Students with Learning Disabilities
Friday, October 31st, 2008
To have to watch a child struggle through school and homework can be a difficult burden yet millions of parents have students with learning disabilities. They see test after test, report card after report card and tons of teachers’ notes detailing how the child is struggling with school and or life in general.
It is frustrating for a child to not quite grasp a problem as easy has his or her schoolmates. Students with learning disabilities often act out if they are experiencing these academic and life frustrations and the problem begins to escalate.
There are specific learning disabilities that many adults, parents and school officials are familiar with courtesy to a movement by health officials. One of these specific learning disabilities is dyslexia.
A common misconception regarding dyslexia is that the person reads “upside down” or “backwards”. Dyslexia is actually quite complex and can have a wide range of symptoms. Doctors usually look for at least three of the signs or symptoms before diagnosing a child. The actual symptoms also vary according to age group and can be difficult to isolate if the child has problems such as Attention Deficit Disorder or ADD.
Health officials and school officials perform learning disability assessments in order to determine what the child is specifically having trouble with. It could range from emotional to physical.
It is important to remember that sometimes there might not be an actual learning disability. Far too often there are misdiagnoses for students with learning disabilities when in actuality the child might develop or learn at a slower rate than his or her classmates. It is not a clear indication if the child is disabled in any way.
Teachers are now being trained on observing to see if there are students with learning disabilities in their classrooms and what steps need to be taken in order to ensure that the federally mandated laws such as “No Child Left Behind” are enacted.
It is important that each child be given every possible help needed in order to learn and grow in a healthy environment. If there is a possibility that a learning condition exists then the child is tested. In most cases there are three areas that professionals look that help determine the extent of the specific learning disability.
The first is within speech and communication. Does the child have trouble with reading and communicating thoughts? The second is how the child does in the academic setting. Is the child struggling to pay attention? Or is there a specific subject that the child is having problems with? And the third is any physical disorder or behavior problem that might indicate a learning disability.
Students with learning disabilities no longer have to be simply “passed” through until they reach the proper age to graduate. There is help available for students, teachers and parents alike.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
