Children%20with%20Learning%20Disabilities

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Children with Learning Disabilities

• How Difficult Can This Be?
• The F.A.T. City Workshop

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What is a learning disability?

• The learning disabled have difficulties with
  academic achievement and progress discrepancies
  exist between a persons potential for learning
  and what s/he actually learns.
• The learning disabled show an uneven pattern of
  development (language,physical, academic)

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What isnt a learning disability?

• Learning problems are not due to environmental
  disadvantage.
• Learning problems are not due to mental
  retardation or emotional disturbance.

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Definition of Exclusion

• The child is not functioning in school despite
  the following facts about him/her
• Not mentally retarded
• Not emotionally disturbed
• Not impaired in his/her modalities
• Blind, deaf
• Has had opportunities to learn
• Excessive absences, frequent family moves

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What causes learning disabilities?

• Some children develop and mature at a slower rate
  than others in the same age group. Thus, they
  may not be able to do the expected school work.
  (Maturational lag)
• Some children with normal vision and hearing may
  misinterpret everyday sights and sounds because
  of some unexplained disorder of the central
  nervous system.

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• Injury before birth or in early childhood
• Premature birth and children who had medical
  problems soon after birth
• Inheritance
• More common in boys (later maturation)

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• Some learning disabilities appear to be linked to
  the irregular spelling, pronunciation, and
  structure of the English language. The incidence
  of learning disabilities is lower in Spanish- or
  Italian-speaking countries.

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Warning Signs

• Spoken Language
• Delays, disorders, deviations in listening and
  speaking
• Written Language
• Difficulties with reading, writing, and spelling
• Arithmetic
• Difficulties in performing arithmetic operations
  or in understanding basic concepts

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• Reasoning
• Difficulties in organizing and integrating
  thoughts
• Memory
• Difficulty in remembering information and
  instructions

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Symptoms related to L.D

• See handout.
• NOTE
• No one will have all these symptoms.
• Some symptoms are more common than others.
• All people have at least two or three of these
  problems to some degree.
• The number of symptoms per child does not give an
  indication as to whether the disability is mild
  or severe. More important to observe if the
  behaviors are chronic and appear in clusters

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• Lets view F.A.T. City by Richard LaVoie

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Discussion Questions

• What kind of feelings did this program evoke?
• What did you learn from this program that was
  surprising or new for you?
• Do you feel the LD children have needs that
  require special consideration by teachers and/or
  parents?
• In what ways can you modify your instruction
  based on what you have seen?