Proper Identification of Students With a Learning Disability

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Students with learning disabilities require special equipments and attention so that they can be integrated into the education system. For this reason, it is important to distinguish those students who actually have a learning disability from those who are behind academically due to poor teaching methods. This way, it becomes easier to not only provide the necessary help, but also to allocate the necessary resources accordingly.

There is some truth in the assertion that most of the students diagnosed with a learning disability do in fact have a true disability. On the other hand, it is also true that such students could be victims of poor teaching instructions, if not low achievers.

It is important to note that learning disability is largely a school defined phenomenon. At the same time, we also need to appreciate the fact that from a fundamental point of view, there is no difference between the process of acquiring academic skills with and the process of learning other forms of skills (Cortiella, 2009).

For this reason, while learning disability entails certain specific skills, on the other hand, students will still find it quiet hard to learn under different situations and setting. Moreover, we also need to appreciate the fact that even after graduating from school, those students who are still grappling with learning difficulties will still have to overcome them.

Learning disability could also be prevented by good teaching, and this is a further indications that indeed, most of the students who have a learning disability are in this state because they have lacked good teaching instructions.

This assertion has been supported by Lyon et al (2001) who argue that a majority of the children with learning disabilities and in this case not due to any underlying neurological problem but rather, because of poor reading instructions.

What this appears to suggest is that with sound teaching instructions, a lot of the children could be saved from being designated as students with learning disabilities. How then can one distinguish between a child who has a learning disability and a child who is behind academically because of poor schooling? A child with a learning disability may find it hard to understand time concept.

For example he or she could be confused by such words as “tomorrow” or yesterday. On the other hand, a child who does not know this difference because they have not been taught is more likely to learn through practice, unlike a child with a learning disability.

In addition, a child with a learning disability may have limited concentration of a specific task at hand not because they have lost interest, but because the attention deficit condition ensures that their listening span becomes shortened (Heward, 2008). As such, their lack of concentration is not out of choice. Losing one’s train of through is yet another characteristic that distinguishes a child with a learning disability.

In effect, it means that such a child finds it rather hard to focus on the topic at hand. Children with a learning disability also tend to manifest wide disparities between reading comprehension and listening comprehension and even when taught on the difference in a proper manner, they are not likely to learn the difference.

In contrast, children who do not know such differences may get to know them when exposed to proper teaching skills.

Only those children with a learning disability would qualify for special education. This is because unlike children with a learning disability, those experiencing learning difficulties in academics owing to poor teaching methods do not manifest such special needs as challenges in communication, behavioral, learning and emotional disorders, and physical disabilities (Heward, 2008).

These attributes are important in helping to distinguish children with a learning disability. Moreover, it is important for a teacher to use different approaches in teaching these two groups of students because their educational requirements are different.

For example, children with a learning disability require special teaching aids. In addition, they require teachers who are qualified in special education. On the other hand, a general teacher who is competent can handle children manifesting a learning disability as a result of poor schooling.

Reference List

Cortiella, C. (2009). Study Supports Improved Ways to Identify Learning Disabilities. Web.

Heward, W. L. (2008). Exceptional children: An introduction to special education. (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

Lyon, G. R., Fletcher, J., Shaywitz, S.E., Shaywitz, B.A., Torgesen, J.K., Wood, F.B., Schulte, A., and Olson, R. (2001). Rethinking Learning Disabilities. In C.E. Finn, J. Andrew, and C.R. Hokanson (Eds.) Rethinking Special Education for a New Century. (pp. 259-288). Washington D.C.: Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and the Progressive Policy Institute.

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Proper Identification of Students With a Learning Disability

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