Term Paper on "Learning Disabilities in Children"

Term Paper 10 pages (3039 words) Sources: 8

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Learning Disabilities in Children

Learning Disabilities

Learning disabilities (LD) are commonly seen as organically-based disorders affecting a small percentage of children and that interferes with their ability to learn to read and write normally (Sleeter 2010). While there is a common interpretation of why the field emerged when it did, it is dated back to the 1900s when European physicians began to record behavioral and language patters of individuals with known brain damage (2010). The data collected by the first physicians, psychologists and educators is what laid the foundation for study of neurological impairment and how it affected learning behavior (2010). The same data base was used by many frustrated parents of LD children, who organized and lobbied for the establishment of special classes in schools for children with LD.

…parents pushed for LD programs in schools for two main reasons: many did not see their failing children as mentally retarded and therefore refused to accept placement for them in classes for the mentally retarded, and schools did not provide services for children with severe reading or language difficulties unless they qualified for an existing special education category. & #8230;by the late 1950s, medical and psychological research, combined with parental pressure, led to the development of special school programs to meet the needs of a population of children that always had existed but only recently had been recognized. The ideological message in this interpretation is that schools, supported by medical and psychological research, are involved in an historic pattern of progress (Sleeter 2010).

<br />Children with LD are entitled to curriculum and instruction that are both equitable and accessible. Many of the problems in schooling children with LD result from a lack of responsiveness to the individual differences among children, but more and more, schools are learning to accommodate these differences. In order for educators to be able to offer both equitable and accessible instruction, it is important that they know what some of the characteristics of learning disabilities in children are and how their special needs can be met. Some of the characteristics of children with learning disabilities include problems in reading, writing, oral language, math, study skills, and social skills. In fact, LD children are identified in part by comparing their performance in reading, writing, or oral language with norms for children for their age or grade level. These are the norms that become the standards in assisting in determining who is classified as LD (Sleeter 2010). Within each category, there are specific issues that will be discussed in this paper. To also be discussed is the way that these characteristics influence or impact the students' cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and social development as well as their ability to learn and interact with others. Special focus will be given to what special and general education teachers and other personnel can do to work effectively with students who have learning disabilities. The role of parents and administrators will also be discussed, including ways that they can help general educators with teaching children with learning disabilities.

Learning to read is absolutely vital for a child's current and future well-being, yet many children with learning disabilities (LD) have trouble learning how to read. Recent studies have shown that a reading disability is found in as many as 17% of children (Gortmaker, Daly, McCurdy, Persampieri and Hergenrader (2007). Some of the problems can include confusing similar words, difficulty using phonics, and problems reading words with multiple syllables. Slow reading is often common in children with LD and there is sometimes difficulty with adjusting speed of reading to the nature of the reading task. Difficulty with comprehension and retention of material that is read can also prove to be challenging for the child with LD; however, there is oftentimes no problems with material that is presented orally.

In a study conducted by Gortmaker, Daly, McCurdy, Persampieri and Hergenrader (2007) entitled "Improving reading outcomes for children with learning disabilities: using brief experimental analysis to develop parent-tutoring interventions," the researchers found that reading difficulties in children with LD are often compounded by academic losses experienced by students during the summer months. In fact, summer has been associated with a dramatic decrease in reading performance (2007). This is most likely because of a lack -- or complete absence -- of practice with "the very skills that that set their more competent peers apart from them (2007).

One way to counteract these negative effects of decreased reading during summer vacation is to aid parents in implementing empirically based interventions. For the study Gortmaker et al. (2007) assessed the effects of summer parent tutoring on 3 children with LD using empirically derived reading interventions. Brief experimental analyses were used to identify customized reading fluency interventions. Parents were trained to use the intervention strategies with their children. Parents implemented the procedures during parent tutoring sessions in the home environment and results were measured continuously in high-word-overlap and low-word-overlap passages to determine whether generalization occurred. Parent and child satisfaction with the procedures was assessed and results illustrated generalized increases in reading fluency in both high-word-overlap and low-word-overlap passages as a function of parent tutoring.

The results of Gortmaker et al.'s (2007) experiment show that there is parent tutoring during the summer months increases fluency and reading performance as all three students with LD increased with oral reading fluency. The tutoring results were consistently positive across children though some of the limitations were that they study did not manipulate difficulty level of reading materials (students were tutored using stories that they were familiar with from the academic semester) nor did the study examine the effects on students' comprehension.

When it comes to writing, children with LD can struggle with sentence structure as well as grammar. Issues with writing can include consistently misspelling words as well as letter reversals. Sometimes a child with LD may have problems copying information from the board or an overhead projector. In terms of the actual writing process, poorly formed letters, difficulty with spacing words, capital letters, and punctuation are also some common problems that children with LD must face.

Mason and Graham (2008), authors of "Writing instruction for adolescents with learning disabilities: programs of intervention research," note that writing performance for a large number of adolescents -- both with and without LD -- is below the required level for success in the United States. They note that, unlike reading, writing intervention research for adolescents with LD is not a well established as research in other areas (like reading) (2008).

In a study conducted by Berninger, Abbott, Augsburger and Garcia (2009), fourth graders with learning disabilities in transcription (handwriting and spelling), LD-TD, and without LD-TD (non-LD children), were compared on three writing tasks -- letters, sentences and essays -- which was different depending on the level of language and when writing by pen or by a keyboard (2009). The two groups did not differ significantly in Verbal IQ, but did in handwriting, spelling, and composing achievement (2009). Though LD-TD and non-LD groups did not differ in total time for producing letters by pen or keyboard, both groups took longer to compose sentences and essays by keyboard than by pen (2009). Students in both groups tended to illustrate the same pattern of results for amount written as a larger sample of typically developing fourth graders who composed longer essays by pen (2009).

Results for that sample, which also included typically developing second and sixth graders, showed that effects of transcription mode vary with level of language and within level of language by grade level for letters and sentences. However, consistently from second to fourth to sixth grade, children wrote longer essays with faster word production rate by pen than by keyboard. In addition, fourth and sixth graders wrote more complete sentences when writing by pen than by keyboard, and this relative advantage for sentence composing in text was not affected by spelling ability (Berninger, Abott, Augsburger & Garcia 2009).

Oral language can also prove to be a challenge for children with LD. Some of the most common problem areas are with memorizing facts, expressing ideas orally (even when the child seems to understand the ideas), describing events or stories in proper sequence, and problems with grammar, inflectional and derivational endings. In a study conducted by Liu, McBride-Chang, Wong, Tardif, Stokes, Fletcher, and Shu (2010), the researchers investigated the extent to which language skills at ages 2 to 4 years could discriminate Hong Kong Chinese poor from adequate readers at age 7 (2010). Forty-one poor readers with a median age of 7.3 years and 41 adequate readers with a median age of 7.35 years were selected. The two groups were matched on age, parents' education levels, and nonverbal intelligence (2010). Different language tasks were tested at different ages: vocabulary checklist and Cantonese articulation test at age 2; nonword repetition, Cantonese articulation, and receptive grammar at age 3; and nonword repetition, receptive grammar, sentence imitation, and story comprehension at age 4 (2010). Dramatic differences between the poor and adequate readers were found… READ MORE

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