L3 - Learning disabilities/difficulties Flashcards
Learning Difficulties/Disabilities
Children who have difficulties with literacy and numeracy learning.
A neurological condition that interferes with an individual’s ability to store, process or produce information.
Specific Learning Disabilities (sLD)
Describes a smaller number of students who have gaps between general cognitive ability and school performance in specific areas.
The dys….family sLDs
- Dyslexia - reading
- Dysgraphia - handwriting
- Dyscalculia - mathematics
- Dyspraxia (sometimes called DCD developmental coordination disorder) - motor coordination
- Dysorthographia - spelling
Other areas of Difficulty
Memory:
-Problem transferring information from working memory to long term memory
Metacognition:
- Don’t know strategies for acquiring, processing, storing & demonstrating understanding of information
- Don’t know when to apply strategies
Social or behavioural challenges:
- Fewer socially acceptable behaviours
- Unable to predict consequences
- Misinterpret social cues
Causes
Medical: where the student’s biological and central nervous system are at fault
Educational: where the interaction between the learner and the environment is at fault (poor teaching, inadequate curriculum, inappropriate strategies)
Educational Implications
- Poor self-concept
- External Locus of Control - attributes success/failure to tests
- Academic Deficits
- Frustration
- Low level of motivation
- Limited Choices - employment and education
- Transition planning is vital
Academic Deficits - 90% of students with LD have problems with reading such as
- Dependency (on others for direction)
- Difficulty monitoring performance
- Lack of ability to apply strategies
- Memory problems
- Generalisation difficulties
- Poor attitude associated with continued failure
- Difficulty learning letter sounds and combinations of letters.
Components of effective explicit teaching:
- Explicit introduction (tell the students the purpose)
- Outline provided
- Multimedia information
- Provide examples with features highlighted (what you want them to learn or make connections to)
- Teach strategies explicitly
- Model and demonstrate
- Frequent explicit feedback
- Active monitoring of progress
- Allowance for alternative formats to present work.
Engagement/Motivation
- Use age-appropriate reinforces
- Self-recording of development/achievement
- Work with the home to develop joint rewards
- Token economies
- Contingency contracts
- Involvement with scheduling tasks
- Make it real life relevant
- Positive feedback
Advance organisers
- Let’s students know what will be covered
- Link previous knowledge
- E.g. flow chart, spider diagram, concept map, discussion
Graphic organisers
- Help to plan
- Organise thoughts
- Show progress
- Determine needed elements/content
Assistive Technology
- Text-to-speech
- Word processing (writing support)
- Reading/spelling (C-Pen Reader or Livescribe)
Problem solving approach
- Identify the problem
- Describe the problem in observable, measurable terms.
- E.g. student reads at 20 words per min. Peers read at 50 w/p/m - Analysing the problem
- Identify factors relating to the problem. Develop a plan.
- E.g. Student has difficulty with sound-symbol r/ships. 1-on-1 tutoring with parent volunteer. - Implementing a plan
- Observations made & feedback given.
- E.g. Parent tutor meets with student 20 mins p/day. Oral reading performance improves. - Evaluation
- Evaluate effectiveness of intervention. Make modifications or change intervention.
- E.g. Student increased to 35 w/p/m. Intervention time increased to 30 min per day.
Prognosis
- Learning disabilities continue through a person’s life
- Individuals can learn ways to overcome them with proper instruction, assistance & timely use of intervention.
