Learning Disabilities in Children
Learning Disabilities are the learning disorder where a child has difficulty in reading, writing, speaking, listening, thinking, reasoning and maths. These problems are not because that the child is lazy but because it is genetic problem. Initially parents would blame child for his problems or may neglect his disabilities but that is not the solution.
According to some researchers, learning disabilities are caused by the differences in the brain and the way it produces the information.
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How to test that your child has Learning Disabilities?
If your child has most of the following complaints -

  • Child may make mistakes while reading and writing or miss out the words or skip the lines while reading loudly.
  • Child may have difficult in learning rhyming words and alphabets.
  • Difficulty in learning language and vocabulary
  • Child may not able to hold the pencil properly.
  • Child may have very bad handwriting or unable to improve the writing.
  • Child gets very confused about following the instructions like 'stand in a line' .
  • Child has difficulty copying from the board.
  • Child may mispronounce the words or spell wrong words which sounds similar.
  • If any of the close family member suffers from the same problem then it is very likely that your child suffers from the same.

If your child shows most of the above problems then it is important for teachers and parents to investigate further and help the child to overcome the learning disabilities. Learning disabilities can be cured if proper education and treatment is provided.

The learning disabilities includes
1) Dyslexia - Dyslexia means difficulty with reading, writing and spelling, sometimes difficulty with numbers. These kids are perfectly normal, they are smart and talented as others.
Dyslexic child has difficult in remembering the words in order , they dont understand how to spell particular word and sometimes while reading those words their eyes may move unevenly.

2) Dysgraphia - Dysgraphia means inability to write with poor handwriting. These kids have difficulty copying from the board and has very poor handwriting. Even though they have very good ideas but unable to implement those on the paper. They also have difficulty with spelling and grammar. They spend long time to write a small answer.

3)Dyscalculia - It is a learning disability where a child has difficulty with math problems like difficult in counting, simple addition and subtraction, poor memory with respect to math problem and numbers. This disability may vary child to child. Some children may have difficulty in processing and making sense what they hear while some of them may difficulty in processing what they see.

Types of Learning Disabilities
Types of disabilities mentioned are -
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  • Visual Perception Disability - Some children has difficulty in recognizing the things they see like shapes or position of particular thing. For Example - A child with this disability may get confused with the letters 'b' and 'd' because they appear in the reverse shape. Such children usually jump over the words while reading or they will skip the lines because they get confused with such reverse words. Hence they have reading disability.
  • Auditory Perception Disability - Child is not able to distinguish and understand the words that sounds alike . For example - 'blow' and 'blue'. They would not respond if they hear such words from parents or teachers, it is not because they are not paying attention but they are unable to grasp and understand those words. Hence they dont flow with the conversation in school with normal students. They can understand only if someone speaks in slow speed with single sentence at a time.
  • Memory Disability - Child has short term memory information or can concentrate for short period. For Example - If you tell a child " Eat your food, brush your teeth, pray to god and then go upstairs and go to sleep". The child will remember but if someone interrupts him while doing his work then he will forget the half part of it. Then the parent has to repeat the same thing again. In such cases child needs the repetitive information in order to retain that in his brain.

Detect the disabilities
If your child has some of the symptoms of disabilities it does not mean that he / she has learning disabilities because of the emotional, family or social problems the behavior in child may change. So it is important to go through the psychological assessment in order detect the disabilities.

Treatment for Learning Disabilities

  • Such children cannot study in the normal schools as they need special attention. There are special education for these students. With the help of teachers and parents this institute helps the child to overcome the disabilities.
  • There are specially trained educators who teach the children their learning abilities and strengthen their weakness.
  • Speech and language therapist plays important role in the treatment where child has auditory or visual disability.
  • Sometimes medicines are prescribed if there is lack of concentration or memory issues.

Suggestion for Parents
Along with teachers, parents also play important role in developing their child's abilities.
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  • Pay attention to your child's hobbies, what he likes to do, what are his skill sets, etc. and motivate him to go ahead with his talent.
  • Never force or implement your plans on your child as this may worsen the situation.
  • It is important to gather the information regarding child's weakness, likes and dislikes which may be helpful to the special educators.
  • If your child has reading or writing disabilities you cannot expect him to read or write as quickly as others, so you need to have the patience and time for your child. Try to read and help him writing those words where he is lacking so that your child gets more confident. Let him learn reading and writing on his own and at his own speed.
  • Your child may make lot of mistakes but instead of criticizing him, make him realize his mistakes and try finding solution for his problems.
  • Make proper use of computers, videos, television and games which your child may like to see and do. They can be good medium of learning for your child. For example -  There are some websites on internet which provides good education and general knowledge to the kids. You can buy DVD's which will help them to pronounce the particular words in correct way or help your child in reading. In this way your child will learn and play too.

 

 

 



 


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