For the past few months we have looked at struggles that children have in school. Parents must supply positive and negative reinforcements, while teachers seek to motivate these students who really seem to have no use for school. The past guidelines given will not be successful for students who have learning struggles and/or learning disabilities.
Parents suspecting that their child may have some type of learning struggle or a learning disability need not be discouraged. Resources are now abundant for helping parents specifically determine the struggle their child is having, and exactly how they can intervene.
It is important, however, to make a necessary distinction between learning struggles and learning disabilities. Learning struggles may relate to poor initial teaching, anxiety separation in the early years of life, emotional tensions, broken homes, abuse, and a multitude of other socioeconomic factors.
On the other hand, learning disabilities are a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using spoken or written language that may show up in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations. They do not include learning problems that are primarily a result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantages (from Michigan Administrative Rules for Special Education).
Learning disabilities (LD) vary from person to person and cover a vast spectrum of abilities as listed above. One person with learning disabilities may struggle in different ways than another person who has learning disabilities. One person may have trouble with reading and writing. Another person with learning disabilities may struggle with understanding math. Still another may have trouble in each of these areas, as well as with understanding what people are saying.
Researchers think that learning disabilities are caused by differences in how a person’s brain works and how it processes information. Children with learning disabilities are not “dumb” or “lazy.” In fact, they usually have average or above average intelligence. Their brains just process information differently, thus requiring new ways of or approaches to learning.
There is no “cure” for learning disabilities. They are life-long. However, children with learning disabilities can be high achievers and can be taught ways to get around the learning disability. With the right help, children with learning disabilities can and do learn successfully.
When parents identify one or more of the concerns listed above in their child and believe the concerns are affecting their child’s ability to function in school, they have several avenues to pursue. First, they should solicit the help of their child’s teacher to see if he/she is noticing the same concerns.
Together they can begin some interventions to counter the concerns. If after a set period of time there is little to no improvement, it is best to contact the Educational Support Services (ESS) staff to determine whether or not diagnostic testing is appropriate. Should diagnostic testing be the next step, a series of testing batteries will be conducted in order to get a more comprehensive view of the child. Each test is important and has a specific purpose. Accurate diagnosis is critical. When a child’s learning disability is clearly identified, the parents, the child, and the school will know how to specifically intervene and assist.
Parents may also schedule a consultation with their pediatrician or pursue other diagnostic services depending on recommendations given by the ESS staff or testing results. Some other diagnostic services include: ophthalmological clinical psychological examination, pediatric neurological examination, pediatric psychiatric examination, social history questionnaire, speech and hearing examination, and a psychological evaluation.
Though learning struggles and learning disabilities have been defined as two separate spheres, parents of a child with a learning disability should still be keenly attuned to their child. Their child has continually met with frustrations, failure, and/or negative feedback from adults; he may demonstrate various types of behavioral problems (i.e., rebellious attitude, lack of attention, apathy, fighting, depression, etc.). Parents’ emotional support and understanding is crucial. Parents also need to be strongly advised and encouraged to be their child’s advocate by seeking out the proper diagnostic help and educational assistance available to their child.
Children with learning disabilities need not feel that they have little hope for a normal, productive school career and adult life. In fact, they have every reason to have hope.
Charles Bridges put this “hope” in perspective: Could we be happy to see our child honored in the world, admired, talented, prosperous, without godliness? “My son, if thy heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine” (Proverbs 23: 15). This is the spring of parental joy. His health, his comfort, his welfare, is inexpressibly dear to us. But while we watch over the casket, it is the jewel that we mainly value. The joy of our child’s soul is the life and soul of parental love. None but a parent knows the heart of a parent. None but a Christian parent knows the yearning anxiety, the many tears, prayers, and “travailing in birth again” for the soul of a beloved child; or the fervor of joy and praise, when the first budding of heavenly wisdom bursts into view. The sight brings joy into the innermost depths of the bosom. Parents who sympathize not with these sensations, and with whom Solomon’s language is unfelt and uninteresting, realize neither their responsibilities nor their privileges.
Great is the parent’s joy heightened to hear from his “son’s (daughter’s) lips speaking right things; to see him, in a day of apostasy and unstable profession, openly standing forth on the Lord’s side; “asking for the old paths of rest,” now that “the highways are” too often “unoccupied, and the travelers walking through bye-ways.”
Adapted from Parents and Teenagers by Christie Stonecipher and Proverbs by Charles Bridge