Master the Essentials of Learning Difficulties: Pedagogy of English, #5

LEARNING DIFFICULTIES

INTRODUCTION

Embarking on an intricate journey, this chapter navigates the terrain of learning difficulties, distinct from learning disabilities—an essential distinction that sets the stage for deeper comprehension. Methodically, it categorizes these challenges, encapsulating dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, dysorthographia, dysnomia, auditory processing disorder (APD), visual processing disorder, and non-verbal learning disabilities (NVLD). Through this exploration, it unveils the profound significance of these cognitive barriers within the educational sphere, dissecting the spectrum of diverse learning difficulties to reveal their unique characteristics and individual impacts.

This chapter accentuates the distinctive traits exhibited by children facing these challenges, highlighting the hurdles encountered in educational pursuits. It underscores the necessity for a nuanced understanding to effectively address these difficulties. Understanding their definitions and implications becomes a crucial step towards devising refined and potent approaches within educational frameworks. Serving as a foundational guide, this comprehensive exploration unveils the complexities inherent in learning difficulties, fostering deeper comprehension and laying the groundwork for more informed strategies in education.

Significance of Learning Difficulties

Learning difficulties is an exciting, engrossing, and enigmatic field, and is one of the most frequently discussed areas of exceptionality. The number of children with disabilities globally is estimated at almost 240 million, according to the UNICEF report (2021).

Learning difficulties are rarely caused by a single isolated factor and many educationists believe that learning difficulties are caused primarily by educational, rather than medical factors, and that their treatment should have an educational focus. Experts in the field of Educational Psychology are also of the opinion that, early identification of learning difficulties is important because, the developmental disorders of different types and degrees can be first suspected, recognised, prevented, and intervened during the early years of a child.

It is true that education is a multifarious issue. Various permutations and combinations, depending on the need of education, bring a fruitful result in the education system. In spite of these various issues that can be rectified there are certain issues which need a special care to deal within any country. Among them Learning disabilities/difficulties occupies the first place in the global educational scenario.

In fact, learning difficulties is an exciting, confusing, engrossing and enigmatic field. Learning difficulties are the most frequently discussed areas of exceptionality. Learning difficulties field has gained importance and prominence due to great people like Albert Einstein, Woodrow Wilson, Rockefeller, Thomas Edison, Hans Christian Anderson, Auguste Rodin, Harvey Cushing, Sir Winston Churchill, Paul Elvstorn, Tom Cruise and Bruce Jenner (Schulman, 1986) being labelled as people with Learning difficulties.

Interest in Learning difficulties has spread due to its extension in professional disciplines like paediatrics, family medicine, neurology, psychiatry, psychology, nutrition, pharmacology, optometry, kinesthesiology and taxology apart from education.

This enliven names of great men and professions make many parents, especially in foreign countries, particularly from middle and upper strata of the society, tend to label their children as 'Learning disabled', when some academic or social problem has been detected in their children. They are extremely interested and show eagerness to keep up with the changing trends in the field. In response and enthusiasm to the parents' needs the media of foreign vest considerable attention, with Learning difficulties.

The growing attention of Learning difficulties 'rarely does a month pass without a feature article on Learning difficulties or dyslexia in one or more of the popular magazines'. Likewise, most of the large city daily newspapers regularly run lengthy stories on Learning difficulties or dyslexia, Television and Radio Stations often interview parents of Learning-disabled youth, as well as teachers and the professionals who work with them (Lovitt, 1989).

The enchaining attention of Learning disabilities naturally thrusts the mind to understand what Learning difficulties are and why and how they have gained so much prominence in the professional circles. The very discovery of the field is enthralling and enterprising. It makes one develop interest to study in detail.

Origin, Concept, Meaning and Definition

The origin of Learning disabilities dates back to 1896. Though there is no direct reference to Learning disabilities, Dr. Morgan describes a 14-year-old boy called 'Percy' with Learning disabilities. Percy, the boy with Learning disabilities, wrote his name as 'Precy' and he did not notice his mistake until his attention was called to it more than once (W. P. Morgan, 1896). Similarly, Dr. H. Wood (1917) gives some fascinating examples of children who despite adequate intelligence were extremely poor readers. They called it word blindness. From this kind of surprising entry, the Learning disabilities came to limelight with Kirk's coining of it as Learning disabilities.

Samuel Kirk coined the term 'Learning disabilities' in early 1960's. The description of its creation (Kirk and Gallaghen, 1979) indicates that 'the term Learning disabilities became popular when the Association for Children with Learning Disabilities (ACLD) was organised under the name in 1963'. Kirk addressing ACLD, 1963 advised that the term Learning disabilities might be preferable to currently used terms (eg. cerebral dysfunction or brain injured) since it was more related to teaching or learning. Shortly after that time, the term was adopted as a new category of exceptionality. He used the term Learning Disabilities to describe a group of children who have disorders in development in language speech, reading and associated communication skills needed for social interaction (Kirk, 1976).

Since then, different definitions have come up to describe Learning disabilities. The US Office of Education (1977) under public law PL 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act defines as: ...a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or using language spoken or written, which may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell or do mathematical calculations. The definition further states that Learning disabilities include 'perceptual handicaps, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. According to the law, Learning disabilities does not include learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing or motor handicaps; mental retardation or environmental, cultural or economic disadvantage.

According to Monash University guidelines (1993) Learning disabilities are Severe and prolonged difficulties in the acquisition and development of exceptional literacy, numeracy and reasoning skills given at least average intelligence and the absence of other causal factors.

A Learning difficulty is any of diverse groups of conditions that cause significant difficulties in perceiving or processing auditory, visual and/or spatial information. Of presumed neurological origin, Learning disabilities include disorders impair such functions as reading (dyslexia), writing (dysgraphia) and mathematical calculations (dyscalculia). A Learning difficulty may exist in the presence of average to superior intelligence and adequate sensory and motor systems as evidenced by the extraordinary achievements of numerous people with Learning difficulties.

Children with Specific Learning difficulties are those who in the absence of sensory defect or overt organic damage have an intractable learning problem in one or more of reading, writing, speaking, and mathematics and who do not respond to normal teaching (Tansley and Panckhurst, 1981). Difficulties with reading, spelling and associated problems are known as specific learning difficulties or dyslexia or as being learning disabled in the US and occasionally in the UK too (Joy Pollock, Elizabeth Waller, 1997). And specific writing difficulty is called dysgraphia and spelling difficulty is called dysorthographia.

Various definitions are available on Learning difficulties. But no definition is precise and accurate by itself. Some educators deny that there is a form of learning difficulties distinct from the general learning problems, which are known to impede the progress of some students. Other experts argue strongly that a form of Learning disabilities does not exist which is qualitatively and etiologically different from the more general forms of academic failure, often referred to in the literature as garden variety (Badian, 1988). Even after decades of research no final consensus, has been reached concerning a precise and unambiguous definition of Learning