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LEARNING DISABILITIES : Disability to Learn in children and adults.BY: Dr R Rajeswari | Category: Health and Fitness | Post Date: 2009-07-31
AUTHORS: Dr. (Mrs.) R. Rajeswari, M.Com., M.Phil., Ph.D., Principal & Head, Department of Commerce, Sri Sarada College for Women (Autonomous), Salem - 16. Education for all is the policy of the government in the current millennium. "Including the Excluded" is the key challenge in achieving the Millennium Development Goal of education for all. Government, State and Centre makes huge allocation for the education sector to integrate the education and career, a career based upon their abilities. The principle of the Government is to ensure that "No child is left behind" on account of any difficulty or inability. Many children drop out from schools on account of Learning disability / difficulties. Learning involves four steps of information processing: 1) Input: the brain takes in and records information relayed by the senses. 2) Integration: the brain interprets the information. 3) Memory: the brain stores the information in a way that it can be retrieved later. 4) Output: Learner reproduces the information through language or motor activity. Some people may have trouble with one or more of these steps. They may have difficulty in taking in, organizing and acting on information which their brains receive through the senses. The information can be verbal or non-verbal. But more commonly, the difficulty may be with regard to understanding or using written or spoken language. This difficulties can be termed as Learning disabilities. We have heard parents and teachers saying, "He knows all about current affairs but he can barely read", "He doesn't seem to get organized" or "He is restless". Statements like these are common among parents and teachers. These are the features of children with learning disabilities. When children have difficulties in managing the information their brains receive, hold them back in school and at work, causing problems with self-esteem, they may drop out of school early and the frustration they feel can lead to depression or criminal behaviour. What is Learning Disability? Learning Disabilities are a group of disorders of presumed neurological origin manifested differently and to varying degrees during the life span of an individual. These disorders are developmental in nature, occur prior to kindergarten and continue into adult life. Various manifestations of Learning Disability may be seen at different ages and as a result of varying learning demands. To put it differently, Learning Disability describes a neurobiological disorder in which a person's brain works or is structured. Some scientists view it as the Errors in Fetal Brain Development. Throughout Pregnancy, the fetal brain develops from a few all-purpose cells into a complex organization made of billions of specialized inter connected nerve cells called neurons. During this amazing evolution, things can go wrong that may alter how the neurons form or interconnect. In the early stages of pregnancy, the brain stem forms. It controls the basic life functions such as breathing and digestions. Later a deep ridge divides the cerebrum (the thinking part of the brain) into two halves , a right and left hemispheres. As the new cells form, they move into places to create various brain structures, Nerve cells rapidly grow to form networks with other part of brain. These networks are those which allow information to be shared among various regions on the brain. Throughout pregnancy, this brain development is vulnerable to disruptions. If the disruption occurs early, the fetals may die or the infant may born with widespread disabilities and possibly mental retardation. If the disruption occurs later when the cells are becoming specialized and moving into places it may leave errors in the cell make up, location or connection. These errors may later show up as Learning Disabilities. This biological disorder may affect a person's ability to speak, listen, read, write spell, reason, recall, organize information or to do mathematics but seen in people who have normal intelligence. Learning Disabilities are not the same as low intelligence, when IQs tests are given, children with Learning Disabilities generally show average or above-average intelligence. But there is typically a big gap between how smart they are and what they are able to achieve because the brain sets up road blocks that keep them from processing and reproducing information. Many famous persons had this Learning Disability problem. Albert Einstein, couldn't read until he was nine. 15 to 20% of the population has some type of Learning Disabilities. Walt Disney, General George Patton, Nelson Rockefeller had trouble reading all their lives. Types of Learning Disabilities: Learning Disabilities can show up in several ways, as specific difficulties with spoken and written language, co-ordination, calculation, reasoning self control or attention. These developmental lag is not an identifiable. Learning Disabilities until the delay can be measured in years, not in months. Learning Disabilities are broadly classified into three categories: I. Developmental Speech and Language Disorders: This includes: Developmental Articulation Disorders (DAD), Developmental Expressive Language (DEL), Developmental Receptive Language (DRL). 1. Developmental Articulation Disorders (DAD): These people have difficulty in producing speech sounds and so they have trouble controlling their rate of speech or may lag behind in learning to make speech words. For example: "Sweep¡" may be pronounced "Thweep¡". These articulation disorders are common and are seen in at least 10% of children, younger than 8 years. Most of the children, however, outgrow their problems if they are successfully treated with speech therapy. 2. Developmental Expressive Language (DEL): Some children may have problems expressing themselves in speech. For example: a. They call objects by wrong names. b. Unable to answer simple questions. 3. Developmental Receptive Language (DRL): Some people may have trouble understanding certain aspects of speech. For example: a. May not respond to their names. b. Unable to follow simple instructions. Their hearing is normal but they just can't make sense of certain sounds, words or sentences that they hear and may even appear inattentive. i.e. they hear but don't process them as thoughts. II. Academic Skills Disorders: These children have difficulty in reading, writing or arithmetic. It includes: 1. Dyslexia (Developmental Reading Disorder) - They have problem with reading, i.e. making sense out of written language. They will be unable to distinguish or separate the sounds in a spoken word. For example: If you spell out c-a-t they may be unable to identify the word "cat¡". - They may also reverse letters, words and numbers. - They may confuse the order of letters in words. - May not recognize words previously learned. - They may also spell a word in several different ways without recognizing the correct version. - May not hear fine differences in words eg: tin and ten, pin and pen. An older child with dyslexia may have trouble remembering what has recently been read. - Have difficulty concentrating while reading or writing. - May have poor spelling. 