Screening, assessment, behavior modification and intervention strategies for children with LD
- Ivy Ching Ying Chong
- Dec 7, 2019
- 4 min read
To be successful in academic performance, one needs to work hard. However, for some students even hard work may not be sufficient, due to their learning disabilities. A learning disability is a disorder that inhibits information processing and retention.
Q1, What are the most frequently displayed characteristics that may be present in children with learning disabilities?
Characteristic that may be present in children with LD
Below shows some symptoms that usually occur for one who has a learning disability.
· Short attention span
· Poor memory
· Difficulty following directions
· Inability to discriminate between letters, numerals, or sounds
· Poor reading and /or writing ability
· Eye-hand coordination problem; poor coordinated
· Difficulties with sequencing
· Disorganization and other sensory difficulties
Other characteristics that may be present:
v Performs differently from day to day
v Responds inappropriately in many instances
v Distractible, restless, impulsive
v Says one thing, mean another
v Difficult to discipline
v Doesn’t adjust well to change
v Difficulty listening and remembering
v Difficulty telling time and knowing right from left
v Difficulty sounding out words
v Reverses letters
v Places letters in incorrect sequences
v Difficulty understanding words or concept
v Delayed speech development; immature speech
What are the possible problems that may be experienced by children with these learning disabilities?
Their possible problems
Learning disabilities are neurologically-based processing problem which can interfere with one’s academic performance such as their writing, reading or mathematical solving. Some of them would have problem with silent reading, need to read aloud; spend more time on learning or re-doing their school work as well as dropping out from school because cannot catch up with other. Moreover, learning disabilities can also impact the life of the student outside scholarship such as their emotional problem. Students with learning disabilities may also experience emotional distress related to their difficulties. They tend to have a higher level of emotional concern such as low self-esteem as always being called stupid and lazy. This makes them feel embarrassed, frustrated, anxious, lonely and isolated because being put down by teachers, friends and even parents. These emotional issues may exacerbate their learning disabilities and make them fear to try new things as they fear to be rejected and failure. Indirectly, this will cause them to have social and communication problems. They will escape themselves from others, isolate themselves, unwilling to involve in social which lead to career problem. Most of them lack basic and social skills due to lack of interaction with others, thus never feeling adequate with the working environment and low expectation to their career growth, therefore their jobs don’t last.
Q3, What are the learning and school Support Services that can be provided to children with learning disabilities?
Learning and School Support Services
In order to help them become a part of society, some learning and social support services are invented.
First, there are some teaching accommodation could help children with learning disabilities to improve their academic performance. For example:
· Use phonics method to teach students to learn to read
· Multisensory teaching-learning activities
· Use positive reinforcement: like giving some reward ( praise, claps) when they do a good job
· Include fun in teaching-learning sessions
· Confidence building: telling children with LD successful stories
· Give more time when called upon to give answer
· Give more time to copy from the board
· Small tasks each time: repetitive and cumulative
Test accommodation for facilitating them during the exam
· Read aloud the test paper for him/her
· Test paper with coloured or large font size
· Extra test time
· Spelling checker
· Use of computer
· Distraction-free environment
· Ignore spelling and grammar errors
Moreover, there are also some physical movements and activities could help them improve their coordination. For example
· Rope skipping: helps enhance the development of our brain’s left and right hemisphere, improving our reading skills, memory and mental awareness.
· Running
· Climbing
· Brain Gym exercise: exercises designed to “cross over” from one side to the other –for example making sideways figure eights or putting an elbow to the opposite knee. The aim is to strengthen the connections between the left and right brain activity, strengthen neural pathways and improve coordination. Such as thinking caps, brain buttons, cross crawls
Last but not least, there are also have special, integrative and inclusive education for students who have learning disabilities. Today's trend in education is moving away from integration and towards inclusion. While these approaches are intended to bring students with disabilities to a mainstream school, one system expects that students will adapt to the existing structure while the other ensures that each student is adapted to the existing education system.
Special education is a separate system of education for disabled children outside mainstream education. For example, there are schools children with visual impairment, mentally challenged and hearing impaired. The main disadvantages of separate education in separate surroundings are that children who are away from family life can find it difficult to adapt to their families, peers and communities, and children normally have to leave their homes and communities, however, they can play an active role in giving resource support and understood better as there is specialist teaching them.
An integrative classroom is an environment where students with learning disabilities learn alongside peer without learning disabilities. Additional support needs to be put in place to help students with learning disabilities adapt to the standard curriculum, and specific special education programs are sometimes in place in the classroom or through pull-out services so that they can fit in with pre-existing structures, attitudes and unaltered environment. In theory, integration is a positive approach that aims to help students with learning disabilities be in a large group however, this system of education is less effective overall.
Inclusion education is an alternative for putting children with LD in public schools. Students with disabilities are not expected to adjust to a fixed education structure. Rather the structure is adjusted so that everyone’s learning styles can be met (Bridgeway education, n.d.). being educated in mainstream education settings alongside their nondisabled peers, where there is a commitment to removing all barriers to the full participation of everyone as equally valued and unique individuals. Inclusion involves restructuring the cultures, policies and practices in schools so that they respond to the diversity of students in their locality.
Differences between special, integration and inclusive education
References
Difference between special, integrated and inclusive. (n.d.). Retrieved from :
https://manovikas.co.in/DB/DEd_Study_Material/Paper_11/Diffrence_between.pdf
Bridgeway education. (n.d.). Integration vs inclusion. Retrieved from https://www.bridgewayed.com/integration-vs-inclusion/
Special Education Degrees. (n.d.). What are inclusive special education programs? Retrieved from https://www.special-education-degree.net/what-are-inclusive-special-education-programs/
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