Helping Children Overcome Learning Difficulites

HELPING CHILDREN OVERCOME LEARNING DIFFICULTIES

By Jerome Rosner

Before helping children overcome learning difficulties, the child's parents have to have the child tested to see whether or not it is in fact a learning disability. Parents should take their children to their pediatrician first to rule out a physical problem.

Some Signs of a learning disability:

1. A history of significant, but brief, trauma at birth or during the first year of life that does not seem to have permanent effects. For example, thirty or more seconds of oxygen deprivation as part of a complicated birth, premature delivery, a very high fever during the first year of life that lasted for a day or two and seizures.

2. A history of chronic ear infections during the first three or four years of life that require tubes be placed in the ear.

3. Farsightedness. It is not sufficient enough to impair eyesight and often goes unnoticed until well beyond age five.

4. Delayed language development. A slow start in beginning to speak, learning new words and the grammatical rules for their use.

5. Speech articulation problems. Children's spoken communication should be understandable by their parents by the time the child is two to three years old and understandable by other adults by the age of three.

The goal of classroom instruction is to enable the child to learn what he will not be able to learn under standard conditions. The goal is to change one or more of the components that comprise a standard classroom and modifying instructional conditions in ways that facilitate learning. The best teacher for a learning disabled child is one who is concerned with book learning and formal rules. The teacher should be patient, explains things slowly and adequately, and clarifies the explanation if necessary; someone who accepts the fact that the child will have bad days as well as good days and days when there appears to be no hope. The teacher should be able to motivate the child; gain his/her trust,