2. Dysgraphia (Developmental Writing Disorder) - Problems with handwriting. - Problems with writing in a way that make sense to others. - Difficulty to form letters or write them within a defined space. So they can't read their own handwriting. 3. Dyscalculia (Developmental Arithmetic Disorder) Person has a difficulty in - Grasping math concepts. - Problem with calculation. III. Other Disorders include: 1. Visual Processing Disorder: Some may problems in making sense of information taken in through eyes. This disorder affects ability to - Recognize spatial relationships. - Identify distinctive shapes and objects. - Differentiate part of an image from the whole. 2. Developmental Motor skill Disorder (Dyspraxia): They have problem with fine motor skills - Clumsiness with tools. - Own fingers and hands. 3. Non-verbal Learning Disorder: Some children may have problems in understanding nonverbal communication. This type of person is highly adept with language but can have trouble with organizational, social and motor skills. 4. Attention: Some children (nearly 20% of children) with Learning Disabilities have difficulty to focus their attention , even adults may have attention disorder. Where they may daydream exclusively and tend to get distracted easily. Children (especially boys) with attention deficit disorder may have hyperactivity. - They act impulsively. - They are fidgety. - Are always losing things. These hyperactive children can't sit still, can't wait for their turn and interrupt the class room. However, by adolescence, this physical hyperactivity usually subsides into restlessness and fidgeting. Identification of children with Learning Disabilities Parents are usually the first to notice delays/lags in their child reaching early milestones, - A pediatrician may observe some subtle signs of minor neurological disorder. - The classroom teacher , in fact is the first to notice the child's persistent difficulties in reading, writing or arithmetic. Causes of Learning Disabilities: 1. It has been found that there may be variations in the brain structure called planum temporale, a language related area found on both the sides of the brain. In people with Learning Disabilities (dyslexia) the two structures are found to be equal in size. For others i.e. non , Learning Disabilities the left planum temporale is found to be noticeably larger. 2. Inheritance , A child inherits abnormal brain structure or function from Parents, grand parents or heredity. 3.Other factors can be classified as a. Prenatal factors or problems during delivery. Mother's use of alcohol, drugs, tobacco while pregnant or have illness or poor nutrition during pregnancy. b. Injury/illness in infancy c. Environmental factors. How do learning disabilities affect people's lives? 1. For learning , disabled people: * Frustration , due to repeated failure in school, work place or in social situation. * Low self esteem , due to failures and from taunting or humiliation from those who are intolerant or impatient. * Stress , When compelled to "try harder" by teacher or others who do not recognize Learning Disabilities. * Depression , if people with Learning Disabilities find no way around the learning deficit & the emotions , it results in depression. 2. At School/College , Teachers may experience: * Frustration , over their inability to help students who can't seem to learn. * Anger , out of ignorance, they blame Learning Disabilities students for their difficulties. * Feelings of inadequacy , if they blame themselves for a students failures. * Resentment , Students without disability and their parents may feel resentment if the teacher spends a disproportionate amount of time with LDs disabled students. * Regular classroom teachers find themselves overwhelmed with challenges of meeting the needs of many different kinds of learners. 3. At home: * Stress & burnout , because of the child's needs and effort required to meet them. * Frustration , if they are unable to help the learning disabled child. * Guilt , about their role they think they may had in causing the child's learning disorder or they give Learning Disabilities child more attention than their other children. 4. At Work Place: * Stress , Supervisors feel stress over having to give extra attention to the work of someone with Learning Disability. * Resentment by co-workers , as supervisor give more attention as more time is given to Learning Disabilities to complete tasks or mistakes treated in a lighter way. Coping with learning disability: The parents and teachers of learning disabled students should involve in the education process both at school/college and at home. When they work with children with Learning Disabilities at school/college and home on academic and life skills, they not only help them to learn and develop intellectual on their terms, but also help them recognize their own strength and increase their self esteem. The teens and adults should learn how to compensate for learning weakness and to pursue studies and work that make use of their strength. They may determine their personal learning style and adopt learning methods to that style. They should not hesitate to talk to parents, teachers, fellow students and co-workers above the kind of support that is most useful to them. Helping Children with Learning Disabilities: Learning Disabilities have received much attention in developed countries. They have special associations and organizations for providing help to children with Learning Disabilities and their families. Certain developed countries have enacted legislations for providing special education to children with Learning Disabilities. But in India, Learning Disabilities are known only to few people. It is only recently the awareness have developed about the widespread prevalence of Learning Disabilities in India , both in rural and urban areas. Article Source: http://www.saching.com About Author / Additional Info: Additional Articles: * Indian athletes - Why we fail to win medals in Olympic games. * Are Call Center jobs safe for girls. Safety of Female employees in BPO * How to make an organization more successful and effective * HOW TO HANDLE YOUR WIFE? * Play on Staffing process Does this article violate or infringe on your copyright ? It is a violation of our terms for authors to submit content which they did not write and claim it as their own. If this article infringes on your copyrights, then use our Contact us form with the detailed proof of infringement along with the offending article's title, URL and writer name. If you do not hear back from us then contact us again in another 10 days. Thank you. Comments on this article: (1 comments so far) * Additional comments are now closed for this article *
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