LEARNING DISABILITY

Learning Disability- What is it?


Learning Disability refers to a condition in children who do not acquire basic skills of reading, writing and math inspite of adequate instruction and average to above average intelligence.

The child has difficulty in any of these or sometimes all of the mentioned areas.

It is commonly referred to as "hidden handicap" because unlike the other handicapping conditions (like speech, vision, hearing etc.,) this condition cannot be understood by others because these children look normal like others and have average or above average intelligence. However such children have severe problem in school related (academic) learning.
They may be able to remember in minute detail a film, an incident, an experience, or a trip but when it comes to school related subjects, they fail miserably.
It is puzzling to these children themselves because they do not understand why their efforts are going waste.
These children usually go from one tution to another, spending long hours trying to learn the school subjects without success. Even if they do succeed, it is usually after a lot of effort has been put in.
This and the repeated failure experience demotivates them.

Many a times these children either fail in the class or are school dropouts. If these children are not identified at an early age and given the much needed professional help by the teachers and parents, they may harbour problem children, delinquents, droupouts, failures etc.

It is therefore crucial to identify such problems or difficulties in children and when given appropriate remedial intervention, these children can grow into competent, confident and successful adults.
Suitable teaching strategies should be adopted to meet each child's needs depending on the weakness of each child.

Often teachers and parents label children with repeated failurs as 'dull', 'lazy','inactive','not capable','weak in studies', 'fit for nothing', etc.. ascribing such terms will only promote defidence and further demotivate and demoralize the child thus making his or her life miserable and drag into depression.

Learning Disability does not mean the end of life or that the child cannot excel in life.
With patience, encouragement and love, it is possible to overcome the child's problem areas through remedial teaching.
It is utmost important to remember that these children should never be discouraged for their low or poor performances. Rather, frequent encouragement for their minute achievement, be it in their scores or their behaviour or even occassional correct answers can greatly boost their potiential and bring in positive "i can do it" attitude in them.

Many such children are usually gifted with exceptional abilities in other areas such as dance, music, chess, sports etc. Therefore, encouraging them in the areas in which they exhibit their interest will make them achievers as a painter, artist, singer, dancer, sportsperson, etc.