Children with learning disabilities are children whose mental abilities are within normal limits, but who have learning difficulties.
It is necessary to distinguish children with learning difficulties from children with intellectual disabilities and behavioral disorders.
Children with learning difficulties; These are children who have difficulties in listening, thinking, speaking, writing or solving mathematical problems, and who have disabilities in one or more of the psychological processes in understanding or using written and spoken language.
The term learning disability; includes perceptual difficulties, those affected by brain injury, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. However, the definition of learning disability does not include economic, cultural, environmental deprivations, behavioral disorders, learning difficulties as a result of mental, physical, visual or hearing impairment. Journal of Announcements numbered
2509 special learning disability; It is the negative impact of an individual’s educational performance and social cohesion due to the inability to listen, speak, read, write, spell, concentrate or perform mathematical operations, which occurs in one or more of the information-gathering processes necessary to understand or use written or spoken language. ‘ format is defined.
Reflects the child’s difficulty in self-management and social skills, along with a problem with information processing processes.
*If the child is not successful at the rate of potential; This may be due to another problem such as low motivation, inability to acquire basic skills as a result of frequent school changes, economic, cultural and environmental deprivations, language or behavioral problems.
REASONS
Although the causes of learning disabilities are not fully known, there are some findings supported by scientists.
1-Incorrect Functioning of the Brain
It is thought that learning difficulties are caused by the damage caused by the brain damage.
2-Bio-Chemical Disorders
It is suggested that learning disabilities occur due to physiological or bio-chemical disorders.
It is also thought that postnatal factors such as vitamin deficiency, allergies, genetic tendencies, blood incompatibility, oxygen deficiency, injuries caused by birth instruments, brain damage, impact and tumors may cause learning disability.
CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDREN WITH LEARNING DIFFICULTIES
-Inability to Use Study Skills
One of the common features of children with learning difficulties is inability to use study skills.
Study Skills
a)Recognition of resources, strategies and skills needed to solve the problem effectively.
b) It is the ability to use the self-regulation mechanism, which includes elements such as planning the work to be done in a way that will lead to the successful completion of the work or problem, and the continuous evaluation of the effectiveness of the work.
2-Perceptual Disorders
An important feature of children with learning difficulties is that they have perceptual disorders. They have difficulty in interpreting and organizing the stimuli coming from visual perception or visual senses. Children with visual perception difficulties have difficulty in copying letters and geometric figures.
3-General Coordination Problems, Perceptual and Motor Problems
There are deficiencies and coordination problems in physical activities that require the use of motor skills according to their age. It may be linked to a learning disability, but it is not the cause.
4-Attention Disorder and Hyperactivity
Attentional difficulties are encountered in both the auditory and visual fields. They are more easily distracted than normal children.
They are careless and hyperactive in the classroom. They cannot sit still in the classroom for a long time. If a first or second grade student is as active as children aged three or four, their learning will be negatively affected.
5-Thinking and Memory Problems
They show inadequacy in terms of not keeping auditory and visual stimuli in memory. Although they do not have any disability, they have difficulty memorizing a series of words. They have difficulty distinguishing words that are similar to each other.
6-Social Adaptation
Children with learning difficulties show the behavioral characteristics of children with emotional disorders. Most of the time, they are unhappy, their self-evaluation is negative, they believe that they cannot control themselves, and they think that the events that happen to them are caused by other people and events. They think that their efforts do not work, that they cannot learn no matter how hard they try.
DYSLEXIA
It is a reading and writing disorder due to a developmental, neurological disorder and disability.
Marked Dyslexia Features
– Reading is slow and not fluent, sometimes absent, reads letter by letter. He pauses, especially when reading unfamiliar words and long words, and cannot read.
– Mixes and reverses letters such as p, b, d, g, h, y, s, z, u.
-Forgets some letters while typing, adds some extra.
-They can write in mirror form.(q II AT) Talip
-Reads words abbreviated.
-Reads by guessing.
-The rhythm, timbre and intonation, which express the meaning, are distorted when reading aloud.
-Incorrect emphasis.
-He cannot deduce the meaning of the story he reads.
-Writing is broken, scribbling, misalignment of letters are seen.
-Pen holding is bad, gets tired quickly.
-Can’t separate words that are close to each other.
-Can’t follow a line, mix it up.
-It is difficult to pass to the beginning of the line.
-Makes some sounds while reading inside.
-Placing another word in place of the word, skipping is seen.
It has been determined that 39% of dyslexia is related to attention problems, 37% to visual-motor problems, and 16% to visual-spatial problems.
In dyslexia, concepts such as right-left, up-down can be confused, they lack perspective. They have problems while drawing a bicycle or watch.
There is no specific treatment for dyslexia. It is very important to recognize the problems early and encourage the school and family. Frequent school changes and the use of a second language at home are important negativities. As age progresses, reading problems may improve. However, typos and slow reading persist.
Most of them are unsuccessful academically. With age (towards 8th grade), there is improvement in reading comprehension. They are more successful in oral expression and oral exams.
MATHEMATICS DISORDER (DYSCALCULIA)
It is an inability to comprehend numerical relations, calculate, recognize, use and write numerical symbols.
There are two types of disorders in children.
1-Calculation,
2-Reasoning
1-Calculation
Children with a math disorder (dyscalculia)
-The numbers are written incorrectly, they often change places (reversed) turned upside down or upside down)
-They write missing or excess numbers,(They can write the number 324 as 30020, the number 286 as 200806.)
