How To Help A Child With Learning Disability

Working With Your Childs School

If your child has already had psychoeducational testing, then start by making sure that there is a copy of your childs psycho- educational testing in your childs school records. Ontario School Records are kept in the schools main office. At the beginning of each school year, remind teachers to review this report.

1) Speak with teachers about your child or teens learning disability. Work together to come to a common understanding of:

· The exact problem

· How much help and support is needed

· Where your child or teen will receive help

2) IPRC

Once your child has been diagnosed with a learning disability, the school will usually set up an IPRC meeting. Parents can ask for one as well. Once you make the request, the school has 30 days to respond.

People that attend an IPRC will include:

• The school principal or vice-principal
• Your childs teacher
• A resource teacher
• Parents

During the IPRC meeting, members will review the test results and any other reports, discuss concerns and decide if your child or teen should be formally identified as having exceptional learning needs. The psychologist who assessed your child and made the diagnosis can guide and advise you through this process. Once the IPRC agrees that your child or teen has exceptional learning needs, this group will meet once a year.

receive, and if learning supports will continue.

3. IEP

Teachers develop these plans for students who need extra support or accommodations in class.

The Effects Of Learning Disability

Children or young people who have a general learning disability are aware of what goes on around them. However, their ability to understand and communicate may be limited, and they can find it hard to express themselves. Speech problems can make it even harder to make other people understand their feelings and needs.

They can become frustrated and upset by their own limitations. When they compare themselves to other children, they can feel sad or angry and think badly of themselves.

For a parent, it can be distressing to find out that their child has a general learning disability. It may be hard for them and other members of the family to understand why the child is like this.

It can also be hard to communicate with the learning disabled child, difficult to manage their behaviour and hard for other people to understand.

Brothers and sisters may be affected in a number of ways. They may feel jealous of the attention given to their disabled brother or sister or embarrassed by their behaviour.

They may even be teased at school. Quite often they can feel personally responsible for their disabled sibling or their distressed parent.

Divide The Task Into Smaller Parts With Clear Instructions

This is valid advice for any child, but especially for children with ADHD. Namely, due to the deficit of attention, it would be best to divide a task into steps, where the child can look back at the completed part after each step and gradually perceive the bigger picture of the task. There are other benefits of splitting tasks into parts, primarily the regular secretion of the happiness hormone serotonin and decreasing the odds of giving up due to the scope of the task and the delayed gratification.

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Knowing How To Ask For Help

Strong support systems are key for people with learning disabilities. Successful people are able to ask for help when they need it and reach out to others for support.

• Help your child nurture and develop good relationships. Model what it means to be a good friend and relative so your child knows what it means to help and support others.
• Demonstrate to your child how to ask for help in family situations.

Improving Reading Comprehension In Students With Ld

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How To Help Kids Open Up

When youre a kid whos struggling to stay afloat, drawing attention to yourself can feel scary. If your child is reluctant to open up about her learning needs, doing a little groundwork at home can help get the conversation started.

• Assess readiness: Some kids, especially younger ones, might not be ready to speak up, and thats okay! You can model good advocacy skills by talking with your child about learning differences frankly and comfortably.

• Ask and listen: If your child is uncomfortable talking to others about her learning issues, have a talk about whats bothering her. She may be feeling embarrassed or ashamed of being different. Take this as an opportunity to reassure her and talk through her fears or doubts. Shell feel better and youll have the information you need to support her emotionally, as well as academically.

S To Teaching Writing Skills To Students With Disabilities

Todays post shares 7 important steps to consider when designing programs for teaching written expression to students with disabilities. These are excerpted and adapted from the excellent guidebook More Language Arts, Math, and Science for Students with Severe Disabilities, edited by Diane M. Browder and Fred Spooner.

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Teaching Students With Learning Difficulties

Over the past few years, there has been growing awareness in many countries towards people struggling with learning difficulties and learning disabilities. Around 1.5 million people in the UK struggle with a learning difficulty and statistics point to nearly 15% of Americans being affected. The terms learning disability and learning difficulty differ in meaning from country to country and are sometimes used interchangeably: for example, the terms learning disability or learning disorder are both used in the United States, while the UK displays a preference for the term learning difficulty.

