WHAT’S A LEARNING
DISORDER?
Today, boys & girls, I want to discuss what a learning disorder
(LD) is.
If your kid doesn’t do well in school; if he can’t focus on
a task; if he is always tapping his fingers or pencil; if he continually talks
to other students in class during work time; if he never seems to be able to
complete his homework; if he fails pretty much every test he takes, he may not be a Bad Kid. He may actually have a
learning disorder.
LD is an umbrella term that can encompass many types of
learning problems. It has NOTHING to do with INTELLIGENCE or MOTIVATION. In
other words, if your child has a true LD there
is no amount of punishment that will motivate him to “do better”. Taking away all his video games and all extra curricular activities just for the sake of punishment will not help.
An LD is not just about reading or numbers. It can also
cause problems with reasoning and speaking. Your son could be looking right at
you when you’re explaining something to him but he can’t grasp what you’re
saying. Not because he isn’t paying attention but because his brain is
different from yours. A kid with an LD might love to read but can’t do simple
math. He might grasp the entire periodic table and know how each element
interacts with the other but cannot understand what you mean when you say, “You
need to finish up before dinner time.”
WHAT A LEARNING
DISORDER IS NOT
I can remember times in elementary school where I just
couldn’t get what I was being taught. 5th grade science was the worst. I just didn’t enjoy it and
couldn’t be bothered to study it so needless to say, I didn’t score so well on
the exams. But it wasn’t because I had a processing disorder or an LD. I just
really hated science. A learning disorder is totally different. A kid with an
LD isn’t dumb or lazy. They are wired differently which means they don’t take
in information the same way as kids without an LD. You can’t be expected to follow
a recipe if it’s written in Swahili (and you only know English) so how can you
expect for your child with an LD to learn how to add or spell or to tell the
difference between stratus clouds and cirrus clouds if you’re trying to teach
him the same way kids without LD’s are taught?
YOU GIVE IT A TRY
Let’s try a little experiment, shall we? Think of something
you enjoy. It can be anything. Are you
great at cooking? Math? Gardening? Super. Now go to a foreign country and sign
up for a class in their language and see how well you do. My guess is, not that great. How do you think
it would be, to sit in a classroom with someone speaking at you in a foreign
language & where everyone else in the class is getting it? Would you be
anxious, trying to pick up on what they’re doing, what page they’re on, what
they’re writing and reading? Would you be bored, not being able to understand
the words that are coming out of the instructor’s mouth, so you start daydreaming
or gazing out the window? Would you be irritated, trying to figure out what the
hell is going on, your fellow students getting obviously annoyed that you keep
looking over their shoulders or asking questions?
And that’s in a class that’s on a topic that you ENJOY.
Imagine how it might be for a kid who deals with these
emotions on a daily basis, in a place they have come to hate and feel
uncomfortable in because it’s all a foreign language; a place where they have
become hated because they don’t follow along easily or are disruptive in a
class that teaches them nothing.
HOW CAN YOU TELL IF
IT’S A LEARNING DISORDER?
OK, so you’re not sure if your kid has a learning disorder.
Here are some signs at different ages that may clear it up for you: (the
following chart was found at Helpguide.org)
Preschool
signs and symptoms of learning disabilities
§ Problems
pronouncing words
§ Trouble
finding the right word
§ Difficulty
rhyming
§ Trouble
learning the alphabet, numbers, colors, shapes, days of the week
§ Difficulty
following directions or learning routines
§ Difficulty
controlling crayons, pencils, and scissors or coloring within the lines
§ Trouble
with buttons, zippers, snaps, learning to tie shoes
Grades
K-4 signs and symptoms of learning disabilities
§ Trouble
learning the connection between letters and sounds
§ Unable to
blend sounds to make words
§ Confuses
basic words when reading
§ Consistently
misspells words and makes frequent reading errors
§ Trouble
learning basic math concepts
§ Difficulty
telling time and remembering sequences
§ Slow to
learn new skills
Grades
5-8 signs and symptoms of learning disabilities
§ Difficulty
with reading comprehension or math skills
§ Trouble
with open-ended test questions and word problems
§ Dislikes
reading and writing; avoids reading aloud
§ Spells
the same word differently in a single document
§ Poor
organizational skills (bedroom, homework, desk is messy and disorganized)
§ Trouble
following classroom discussions and expressing thoughts aloud
§ Poor
handwriting
GET HELP
If you think your kid has a learning disorder, please get
help for him NOW. It’s important to note that people with LD’s are usually just
as smart as anyone without an LD. Don’t
let your personal feelings on what it will mean to YOU if your son or daughter
is diagnosed with a learning disorder. Denying that there is a greater issue (like a disability) at hand because you're afraid of how you will look to other people is selfish and wrong. Give your kid a chance to learn and
to grow!
When I went to school in the Pre-Columbian era, there was no recognition of learning disabilities which probably accounts for the large rate of dropouts and illiteracy...you cannot succeed without remediation and the development of compensatory skills. I'm dyslexic...can't tell left from right, horizontal from vertical, anything to do with directionality ...I won't tell you how I learned to compensate to this day.
ReplyDeleteNow we have Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences; some kids don't learn because we don't teach to their type of learning style.
Simply put, we've got a long way to go before we genuinely educate all kids before relegating to the "lazy, dumb bin."
The only really lazy kids I have encountered are those who were bred by parents who place zero value on education themselves.
I was shocked to learn of your dyslexia! Your writing is not just great, it's above-average! I could not agree more with the notion that parents who place zero value in education & learning are more likely to breed children who are the same.
ReplyDeleteMy hope with this particular post, though, is that it reaches someone who may be in denial about their child and think that perhaps they should try a different route other than punishment. Maybe they have tried before with no positive results so maybe they'll try again...sometimes we link up with 'professionals' who have no clue as to how to help that the parent may be discouraged and give up.
This pretty much sums up grades 1 through 10 for me. I was "a little slow" and got sent into remedial classes (and the principals office, to assist priests (gotta get that evil out!) psychiatrists. In grade 11, my guidance counsellor realized I wasn't dumb. I was bored, be caused I learned differently. I became incredible with language, art, science and social studies , but remained abysmal at math.
ReplyDeleteI ended up dropping out of high school, because I knew I couldn't graduate without math. Twenty years later, without any study, I passed my high school math exams at the top of my class. I guess it took a while to. Sink in or for me to find a way to process it.