Teaching children with learning disabilities: Introduction
Teaching children with learning disabilities is a big challenge to most parents and teachers. Most people know, or are taught at an early age, how to process information and develop an organized plan or strategy when confronted with a problem. It should not matter whether that problem is social, academic, or job related. Others find such cognitive processes quite difficult. Learning disabilities have only recently been recognized as disabilities. This neurological disorder causes difficulty in organizing information received, remembering it, and expressing information, and therefore, affects a person’s basic functions such as reading, writing, comprehension, and reasoning. However, children with learning disabilities can be taught effective learning strategies that will help them approach tasks more effectively.
Teaching children with learning disabilities: Action
Teaching children with learning disabilities involves having an understanding of forms or types of disabilities. There are many types of learning disabilities. Some of the disabilities commonly found are dyslexia (inability to read properly), dyscalculia (inability in math reasoning), dysgraphia (difficulty with syntax), visual, and audial difficulties. Generally, a child with learning disabilities experiences difficulties in study skills, writing skills, oral skills, reading skills, math skills and social skills. In studying, children experience inability to organize time, and are therefore unable to finish assignments on time, and they have trouble taking notes and following instructions. They often have difficulty spelling correctly and make frequent grammatical errors which results in poor sentence structure and poor penmanship. If the teacher speaks too fast, a child will have difficulty understanding and recalling the words. They are usually slow readers and sometimes have incorrect comprehension and poor retention. Confusion with math symbols is common, as well as difficulty with concepts of time and money. Realizing their inabilities results in low self-esteem which greatly affects their social skills.
Teaching children with learning disabilities: Solution
Teaching children with learning disabilities can be simplified. Some keys to success are: asking questions in a clarifying manner, and then have the students with learning disabilities describe his or her understanding of the questions; using an overhead projector with an outline of the lesson or unit of the day; reducing course load for students with learning disabilities; providing clear photocopies of notes and overhead transparencies if the student benefits from such strategies; providing students with chapter outlines or study guides that cue them to key points in their readings; providing a detailed course syllabus before class begins; asking questions in a way that helps the student gain confidence. At LearningRx, we have proven training methods that help students overcome issues. Find out more information at www.learningrx.com.