Its important to be clear about what we mean. In this post, we use the term learning difficulty as The Salvesen Mindroom Centre does: any learning or emotional problem that affects, or substantially affects, a persons ability to learn, get along with others and follow convention. Examples include dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and auditory processing disorder .

How can educators and schools provide support to students with learning difficulties?

It, therefore, becomes the teachers responsibility to read up on individual symptoms and teaching strategies in order to understand student needs. To help, weve compiled a list of five teaching strategies designed to help students with learning difficulties.

1. Break learning into small steps

2. Visual aids

3. Use multiple reinforcements tools

4. Build on previous lessons

5. Memory techniques

Why Your Child Needs To Speak Up

Without context, the symptoms of LD can look like laziness or disobedience, and, more often than not, that means kids find themselves being disciplined rather than helped.

I have ADHD and dyscalculia. As a kid I was dreamy, disorganized, and really bad at math. I doodled during class and regularly missed homework assignments. On the other hand I was also smart, talkative, and good at writing. The discrepancy made my weaknesses seem willful.

I was in trouble all the time, agrees Kaitlin, a 16-year-old high school student with ADHD and auditory processing issues. I was afraid to tell them what was going on with me, so they just thought I was a bad student. It seemed like I didnt care about doing well, which wasnt true.

Kaitlins mother was working with the school to get her the accommodations she needed, but Kaitlin was still uncomfortable talking about her learning disability.

It took time for me to open up, but in my second semester of 9th grade I started telling my teachers that I had learning difficulties and right away things got a lot better, she says. For the first time, they saw that I really was trying, even if it didnt always seem that way, and I got the help I needed.

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How To Connect With Your Child About His Learning Disability

If your child runs into problems say, setting the dinner table caused by his disability, you might use that opportunity to explain his sequencing and directionality problems in the following way:

Carl, I know that this is difficult and frustrating for you and I really appreciate your willingness to stick with it. Its tough for you to remember the order you should follow when setting the table, but it will be easier if you refer to the checklist that we made last week. Remember? We keep it on the shelf near the dishes. After you have used the checklist for a while, we will begin phasing it out and Ill bet that you will be able to set the table by yourself within a few weeks. We followed that process when you learned to make your bed, and you do that chore really well now.

Remember that the knife and spoon go on the side of the hand you write with, and the fork goes on the other side. These problems that you have relate to something called sequencing and directionality. The skills will always be a little difficult for you, but you are doing much, much better. All of your hard work with Mrs. Carter in your OT class is really paying off. The extra lessons that Coach Simons is giving you in soccer should help your directionality, too.

Assess Students Current Repertoire

Which words and communicative responses does the student already use? Before you select a students instructional targets, start by determining his or her current writing and communication repertoires through formal and standardized assessments. An assessment of communicative functioning should target:

• Speaker skills, or expressive skills: communication skills that affect the behaviors of others
• Listener skills, or receptive skills: communication skills that involve responding to the words of others

To help you easily determine instruction objectives, you might also use a curriculum-based assessment tool that uncovers information about a broad array of skills relevant to writing, such as a students fine motor skills, communication, visual discrimination, and imitation.

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What Is Meant By Learning Disability

Learning disability used to be known as mental handicap or mental retardation. Other terms sometimes used are general or global developmental delay. A child with a general learning disability finds it more difficult to learn, understand and do things compared to other children of the same age. Like all children and young people, children with learning disabilities continue to progress and learn throughout their childhood – but more slowly.

The degree of disability can vary greatly. Some children will never learn to speak and so are likely when they grow up to need help with looking after themselves – feeding, dressing or going to the toilet. On the other hand, the disability may be mild and the child will grow up to become independent.

General learning disability is different from specific learning difficulty which means that the person has difficulties in one or two areas of their learning, but manages well in other areas of their development. For example, a child can have a specific learning difficulty in reading, writing or understanding what is said to them, but have no problem with learning skills in other areas of life.

