LEARNING DISABILITIES

Story Time
• This is the story of
Nancy, a delightful little
girl who is just
beginning Grade 4 at
Stave Lake Elementary
School in Mission, BC.
 Stave Lake Elementary
• A small school, with a strong commitment to
inclusive education.
• A caring principal
• A vice-principal with a background in special
education
• A resource room
 A Bit About Nancy
• She’s always been healthy.
• She’s popular with her classmates and has
nice manners.
• She likes listening to stories and understands
what she hears.
• Nancy has always been cheerful and
cooperative but just lately that’s been
changing…
 Nancy’s Family
• Mom—Rebecca, works part-time as a
receptionist in a dentist’s office. She reads to the
kids and takes them to the library every week.
• Dad—George, owns a garage in Mission. School
was hard for him, but he managed to graduate
and he’s done ok.
• Kid sister--Julie—starting Grade 2 at Stave Lake.
– Always looked up to her big sister
– Nancy always was proud of her little sister, BUT:
 A Problem
• At the end of last year, Julie read at a Grade 3
level.
• Nancy can barely manage early Grade 1
pattern books.
• Nancy doesn’t understand why her kid sister
finds something she can’t do at all so very
easy.
• She’s unhappy; her parents are concerned.
At the end of last year, Nancy was assessed by the district psychologist, who found that she:

• Tested above average in intelligence

• Tested well above average in math skills
• Read at a kindergarten entry level
• Did not have any apparent disability in
language processing or in visual
processing
Nancy’s Grade Three teacher reported:
• Nancy tried hard to do well in school
• She was very slow at copying material from
the blackboard and made lots of mistakes
• She was very good at math and enjoyed math
• She couldn’t spell or write a sentence
• She was exceptionally good for her age at
drawing and other art projects
 What’s going on here?
• You have 10 minutes to share ideas, and then
report back to the class.
• What is Nancy’s problem?
• What questions should we be asking about
Nancy?
• What is she good at?
Today, many children are
diagnosed with learning
disabilities at school when it is
discovered that they are having
difficulty in some part of their
education.
It is essential to know about
Learning Disabilities as
sometimes, what is brushed aside
as a childhood tantrum or simply
as a child being “slow”, may be
due to a learning disability.
 WHAT IS A LEARNING DISABILITY?
1) A learning disability is any of a number of
conditions that make the process of learning
difficult because of the way the brain
processes information.

2) A disorder found in children of normal

intelligence who have difficulties in learning
specific skills.
3) An extreme difficulty in performing a specific
mental skill such as reading or doing
mathematical problems. It is inconsistent with
the person's overall intelligence and sometimes
linked to perceptual or memory problems.
4) A disorder in basic psychological processes
involved in understanding or using language,
spoken or written, that may manifest itself in an
imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read,
write, spell or use mathematical calculations.
5) A variety of disorders, including hyperactivity,
dyslexia, and hearing problems, that can
interfere with a person's ability to learn

6) A disorder that hinders people's ability to

either interpret what they see or what they
hear . These limitations are characterized by
difficulty in reading, writing, and arithmetic.
 Learning Disabilities can affect many
different areas of learning
• Oral language (e.g., listening, speaking, understanding)
• Reading, or dyslexia (e.g., decoding, phonetic
knowledge, word recognition, comprehension).
• Written language, or dysgraphia (e.g., spelling and
written expression)
• Mathematics, or dyscalculia (e.g., computation,
problem solving)
• Learning disabilities may also involve difficulties with
organizational skills, social perception, social
interaction and perspective taking.
Focusing on the unfocused & invisible
Learning disability (LD) is a
processing disability.
It has nothing to do with
sensory impairment (Children
with LD have no hearing or
visual difficulty)
It has nothing to do with less
IQ. CWLD are NOT mentally
retarded.
It has nothing to do with culture
and environment in early
childhood.
Yet children have
difficulties in:
 Various Types of Learning Disabilities

