WHAT IS A LEARNING DISABILITY?

This definition will help you not to have preconceived notions of students considered to have learning disabilities. Do not get into the trap of labelling. You could be come part of the problem.

Learning disability

In the United States and Canada, the terms learning disability, learning disabilities, and learning disorders (LD) refer to a group of disorders that affect a broad range of academic and functional skills including the ability to speak, listen, read, write, spell, reason and organize information.

A learning disability is not indicative of low intelligence.

Indeed, research indicates that some people with learning disabilities may have average or above-average intelligence.

Causes of learning disabilities include a deficit in the brain that affects the processing of information.

WHICH WOULD YOU USE?

The "look say" method, also known as the whole word method, sight method, or configurational reading, is a 'spatial-holistic' method to learn a language; it is the same method used to acquire literacy in languages such as Chinese, which is based on ideograms. Its application to learning a primarily phonetic language such as English is of questionable value and has been associated with artificially inducing dyslexia.

Students who learn English using this method are taught to memorize the appearance of words or to recognize words by looking at their first and last letters; these words come from rigidly selected vocabularies in progressive texts (such as The Cat in the Hat). Often, this method is taught by using slides or cards, each with a picture next to a word, teaching children to associate the whole word with its meaning. Preliminary results often show that children taught English with this method have higher reading levels than children learning through a phonetic method, as they learn to automatically recognise a small selection of words.

However, later tests demonstrate that literacy development becomes stunted when these students are hit with longer, more complex words later in school life. It is known that "look say" students do not naturally learn to spell or write unless explicitly taught, not having learned to pronounce words phonetically; they are encouraged to guess them instead. However, they are able to learn the 5,000 most common words in roughly three years, which is sufficient for basic literacy.

ENGLISH AND SPECIAL NEEDS

English Language Learners With Special Needs

I have extracted some issues from an article by

Alba Ortiz, The University of Texas at Austin

Ponder on how you need to consider these issues.


Students fail in school for a variety of reasons. In some cases, their academic difficulties can be directly attributed to deficiencies in the teaching and learning environment.

For example, students with limited English may fail because they do not have access to effective bilingual or English as a second language (ESL) instruction. Students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds may have difficulty if instruction presumes middle-class experiences.

Other students may have learning difficulties stemming from linguistic or cultural differences. These difficulties may become more serious over time if instruction is not modified to address the students' specific needs.

Unless these students receive appropriate intervention, they will continue to struggle, and the gap between their achievement and that of their peers will widen over time.


Still other students need specialized instruction because of specific learning disabilities. The overrepresentation of English language learners in special education classes (Yates & Ortiz, 1998) suggests that educators have difficulty distinguishing students who truly have learning disabilities from students who are failing for other reasons, such as limited English.

Students learning English are disadvantaged by a scarcity of appropriate assessment instruments and a lack of personnel trained to conduct linguistically and culturally relevant educational assessments (Valdéz & Figueroa, 1996).

English language learners who need special education services are further disadvantaged by the shortage of special educators who are trained to address their language- and disability-related needs simultaneously.


Improving the academic performance of students who from non-English backgrounds requires a focus on the prevention of failure and on early intervention for struggling learners.

BEHAVIORAL PERSPECTIVES

JohnB. Watson’s behaviorism theory forms the foundation of the behavioral model of development.

He wrote extensively on child development and conducted research (see Little Albert experiment).

Following Watson’s lead, B.F. Skinner further extended this model to cover operant conditioning.

Psychosocial Development

Erik Erikson

Erik Erikson and Psychosocial development

Erikson, a follower of Freud's, synthesized both Freud's and his own theories to create what is known as the "psychosocial" stages of human development, which span from birth to death, and focuses on "tasks" at each stage that must be accomplished to successfully navigate life's challenges.

What are the tasks at each stage?

THE POWER OF LOVE

Attachment theory

Attachment theory, originating in the work of John Bowlby and developed by Mary Ainsworth, is a psychological, evolutionary and ethological theory that provides a descriptive and explanatory framework for understanding interpersonal relationships between human beings.

Attachment theorists consider the human infant to have a need for a secure relationship with adult caregivers, without which normal social and emotional development will not occur.

PONDER ON THIS. IF THE CHILD DOES NOT HAVE A SECURE RELATIONSHIP COULD HE BECOME A BULLY AND A LEARNING DISABLED PERSON?

ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT

Vygotsky

Lev Vygotsky and Cultural-historical psychology

Vygotsky was a theorist whose ideas emerged in the last few decades from behind what was known as the Iron Curtain, in the former Soviet Union. He posited that children learn through hands-on experience, as Piaget suggested. However, unlike Piaget, he claimed that timely and sensitive intervention by adults when a child is on the edge of learning a new task (called the Zone of Proximal Development) could help children learn new tasks.