What Causes Learning Disabilities

Most learning disabilities are present at birth, and result from the way a childs brain develops. It is also possible for a child to develop a learning disability after a brain injury or other problems that effect the brain . Learning disabilities are not caused by poor parenting, poverty or a childs lack of motivation . There is no cure for a learning disability, and children dont outgrow them. But with support, children and youth can learn to manage LDs effectively in their daily lives.

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A Strong Instructional Core

Dr. Swanson points out that, according to previous research reviews, sound instructional practices include: daily reviews, statements of an instructional objective, teacher presentations of new material, guided practice, independent practice, and formative evaluations . These practices are at the heart of any good reading intervention program and are reflected in several of the instructional components mentioned in this article.

Appeal To Multiple Senses

To improve comprehension and retention when studying, incorporate multiple senses.

For children who are visual learners, you can try:

• Hanging up pictures and setting up models
• Highlighting information in different colors
• Asking students to create lesson-based art

For those who prefer audio-based lessons, you can:

• Listen to books on tape or read aloud
• Watch a video with accompanying audio
• Utilize rhymes, chants and language games

Some kids are kinesthetic learners, those who learn through:

• Lessons with finger paints, puzzles or sand
• Modeling objects or designs in clay
• Using small objects to represent numbers

Tactile teaching involves the sense of touch, such as:

• Pairing counting with clapping or other movements
• Using a highlighter to color-code passages while reading
• Manipulating materials, like blocks, to visualize a scene

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Support Programs And Services

Preschools and schools can support the education of children and students with a learning difficulty through the development of an individual learning plan . Schools can also offer modified subjects and special provisions for students doing SACE. Talk to your school for more information. Out of School Hours Care and Vacation Care services can provide additional staffing to facilitate the inclusion of children with additional needs or disabilities.

Develop Awareness Of Printed Language

Teach about books. When reading aloud to your child, let your child open the book and turn the pages. Point to the words as you read. Draw attention to repeated phrases, inviting your child to join in each time they occur.

Point out letters and words that you run across in daily life. Make an obvious effort to read aloud traffic signs, billboards, notices, labels on packages, maps, and phone numbers. Make outings a way to encourage reading by showing your child how printed words relate to daily living.

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Tips For Educators & Parents

How To Teach Students With Disabilities: A Step

• 8 minute read

A disability is defined as an injury that restricts the functions or movements of an existent. Its the consequence of an impairment caused to an individual and a medical condition that doesnt permit an individual to perform any exertion or movement in a normal way.

As bad as they sound, learning disabilities are unexpectedly common. Theyre a result of differences in brain structure but dont relate to intelligence or focus. In short, theyre differences that make it delicate to succeed in a typical academy, though they may have fairly little impact on tasks of diurnal living and these are effects that scholars with disabilities face in society.

In the United States, special education is free in the public education system, thanks to the Individualities with Disabilities Education Act . Special education ensures students with literacy disabilities admit specialized instruction designed to meet their unique literacy requirements. That way, they too get an occasion to reach their full academic eventuality.

In this article, Ill be listing the step-by-step process of teaching students with disability.

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Provide Editing And Revision Instruction

You can help improve the quality and clarity of student writing by prompting them to check their own work. For example:

• After teaching a student to write simple sentences, instruct the student to identify whether he or she has included both a person or a thing and something more about the subject.
• Direct the student to look for ending punctuation.
• Ask students to identify missing elements in their stories. Have them practice by presenting a variety of examples and having the student record the presence or absence of the elements.
• Teach students to use checklists to increase the inclusion of critical elements during writing activities.
• Show students how to graph their use of writing elements and monitor their own progress, so they can become more independent and effective writers.

Writing instruction for students with disabilities is a complex process that must be carefully and deliberately planned. These were just a few suggestions to get you started. For more guidanceand practical information on how to teach other academic content areas to students with developmental disabilitiescheck out More Language Arts, Math, and Science for Students with Severe Disabilities.