Learning Disabilities Essay Research Paper For centuries

Learning Disabilities Essay, Research Paper

For centuries, the education of children with learning disabilities has been a problem and a challenge. Many methods of teaching have been proposed, yet every day there are new techniques and strategies on how to achieve the maximum success of these children. The problem of educating a child cannot be solved quickly and easily, rather it requires much careful analysis and research. Workers in this field are developing new theories on a day-to-day basis. All the methods proposed seem to be the answer, yet the problem is not yet solved. Meanwhile, we must determine the best strategies for the most effective method of teaching a child with learning disabilities.

Children whom we are discussing are those who are sometimes thought to be unprogressive or otherwise not achieving as well as they should at their age level in school. They are usually average children who experience extreme difficulty in learning how to read or to do mathematical problems, or who have difficulty in handling a pencil, buttoning buttons, or tying shoelaces. They can be harshly teased by their classmates for clumsiness or “stupidity,” and are frequently labeled as “disciplinary” problems by their teachers because they may act up in class in an attempt to blend in their lack of preparation. Their disabilities are often not recognized and many times these children grow up and go through life, still impaired, still making adjustments, never having been helped because the nature of their disability had not been recognized. Children with learning and behavioral difficulties have a lot in common with all children. They rarely exhibit any kinds of learning and behavior characteristics that are not also seen in the typical child. For example, many times they cannot tell the difference between similar letters or numbers.

Many children also exhibit visual perceptual problems during their early exposure of reading instruction, but most children soon learn the appropriate visual discrimination and the associated letter sound, etc. However, it is the children that continue to experience these problems that are diagnosed as having learning difficulties. The proper identification of a learning problem is only the first step in the redemption process. Before the data obtained from testing and from subjective observations can have prescriptive value, it must be properly interpreted and analyzed correctly. There are so many cases where children are labeled as immature or unenthusiastic and they are given no special attention or care. When the term “immaturity” is used by educators to describe a child, the description does not in any way offer insight into the source of the child’s disability or problem. Today, there are so many terms that are used to refer to children who have difficulties comprehending materials and who have atypical behavioral skills. These include terms such as handicapped, disabled, exceptional, impaired, disordered, special, and developmentally delayed. These are general terms, however, it is those terms that actually specify the problem that often get confused. Placing a label on this child is telling those around the child to treat him in a different way than other children. There is substantial research that teachers act differently toward children for whom they have low expectations. Over time, the child’s behavior and achievement conforms to the teacher’s expectations. By labeling a child, not only will the educator deal with the child differently, but also other children will also immediately act differently toward the child because they think something is wrong. By other children acting differently this will eventually cause a change in the way the child perceives himself. The child will look at himself in a different way. He will think of himself as bad. Now that he is labeled he is no longer an individual, his uniqueness is lost. Labeling the child does not explain why he doesn’t learn, and it does not indicate the actual problem. To label a child is to take away his identity .

In order for the actual problem to be pinpointed, the child has to go through a series of examinations and evaluations. After the child is tested he is directed to the type of class that will give him what he is missing. It is at this point where we hope that there will be a successful remediation and that this child will eventually be able to enter the mainstream (an attempt to keep a learning disabled child with a peer group in the appropriate grade). The type of classroom that the child is placed in emerges from the reports of the various special disciplines and from the actual evaluations and assessment tests. The child is looked at informally whether he is cooperative during sessions and the length of his attention span. He is also evaluated formally through a variety of tests. When placing a child there are many things to consider. The child’s ability in language skills is an important area in determining his intelligence; that is, being able to count to ten or recite the alphabet, enumerate the days in the week and the months of the year. In addition, the evaluators often prefer to get an idea of whether the child is familiar with his/her surroundings. Questions such as, determining the day of the week, are often helpful to see whether or not the child is alert. Many of the informal tests are dependent upon the child’s age. A child who is five would