– They have difficulty in comprehending geometric relations.
-They cannot perform simple operations.
-They have difficulty in recognizing arithmetic symbols.
-They also have difficulties in reading and writing multi-digit numbers.
-They perform the operations in the wrong order.
– They have difficulty in writing numbers one under the other in operations such as multiplication and division.
-Omit numbers, cannot check.
-They do the operations wrong.
2-Reasoning
There may also be a language problem in reasoning. Verbal problem solving, understanding commands, keeping in mind, solving step by step according to the plan are impaired.
In addition to these deficiencies, attention problems are experienced in general. His attention is dispersed quickly and lasts for a short time.
Children with learning disorders, school failure, school refusal, school phobia, behavioral problems; especially disorder behaviors, hyperactivity, migraine, enuresis (bed-wetting) depression etc. experience emotional and social adjustment problems.
At the Source of Learning Disabilities in General;
-Memory,
-Organization,
-The ability to concentrate on a subject or to concentrate,
-The ability to organize information to be remembered,
-Remember a learned information (remember)
-There may be problems in their ability to understand events in an appropriate order.
A learning disability may also mean that the child has difficulty perceiving what he hears or sees, and understanding written materials and oral presentations.
Common signs of specific learning difficulties in the first three years of primary school are as follows:
-He may still not be able to memorize his home phone when he finishes kindergarten.
-Despite trying, baby cannot memorize and repeat lullabies.
– Has difficulty concentrating and comprehending while listening to stories.
– Has difficulty remembering the details of the story.
– When he was in the first grade, he had difficulty in learning letters in vocalization or writing numbers and letters. Accordingly, he broke down very quickly emotionally, got angry very quickly, tore up papers, cried, did not want to go to school, said that he was stupid or unwise.
-There is a behavior problem in the classroom; makes remarkable, thoughtless movements.
-Does not finish class assignments.
-He constantly asks for help from his teacher or parents.
-What he learns one day, he forgets the next day. For example, he tries to spell words, seems to have learned, but fails the test, says he forgot. The same thing happens with reading; reads some words that start with a bold vowel, for example “a”, very well, but next week, when he encounters the same words, you have to re-teach them.
– He has difficulty in simple additions in the second grade. In the third and fourth grades, he cannot memorize the multiplication tables even though you repeat them together every night.
-Avoids or has difficulty putting his thoughts on paper.
-Answers questions aloud, but fails to show the same success when trying to write them down.
-Uses a very simple language while writing, although his vocabulary is sufficient while speaking. Because it is more difficult to write long words.
– He does not want to go to school.
-He says school homework is very difficult.
SUGGESTIONS TO THE FAMILIES OF CHILDREN WITH LEARNING DAILY
If your child is failing at school and has been diagnosed with a learning disability;
-First, investigate the reasons for this.
-Ask your teacher for information and help. Get the necessary medical and psychological measurements, and seek professional help if necessary.
-Develop a joint study plan with the teacher.
-Get to know all the features and capacities of your child.
– If he writes the letters backwards: Prepare cards with the letters written. Make sure that he writes correctly and corrects his mistakes by looking at the cards while writing, and practice writing.
– If he has difficulty in spelling and writing correctly: Divide the sentences and words into groups. Have him write and establish a certain group every day and run it. Print it without looking, correct the mistakes and have it read again.
– If he has difficulty with math problems: Determine the level of mathematics. Repeat his old knowledge, progress slowly in very short steps. Appeal to more than one sense while working (visual, auditory, experiencing an event, touching).
-If he has difficulty in learning to read:
-Detect the reading level. Use the deductive (whole to parts) method.
-Repeat often.
-Be patient and have a positive attitude.
-Be motivating and encouraging.
-Make sure the child feels comfortable and safe.
-Keep the work short as he is easily distracted.
-Do not move on to the next step until you are sure that you have learned a step, proceed slowly, avoid confusing what you have learned.
-Give home exercises and responsibilities to improve their working skills. Make them participate in activities in daily work (cleaning, helping, etc.)
-Encourage and approve as they succeed.
-Make attention-intensifying activities (games, stringing beads, grouping objects, separating, correcting, etc.)
-Do not give unsuccessful assignments, tasks, responsibilities. Prevent him from evaluating himself as unsuccessful and negative.
-Play memory games that require remembering and repeating.
RECOMMENDATIONS TO TEACHERS OF CHILDREN WITH LEARNING DAILY
-Know the child’s individual characteristics, capacities and limitations.
-Keep in touch with the family.
-Give them responsibilities and tasks that will enable them to participate in learning activities in the classroom.
-Make sure that the commands you use are simple, short and clear.
-As their memory is weak, appeal to more than one sense (visual, auditory, drama, etc.) in order to ensure that what they learn is permanent in the memory.
-Be reassuring and encouraging.
-Anxiety and insecurity negatively affect learning in every situation and place.
– Sit in the front rows and ensure their participation with frequent gestures and facial expressions.
-Make different arrangements in the classroom environment if there is excessive activity.
-Don’t give him assignments, questions and responsibilities he can’t accomplish.
-Make him believe that he can succeed.
-Make him evaluate himself positively and feel good.
-Enable him to participate in social activities, gain the ability to do business.
-Group, distinguish etc. give homework.
-Do activities for the development of visual perception skills.
-Be well aware of the characteristics of the developmental period he is in.
-Avoid negative labeling (naughty, lazy, careless, etc.).
-Do not compare your student with learning difficulties with your other students and accept him/her as he/she is.
