Parents with children facing learning disabilities are often confused and worried about their child’s education. Most of them don’t even know how to help a child with a learning disability. Learning Disability covers all the conditions that obstruct a child’s learning process, making it difficult for the kid to understand new information.
A child who is disabled in learning will have trouble with words, arrangements, rhyming, maths, and lack attentiveness.
Studies have shown over 20% of India’s population has Dyslexia. Hence, they need special attention and care in schooling and education.
It is often found that parents are not aware of learning disabilities in children, making it difficult for them to understand the reason behind their child’s low scores in exams.
Discussed below are some of the facts on which the parents should pay attention.
What are Learning Disabilities?
Children often suffer from different types of learning disabilities. Still, they all have one thing in common: they all have a major impact on a person’s capacity to learn and use language. The conditions are caused by central nervous system malfunction and may develop at any time in a person’s life. Two individuals with learning difficulties do not face similar problems. Hence, determining the nature of the problem is necessary.
Here are some of the common learning disabilities in children:
1. Reading Disability
2. Writing Disability
3. Oral Language
4. Disability in understanding Maths
5. Weak Study Skills
6. Difficulty in Socialising
The most important part parents need to understand is that learning disabilities are not related to a person’s intelligence. Children with learning disabilities might often retain high potential intelligence. However, they need proper guidance to channel their intelligence.
Methods of teaching kids with Learning disabilities
Everyone knows Albert Einstein, but very few know that he even suffered from a learning disability called Dyslexia.
The right teaching condition can certainly bring the best out of a student. The role of a teacher is not to formally assess learning disabilities but to adapt their teaching activities as per the potential problem. It’s not up to the teachers to decide whether a student has a teaching disability or not. Moreover, a teacher must not mention their disability as it may affect them badly.
Suppose teachers informally assess a student to be a disabled learner. In that case, they should list the student’s problems and formulate strategies to help the student reach his academic potential and set a concrete path toward his success.
Teaching learning disabled students is not an easy task as it requires innovation, heavy patience, and interactive skills. Proper education guidance can help children with learning disabilities excel as students and get a confidence boost.
Here are a few schooling tips that parents of LD kids can focus on.
Strategies for children with reading and processing Disabilities
In addition to decoding unfamiliar words, students with reading disabilities may have difficulty understanding what they read, remembering the meanings of words they have read, maintaining an efficient reading rate, following written directions, and identifying the main ideas and major details in texts.
Here are a few strategies teachers adapt for helping students with learning disabilities:
● Encourage the student to read a chapter multiple times
● Transform headlines into questions using what, why, and how. The learner should next read to get the answers. Students must highlight answers to questions posed by headers.
● Using different colored highlighters for labeling details can help the student distinguish.
● Teachers should find innovative ways to teach students how to learn with a learning disability.
● Identify logical and appropriate locations in the text where students pause and assess understanding. The learner may use these checkpoints for summarising what they just read (a tape recorder might do the trick)
● Motivate the reader to ask themselves questions on the topics they are reading.
● Ask students to utilize the text’s margins to jot down essential words, major points, or definitions.
● Students often complain that they watch letters “hover around”. Using Index Cards while reading can help them keep better track of what they are reading.
● While dealing with a disabled child, you can use graphs and visual presentations for explaining a subject.
● Instruct the student both verbally and in written format.
Tips for special education at home for parents.
Parents are the biggest support for children with learning disabilities. They are a child’s best teacher and enthusiast. Their unconditional love towards their kid can help a learning disabled child overcome their problems and build a beautiful life.
Learning disability is not something one cannot overcome. It is the perspective that matters. Parents should help their children cope with their learning disabilities and not themselves become overwhelmed by their kid’s condition and provide their child with tips to overcome learning disabilities.
Here are a few tips for the parents.
● Give full concentration on Child’s Education
● Detect the method your child learns best
● Get a broader aspect regarding life rather than focusing on school scores
● Teach healthy habits that will determine their lifestyle
● Praise for the efforts they make
● Make education easier for your child with learning difficulties in school
● Teach to process negative thoughts
Conclusion
There has been a long hunt for solutions to learning disabilities; however, there is no particular cure. That shouldn’t mean your child cannot receive a proper education. An LD child can prosper just like any other kid with proper guidance.
Parents must not act impatiently towards their kids. They must take good care of their child and help them with their studies.
The most important part of learning is proper schooling. Parents must choose a school that supports Learning disability teaching and have teachers skilled to teach LD students. If you are searching for a suitable high school in Noida for your kid, GIIS might just be the right one.
GIIS has opened many possibilities for students with Learning disabilities. They are often referred to as the best Noida CBSE school for their innovative teaching methods and their varied curriculum. The school treats each student with the utmost attention and observes individual students keep track of their mental development and learning difficulties they face. The faculty of GIIS knows how to support learning disabilities and has the essential infrastructure required to teach these special kids.
Deepika Sodhi
A highly motivated and dedicated educator with nearly 24 years of teaching experience, Ms. Deepika Sodhi is the Academic Supervisor for International Curricula at Global Indian International School (GIIS) SMART Campus, Singapore.
Ms. Sodhi has a rich experience of teaching Physics across curricula such as the IB, Cambridge IGCSE and CBSE. She has served as an Exam Officer for Cambridge Assessment International Education. Currently, she is an IB Assessment Officer, and a member of International Schools Network and International Baccalaureate Educator Network.
In her free time, Ms. Sodhi enjoys writing blogs, creating guiding material for training staff and community service.
