Learning Disabilities Facts and Myths - How to Support a Child with Learning Difficulties

Does your child struggle with school curriculum, reading books, and dealing with mathematics or writing essays? Here, we have discussed some key facts about learning disabilities, or learning disorders and how to recognize different types of learning disabilities and here you will read the most effective strategies and tips for dealing with your child's learning difficulties.

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How to support a child with learning difficulties

Learning Disabilities Facts and Myths - How to Support a Child with Learning Difficulties

Learning Difficulties (LD)

Children with learning difficulties are those who suffer from deficiencies in one or more of the basic psychological processes. This deficiency appears in a lack of ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell or perform mathematical operations.

Learning difficulties are not a problem of motivation or intelligence. Children with learning disabilities are as smart as everyone else, they are not dumb or lazy, but their mind moves differently. 
This difference affects how they understand things and receive and process information and this can cause trouble learning new information and skills.

This deficiency is due to cognitive impairment, a brain injury, or slight brain dysfunction, or to dyslexia, or developmental aphasia. 
These learning difficulties may not be caused by visual, auditory, or physical impairment, or from mental retardation, or emotional disturbances, or from environmental, cultural, or economic deprivation.

The most common types of learning disabilities include reading, writing, reasoning, mathematics, and speaking problems.

Characteristics of Children with Learning Disabilities

There are a set of general characteristics for people with learning difficulties, including:

Cognitive characteristics: Cognitive characteristics are a clear decrease in the level of academic achievement in one or more of the basic academic subjects, i.e. in reading, writing or arithmetic.

Linguistic characteristics: The child with LD suffers from problems in receiving and understanding speech, and expressing the thoughts, as well as the child, may mistake the syntax of the sentences, delete some of the words or make a mistake in the grammatical formulation.

Social and behavioral characteristics: Among these problems are lack of self-control, showing rapid emotional changes, showing non-social behaviors, and social withdrawal.

Kinetic characteristics: A child with learning difficulties has problems with large movements such as running, jumping, or picking things, and problems with fine movements such as using scissors or writing.

Learning Disabilities Facts and Myths

Most people with learning disabilities (LD) have average or above-average intelligence.

Boys are identified with LD more than girls.

Learning disabilities and ADHD are genetic.

ADHD is not a learning disability (LD) but is common in children and adults with learning disabilities.

Early signs of learning disabilities are often raised in the first two years of school.

A learning disability (LD) can usually be diagnosed by your child's age of 7-8 years.

There are no medical treatments for learning disabilities.

10 Key Facts about Learning Disabilities in Children - Infographics

Infographics - 10 Key facts about learning disabilities in children 

How to Help Children with Learning Disabilities at Home

Studies have proven the importance of the family’s role in addressing the problem of learning difficulties in the child and alleviating them and they have shown that the family’s role in influencing child development is much stronger than in school and that whenever the family has given appropriate attention to the child, they achieve great successes in overcoming the problem.

There are some points that can summarize the role of the family in dealing with the child, namely:

Observe the child's condition. It is necessary for parents to continuously monitor the growth and development of their child, from school age to school, and to search and ask about any worrying and disturbing observations in the child's academic level or developmental state.

Evaluate the child. It is necessary to decide whether to undergo assessment tests by experts to determine if there is a problem with children in learning or not and to give the specialist completely accurate answers to their questions about the child's condition so that the diagnosis is accurate.

Make positive decisions related to the best interests of the child in the future after obtaining the evaluation and making sure of the problem, and the determination to take responsibility for helping the child.

Accept the child's condition and help him overcome the problem patiently, and do not punish him for negligence and do not put him on a higher burden than his energy and abilities.

Research, learn and take courses related to learning difficulties to understand the means and methods that may help to solve the problem and understand the types of programs and assistance provided to this group of children and students.

Choose a teacher who wants to work with children in this particular category, and who is familiar with the methods of interaction and teaching.

Cooperate between parents, teachers or special education specialists and implement the instructions in the interests of the child.

How to Support a Child with Learning Difficulties in School

There are some tips that can help deal with children who have learning difficulties, including:

Show a positive attitude towards the child and accept his condition, and recognize the difference between him and others and not compare him to others.

Avoid mocking, reprimanding, and threatening while dealing with the child.

Choose learning methods that will be easy for the child, and focus on his strengths and not on the weaknesses.

Follow the process of learning by means, images, etc., and rely on tangible things as much as possible in the child's education and stay away from indoctrination as possible.

Adopt a method that deals with questions and stimulates thinking in the child.

Determine tasks that are appropriate for the child’s situation; they are neither greater than his capabilities nor very easy for him and set a specific time to finish these tasks.

Restraint and calm while teaching the child, showing firmness to control the educational process, and not giving the child's room to control the teaching time.

Change the method of education if the child fails to learn a skill and use other methods, and if he does not succeed, it should be replaced with a little simpler skill.

Link new educational experiences to previous experiences.

Get the child to participate in choosing the educational activities that he loves the most.

Give the child enough time to answer or do the exercise, etc., and not to hurry.

Make daily plans ready for implementation for the child and follow him, and give him instructions and daily duties.

Discover knowledge of behavior modification methods for continued use with the child.

Graduation should take place at the time of the dissolution of the duties. Then the duties that need a little time are started, then this time is gradually increased for more time.