The Truth About Learning Disabilities That Teachers Want You To Understand (Part 1)

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As a parent, it may be dismay on your part to find out that your child will “not be cured” with his learning disability. Understand that this type of disorder is a neurodevelopmental issue. Yes, there is no cure, but there are ways to cope. There may be a hormone in your child’s brain that is either lacking or in overage, which causes these deficiencies in your child. It is not your fault and more so, not the fault of your child. You will have to accept that he is who he is and then, love him unconditionally by providing the understanding and support that he needs to overcome this learning issue.

Are you ready?

As a teacher of children with special needs, including those with learning disabilities, we want you to understand some crucial matters about your beautiful child.

Learning Disabilities Come In Many Forms

Many parents think that there are only a few types of learning disabilities. The truth is that learning disabilities are not just restricted to having problems in their ability to read, calculate, and write. It is usually more than that. It’s not always easy to identify learning disabilities. Because of the wide variations, there is no single symptom or profile that you can look to as proof of a problem,” Jeanne Segal, Ph.D. and co-authors wrote. It can manifest into other forms like poor hand-eye coordination, difficulties in articulation, and also the inability to fully understand auditory stimuli. There is still no approved cure for learning disabilities, but there are recommended ways, strategies, and techniques to minimize the effects of it and for the affected child function academically and have a better quality life.

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Many Children Have Learning Disabilities – Not Just Your Child

A hefty number of population has been recently reported to have learning disabilities. About one-third of children under special education services have this kind of condition. The disability does not choose the socioeconomic status, race, color, and upbringing of its victims. There is a wide array of the profile of the children affected by it. It usually does not have a direct proportion to the IQs of the children, but the learning disability hinders the intellectual potentials of the child. It is detrimental to know that it is severe no matter what type of society you live in.

The Term “Dyslexia” Is A Learning Disability – It is Not A Mental Or Psychological Disorder

Often, we interchange both terms. Understand that they are being used in different contexts. Dyslexia is a learning disability, whereas it affects the child’s ability to read. “Dyslexia is the most common learning disability and has been the object of much research published in books, chapters, and articles,” Francois Grosjean Ph.D. added. Learning disability is the umbrella term to describe all kinds of child’s difficulty to process stimuli and materials for learning. In line with this, the techniques that teachers utilize have a significant impact on kids affected by Dyslexia. Even so, students are still having a hard time deciphering words and numbers and can be frustrating for the parents also.

It Will Be Very Challenging To Teach Language To Children With Dyslexia

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As much as the teachers want to provide the perfect way to teach writing, it is still argued what the best approach for the best outcomes is. The first technique is by the whole language meaning teachers expose them to complete texts through books and other materials. The other one is phonics, the use of sounds to cut down the volume of the documents into minimal sizes so that the child will have better digestion of the words and letters. There have been some studies that support the style of phonics, but there is still ongoing underutilization of the technique. Tracy P Alloway Ph.D. explains that, “It takes considerable working memory space to keep in mind the relevant speech sounds and concepts necessary for identifying words and understanding text, which can exceed the capacity of the student with dyslexia.”

Part 2 of this blog will be out next week! Until then!