Learning Disabilities: Larissaʼs Case

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Table of Contents

Language, Culture, Family, and Student Learning
Instructional Strategies to Improve Larissa’s Academic Performance
References

Teacher respect for pupils’ personalities and their unique traits is the basis of an effective teaching process. It creates an atmosphere of mutual respect between the educator and the group of students during class sessions and other school activities (Meador, 2019). It becomes a link through which various student problems can be shared and addressed over time. The image of Jesus and his disciples, the apostles, may give one a better understanding of this concept. He was a servant, friend, guide, and mentor to them, and modern teachers should be so to their pupils.

Language, Culture, Family, and Student Learning

It is obvious that linguistic, socio-cultural, and familial contexts affect student learning. For example, parental efforts to provide better educational opportunities, parents’ involvement in their children’s educational process, and favorable family socioeconomic status can significantly improve the academic performance of pupils (Li & Qiu, 2018). Much of this is missing from Larissa’s life currently, which partly explains her dysgraphia, executive dysfunction, and struggle with task fulfillment.

Larissa’s bilingualism is another factor influencing her academic performance in the wrong way. She is only eight years old, and it is hard for her to manage her Spanish- and English-speaking mindset for now. Experts state, “if children grow up speaking Spanish as their primary language, it can be difficult for them to be placed in English-speaking elementary schools” (The benefits of bilingual education, 2020, para. 5). With the help of teachers, she can overcome the problem of bad spelling and turn her bilingualism into a significant practical advantage in the future. From a perspective of culture, her dysgraphia and poor written expression can be explained by “cultural mismatch” (Brion, 2021, p. 41). Her native cultural viewpoint cannot yet find common ground with the American setting, which creates problems for her.

Instructional Strategies to Improve Larissa’s Academic Performance

Instructional Strategy for Larissa’s Dysgraphia

From the description provided, it is clear that one of the learning disabilities that Larissa suffers from is dysgraphia. Dysgraphia is the mental condition of a person when they cannot or have great difficulty writing well-structured and complex sentences, their sequences, paragraphs, and texts in terms of grammar, vocabulary, punctuation, semantics, and syntax (Franklin, 2018). The negative consequences of this learning disability for Larissa may be a slowdown in her socio-cultural adaptation to the environment of the United States and the stagnation of her overall cognitive development.

The problem should be addressed soon, and one of the promising solutions could be elementary school writing assignments. This instructional strategy consists of lecturing the child about the norms of writing sentences, paragraphs, and essays and giving them the appropriate tasks while gradually increasing their difficulty (Franklin, 2018). For example, the first two weeks of this intervention would begin with learning how to write correct and consistent sentences for Larissa. Once she gets the knowledge of it, these literacy essays become more complex, with paragraphs and essays as tasks. In Larissa’s case, the focus of such assignments should be on English vocabulary, spelling, syntax, punctuation, and capitalization rules.

One of the advantages of this instructional strategy is its flexibility. According to Franklin (2018), both teachers and parents can monitor the learning process during this literacy intervention. They can also act as educators and mentors for struggling pupils. Moreover, such writing assignments can be performed in the classroom and home environment. Therefore, the proposed instructional strategy does not contradict the general education curriculum. From what is known about Larissa outside of school, she lacks parental involvement in her life. The proposed arrangements may draw Rita’s attention to her daughter’s problems. As one can see, the IDEA standards about the free nature and individualized nature of the intervention, appropriation of evaluation, individual nature, non-restrictive environment, parental involvement, and procedural safeguards were considered.

Instructional Strategy for Larissa’s Dyslexia

Dyslexia is another learning disability that has become an obstacle for Larissa on her path to developing comprehensive and diverse knowledge about the world. Dyslexia is a disorder where an individual finds it difficult to read and pronounce words correctly (Franklin, 2018). Scientists like Elliott (2020) believe that the causes of reading disability should be sought in such human areas as “genetics, neuroscience, and psychology” (para. 1). Larissa has had this disability for at least two to three years now and this another issue of hers also needs to be resolved.

Phonics intervention can be a complete or partial resolution of dyslexia for the young student. Conventional phonetic literacy programs have three major variations, with the first category focusing on reading improvement, the second on spelling, and the third one designed to address both areas equally. Judging by the additional presence of both dysgraphia in Larissa, she needs the first category. Instructional strategy for her should include spelling exercises and assignments. According to van Rijthoven et al. (2021), these improve “both reading and spelling levels” and provide “the high-quality network of phonological, orthographical, and semantic representations” (p. 530). Just like dysgraphia programs, dyslexia interventions are of the same versatility by design. In addition, reading and spelling activities are conceptually simple enough to be competently observed and evaluated not only by teachers but also parents. Therefore, this instructional strategy for alleviating symptoms of dyslexia takes into account IDEA standards and is compatible with Larissa’s current curriculum.

Instructional Strategy for Larissa’s Executive Dysfunction

Unfortunately, Larissa has another learning disability, and it is an executive functioning disorder. According to Takacs and Kassai (2019), “executive functions (EFs) are a set of cognitive skills that are responsible for planning, organizing, and executing our conscious and goal-directed actions” (p. 653). The condition discussed is their deficient functioning, misapplication, or lack thereof. This disorder has familial, socioeconomic, mental, and neurodevelopmental causes (Takacs & Kassai, 2019). Hopefully, many programs and interventions exist to alleviate their symptoms and restore their basic cognitive abilities.

The category of instructional approaches that Larissa needs are self-regulation strategies. Not only are these among the most versatile in terms of an appropriate setting for their lecturing and practicing and suitable educators and observers, but such methods also have increased efficacy in children with atypical development (Takacs & Kassai, 2019). Judging by the available medical history of the young student, she definitely belongs to this category of children. Such activities should be included in her self-regulation instructional program as mindfulness practices, biofeedback-enhanced relaxation, and strategy learning. Takacs and Kassai (2019) argue that the latter two have a greater positive effect on children like Larissa. One can see that the design, structure, and content of the instructional strategy proposed by Larissa follow the essential requirements and ethical and legal norms of IDEA. The proposed approach to treating executive dysfunction does not go against her curriculum.

References

Brion, C. (2021). Culture impacts learning — and not just for students. The Learning Professional, 42(1), 40–43. Web.

Elliott, J. G. (2020). Dyslexia: Conceptualization, assessment, and intervention. In G. W. Noblit (Ed.), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. Web.

Franklin, D. (2018). Helping your child with language-based learning disabilities: Strategies to succeed in school and life with dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, ADHD, and processing disorders. New Harbinger Publications.

Li, Z., & Qiu, Z. (2018). How does family background affect children’s educational achievement? Evidence from Contemporary China. The Journal of Chinese Sociology, 5(1), 1-21. Web.

Meador, D. (2019). Why respecting students is essential for teacher effectiveness. ThoughtCo. Web.

Takacs, Z. K., & Kassai, R. (2019). The efficacy of different interventions to foster children’s executive function skills: A series of meta-analyses. Psychological Bulletin, 145(7), 653-697.

The benefits of bilingual education and its impact on student learning and growth. (2020). American University: School of Education Online Programs. Web.

Van Rijthoven, R., Kleemans, T., Segers, E., & Verhoeven, L. (2021). Semantics impacts response to phonics through spelling intervention in children with dyslexia. Annals of Dyslexia, 71(3), 527-546. Web.

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