Learning Difficulties: The role of Learning Support

Many articles define difficulties and their implications on the child with such a difficulty but never address other causes and contributing factors, which are important. In this article it is my aim to generally outline the underlying difficulties also faced by children with learning Difficulties.

Language processing deficit – what does this mean for a child with dyslexia or a child with developmental delay?

• Is a reading programme enough? Is a spelling programme enough? Is learning phonic skills enough? Is building on concentration or modifying behavior enough?
• None of these is enough in isolation.
• It is not just helping your child acquire the basic literacy skills or being ready to go into Grade 1.
• It is helping them learn the thought processing skills also known as the metacognitive skills.

In learning to read, spell and doing math, children with learning difficulties require more help than spelling rules, phonic strategies and typing tutor lessons.

For example, reversals faced by children with specific learning difficulties need to be remediated. One cannot “cure” reversals but rather teach dyslexics control the effects of it.

A child with ADD or ADHD and/or developmental delay, who is behaving poorly, will not benefit from being taught concentration techniques or behavior management techniques alone. By the time these children are identified, the problems manifested are secondary issues not the primary or root cause of their difficulties.

Skills such as auditory discrimination skills, memory skills, visual skills need to be addressed in order for a dyslexic and some other children with LD to learn effectively. These skills are often lacking in these group of children.

Training these skills has to be done gradually through structured exercises and formal work till automacy is achieved. The reason many umbrella programs do not help the dyslexic in the long term is because they do not aim to address these other related skills.

If a child with LD does not hear and process what he hears or sees accurately, no amount of being able to read or spell is going to help him with his academic work in school. Sure the child will be able to read a few books, but never learning to read in general. Reading will never become a means of gaining information – it will just be an activity a child HAS to perform because he is required to do so by the education system.

If a child has poor memory skills, no matter how well he is able to read and spell, he will not be able to assimilate information for later application. Stages in learning: acquisition, guided application, independent application, generalization & automaticity generalization.

Children with dyslexia have great difficulty in applying knowledge learnt. They may learn it well and know it on its own but when it comes down to applying it, they start to fail.This not because they do not have the intelligence or capabilities to apply their knowledge but rather they have not been taught to do so.

The language deficit in children with dyslexia, for example, causes these skills to under develop on their own. Learning support can help develop such skills with carefully structured and tailored programs.

Very often dyslexics and other children with LD do not know which processing skill to apply in a given situation. But with careful training and repetition, they will learn how to do so. Once the root cause has been identified through careful observations, and diagnostic tests, then the child will not only start to realize his own potential but also start achieving in school and outside.

Many parents tell me that they have enrolled their child in various reading programs or providing the child with private tutoring after school, but somehow their child is not able to cope with the academic work despite of being able to read. Then, parents, start feeling that the child does not have potential to learn and start to expect less of the child in terms of achievement. The child will pick up on this and work less and again secondary issues will come into play. It becomes a vicious circle.

Reading involves skills such as comprehension, critical thinking and analysis, drawing inferences and parallels and conclusions. These primary skills are causing the lack of achievement in these children. Once the skills have been properly addressed, then the introduction of rules, phonic strategies and reading programs can help the child.

It is not intended to blame parents for the child’s failure but rather the failure of the education system to provide suitable intervention. The lack of knowledge about learning support and its aims, leads to ineffective intervention and the lack of achievement in children with learning difficulties.

All children have an innate love for acquiring knowledge. I believe that if our children are not achieving their highest potential, it is the intervention or lack of it that is causing the underachievement not the child himself.