How to deal with a learning disabilty

By the age of six, or around grade one, most children have grasped simple reading, printing, and even simple arithmetic. For some though, acquiring these basic skills is much more difficult. These children may be at risk for a learning disability. A learning disability affects how the brain processes information and can make it difficult to grasp certain concepts. Children with learning disabilities often have normal or above normal intelligence but have trouble expressing what they know and understand.

Learning disabilities are often grouped into three different types:

• Speech or language disorders
• Problems with reading, writing and math skills
• Range of other disorders such as problems with motor skills, memory, or coordination

It is also common for children to have a combination of these types of disabilities. Some symptoms that your child may have a learning disability are:

• Pronunciation problems
• Difficulty learning new skills
• Difficulty linking letters to sounds
• Mixing up letters with their sounds
• Short attention spans
• Difficulty following directions
• Poor physical coordination

Although there are no medical ways to treat a learning disability, there are things that can be done. To treat a learning disability, one needs to essentially change the way the brain works. This includes three steps:

• Remediation: This basically means that the person will need to work much harder at learning than other people do. This often takes constant repetition, and is not a process that can be done quickly.
• Adaptation: This is a way of looking at different ways around the learning disability. To do this, one must identify the obstacles that are causing the learning disability and find ways around them. For instance, if a book report is due but the child has problems with reading, the book could be listened to on tape.
• Enhancing Strengths: This is completely based on building self-esteem. If a child constantly feels inadequate, he is not likely to succeed. In addition, feeling inadequate is likely when one is struggling with a learning disability. Focus on the child's strengths and continue to work on them as well as the weaknesses so their strengths can also become stronger and they will feel better about themselves.

For severe learning disabilities, such as autism, sending the child to a disability learning centre will be a huge benefit for them. Here, the teachers will be knowledgeable in teaching children with learning disabilities and the environment will be tailored to them.

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