. And one doesn’t outgrow it. But it's never too late to get help. Many with these disabilities adapt to their learning differences and find strategies that help them accomplish their goals and dreams.