• Dyslexia
• Dyscalculia
• Dysgraphia
• Developmental Dyspraxia
 Dyslexia
Dyslexia, or developmental reading disorder, is
characterized by difficulty with learning to read
fluently and with accurate comprehension
despite normal or above-average intelligence.
Dyslexia is the most common learning
difficulty and most recognized reading disorder.
 Types of Dyslexia
1. Visual Dyslexia: It is marked by:
• Reversal of whole word / syllable / letters (e.g.
now / won, was / saw, b / d).
• Substitution (e.g. house / home)
• Addition of sounds (e.g. ischool / school)
• Omission of letters, syllables, words or word
endings (e.g. sed / said). It arises due to a
child’s short memory span and difficulty in
interpreting and recalling visual images.
 Types of Dyslexia
2. Auditory Dyslexia: It is characterized by the child
• having difficulty in processing and understanding
what has been said to him.
• not being able to distinguish subtle differences in
sound (e.g. bit/bet, pig/peg).
• having difficulty in filtering out the extraneous
sound. It is quite likely that a child with auditory
dyslexia becomes very tense or hyper-active in a
noisy room.
 Please watch the videos
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zafiGBrFk
RM
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USeCe5I4
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11r7CFlK
2sc
• Dyslexia help website
 Dyscalculia
Dyscalculia is difficulty in learning or
comprehending arithmetic, such as
• difficulty in understanding numbers
• learning how to manipulate numbers
• and learning facts in Mathematics
 Dysgraphia
This is a disorder which expresses itself primarily
through writing or typing, although in some cases
it may also affect hand–eye coordination,
direction or sequence-oriented processes such as
tying knots or carrying out a repetitive task.
 Developmental Dyspraxia
This is a neurological condition characterized
by a marked difficulty in carrying out routine
tasks involving balance, fine-motor control
and kinesthetic coordination.
Difficulty in the use of speech sounds,
problems with short-term memory
and organization are typical
of persons with dyspraxia.
 Stereotypes
Since Learning Disabilities have only
recently been classified as a type of
disability, there are several
misconceptions about them which
several of us believe.
In the following slides, we shall try and
break some of these myths.
MYTH REALITY
Learning Learning disabilities
Disabilities cannot be cured.
can be cured. However, with
proper intervention
and support, persons
living with learning
disabilities can
succeed in school,
work and life.
 MYTH REALITY
Learning disabilities
Corrective
eyewear is an
are a disorder of the
effective treatment brain wherein there
for Learning is problem with
Disabilities. language processing.
It is not a disorder of
the eye.
 MYTH REALITY
Vaccinations While the exact
cause Learning causes of Learning
Disabilities. Disabilities are still
unknown, there is no
evidence that
vaccinations have
caused Learning
Disabilities.
 MYTH REALITY
Learning There is no
Disabilities are correlation between
a measurement Learning Disabilities
for a person’s and IQ. In fact, there
intelligence. are many men and
women who have
Learning Disabilities
who have achieved
greatness in their
fields .
What kind of LD does Nancy have?

• Dyslexia (why not dysgraphia?)

• One of the most commonly identified LDs.
 With any LD
• Discuss pros and cons of early identification
(KG or grade 1). Groups—one pro and one
con from each group.
 What we need is...
• Inclusive Education: This means School
Education which is in tune with diverse needs
of ALL children including Children with
Disabilities, ALL under one roof for diverse
needs.
• Greater awareness about LDs: If more people,
especially teachers, are made aware of
Learning Disabilities, proper steps can be
taken to make education more inclusive.
For Inclusive Education to be
possible, teachers need to be aware
of Learning Disabilities (LD) and how
to best teach students who have LD.
Some Tips for Teachers
 When teaching students who have Dyslexia:

• Adding new words, word definitions and

practicing to use those words appropriately
should be built into reading programs.
• Encourage your child to write stories about
events using new words he/she has learnt.
• Regular testing, monthly or quarterly, using
informal measures will determine progress in
reading and spelling.
 Use “The Cloze Technique”
when teaching students who have
Dyslexia:

The child uses the context of the sentence to

understand the unknown words. This strategy
can also be used as a test of comprehension of
the text being read.
It is basically a fill in the blank activity. This
technique should be encouraged by teachers.
 When teaching students who have Dyscalculia

• It is important to introduce concepts

systematically and logically.
• The topics and presentation should begin from
simple concepts and progress to difficult
things.
• The lessons must be such that they draw upon
the student’s concepts and experiences and
then gradually help him towards abstract
mathematical thinking.
 Some more tips for students with
Dyscalculia

• Each topic should be taught with the help of

familiar objects and situations. The pictures
and stories you use must kindle the young
student’s imagination, interest and reading
level.
• Provide him with opportunities to practice so
that he not only gains important skills but also
masters an understanding of concepts and
becomes confident.
 For students with Dysgraphia.
Encourage the child to practice:
• forming both capital and small cursive letters,
• then, forming both the capital and small
cursive letters in words,
• using the capital and small cursive letters in a
phrase,
• then, using cursive writing in a variety of
creative writing situations.
 When teaching students who have
Dyspraxia:

• Seat the child away from the doors and windows

and let him have a clear view of the blackboard.
• Do not ask him to copy from the blackboard.
Provide him with printed matter instead.
• Write the day’s timetable on a strip of chart
paper using different columns and place/stick it
on his desk. (For young children, you can make a
visual agenda)
 To teach students with Dyspraxia:

• Each topic should be taught with the help of

familiar objects and situations. The pictures
and stories you use must kindle the young
student’s imagination, interest and reading
level.
• Provide him with opportunities to practice so
that he not only gains important skills but also
masters an understanding of concepts and
becomes confident.
Remember...
 What will help Nancy to achieve the learning goals set for her grade?

• Brainstorm…feedback…
• Note especially what Nancy’s strengths are
and make use of them…