This technique is called "scaffolding," because it builds upon knowledge children already have with new knowledge that adults can help the child learn.An example of this might be when a parent "helps" an infant clap or roll his hands to the pat-a-cake rhyme, until he can clap and roll his hands himself

Vygotsky was strongly focused on the role of culture in determining the child's pattern of development. He argued that "Every function in the child's cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level, and later, on the individual level; first, between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child (intrapsychological). This applies equally to voluntary attention, to logical memory, and to the formation of concepts. All the higher functions originate as actual relationships between individuals."

Many theorists posit stage theories, but Vygotsky did not support stages at all, asserting instead that development was a process.

SOCRATIC QUESTIONING

Jean Piaget and Theory of cognitive development

Piaget was a French speaking Swiss theorist who posited that children learn through actively constructing knowledge through hands-on experience.He suggested that the adult's role in helping the child learn was to provide appropriate materials for the child to interact and construct. He would use Socratic questioning to get the children to reflect on what they were doing. He would try to get them to see contradictions in their explanations. He also developed stages of development. His approach can be seen in how the curriculum is sequenced in schools, and in the pedagogy of preschool centers across the United States.

KNOW YOUR CHILD

I have simplified this article to help you consider the issues.

Helping Your Special Needs Child

By: Susan Gruskin, Kim Silverman, and Veda Bright (1997)

Parents who suspect their children have special needs can take several steps to make sure they get the support they need to help their children succeed. Find out some of these steps in these tips for parents.

Here are some helpful hints that may help in your search to meet your child's special needs.

Get help and advice right away if you have a concern about your child's development and learning. It may prevent some developmental delays.

Start by talking to your child's caregiver, doctor, or teacher.

Make notes and lists of questions for meetings.

Bring a friend or relative with you to give support when meeting with doctors and teachers.

Keep good records of shots, tests, letters from doctors and teachers, and notes from meetings, and put them in a file.

Learn all you can about your child's special needs.

Learn as much as you can about your legal rights under The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).

( If you are not an American , this can give you an idea of what you can try to create in your own community)

Try to learn as much as you can about supports and services that can help you and your child.

As a parent or caregiver it is important to make sure that your child's education and environment meet his or her special needs.

Ask for changes if something is not working.

Imagine goals and dreams for your child and talk about them with others who know your child.

Your child has special abilities and talents. Use your child's abilities to create a plan to make the dreams come true.

You know your child best; set goals your child can reach.

Keep notes of your child's progress.

Get the support you need by joining a support group, or by talking to other parents, friends, or family members you can trust.

Brothers and sisters of children with special needs need support and attention, too.

Include your child with special needs in activities with all children, both with and without special needs.

Gather as much information as you can about programs your community offers children your child's age.

Be sure to look at your whole child: your child's strengths as well as the areas for which your child needs supports and services.

Do not give up when you know you are right!

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF LABELLING?

Read this article and tell me how you can handle this situation of labelling as it affects the success of students with special neeHas the push for early reading led to excessive special needs labels for young children?

Has the push for special education led to labelling?

by Krystle Hernandez

Ideally, every child should benefit from an education that has been custom tailored to fit his or her individual and unique needs. The problem with education, however, lies in the need for institutionalized educational systems which are more geared toward mass teaching rather than one-on-one training, resulting in the grouping of children primarily based on their skill level and capabilities.

Labeling children not only creates differing stereotypes among the child's peers, allowing some children to be classified as "nerdy" due to performance while others are classified as "learning disabled" simply because they have a disadvantage to overcome before reaching their full potentials. These labels can often become the root for self-fulfilling prophecies among the student as well. If a child is told that he is learning "disabled" or "disadvantaged" he will imagine that his disadvantage stays with him eternally, and many children even cling to these labels, never pushing themselves beyond their preconceived boundaries and comfort zones.
Each child is unique hand has individual strengths and weaknesses that most parents, teachers, and other guardians are fully aware of if they spend enough time with him or her. However, these strengths and weakness are sometimes confined within mass educational systems. In many cases, children who have completely normal rates of development are sometimes isolated in special needs courses, which not only have negative effects on the child, but can also inhibit their potential.

I am a firm believer in early education, and have always supported families who begin actively teaching their children as soon as conception as some studies have found that fetuses are susceptible to certain forms of stimulation within the womb which will increase their intelligence in life. However, I do believe that children should be evaluated based on reasonable criteria. If school systems begin labeling, classifying, and grouping individual students too early in their academic careers, the consequences will most certainly be more negative than positive.ds and potentials.

Welcome to Inclusive English.

You will exlore strategies to contribute to success in using English in a world where we all have special needs, different talents and colourful personalities