The key to help learning disabled children cope with the disability is for parents to understand the type of problem. Identifying the problem will provide the various supports that parents will need to handle the difficulties of their child.
Furthermore, it is significant for parents to understand that learning disability is not a mental or emotional problem but rather, it affects the writing, speaking, listening and analytical skills of a child. Moreover, the symptoms and effects of learning disability may be different from one child to another.
Dyslexia is a reading disability wherein words and letters are mixed up.
The tendency of a dyslexic, an individual who suffers from dyslexia, is to reverse or invert letters in a word or words in a sentence thus affecting the reading skills. A dyslexic child may read or write the letter “d” as the letter “b” or may write the word “god” instead of “dog”. Moreover, a child with dyslexia may have trouble in following road directions since he or she may have difficulty distinguishing left from right. Experts advise that parents read patiently to a child with dyslexia and explain that words are supposed to be read from left to right.
Dyscalculia is a mathematical disability.
Dyscalculia is a learning disability in which a child experiences difficulty in analyzing numbers and mathematical symbols. A child may have problems in counting numbers, inability to tell time or failure to tell what number comes before or after another number.
Aphasia or Receptive Language Disability makes comprehension difficult.
Aphasia or receptive language disability is associated with the difficulty of a child to comprehend the meaning of words affecting his or her ability to follow verbal instructions. An aphasic child may show signs of helplessness in speaking or pronouncing words or even repeating short phrases. To help an aphasic child, it is important to talk using eye contact and always use simple words and short instructions.
Expressive Language Disability
A child with expressive language disability finds it difficult to express his or her thoughts which result to poor sentence construction. The child is also incapable of using the right word for what he or she is thinking. Parents are advised to have frequent conversations with the child to encourage him or her to talk and express him or her self. Patience and use of positive words would help a child with expressive language disability.
Nonverbal learning disability cripples the child’s motor and social skills.
A nonverbal learning disabled child is characterized by poor visualization skills. He or she learns faster through hearing than seeing. This disability is oftentimes not recognized as a learning disability because the child may show signs of average or above average academic skills. The early ability of a nonverbal learning disabled child to read or speak is due to the strong hearing skill. However, as the child grows up and becomes exposed to the environment, he or she is incapable of keeping up with the learning abilities of children his or her age. The disability begins to affect his coordination and social skills.
Educators and parents should recognize the mental ability of nonverbal learning disabled children and find ways to discover how to help them cross the barrier between mental and actual images.