Children with Learning Disabilities

1. Children with Learning Disabilities How Difficult Can This Be? The F.A.T. City Workshop

2. What is a learning disability? • The learning disabled have difficulties with academic achievement and progress; discrepancies exist between a person’s potential for learning and what s/he actually learns. • The learning disabled show an uneven pattern of development (language,physical, academic)

3. What isn’t a learning disability? • Learning problems are not due to environmental disadvantage. • Learning problems are not due to mental retardation or emotional disturbance.

4. 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

5. 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.

6. 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)

7. 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.

8. 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

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

10. 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

11. Let’s view F.A.T. City by Richard LaVoie

12. 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?