Children new to primary school often have difficulty writing or reading. However, towards the end of the 1st grade, we expect these difficulties to decrease and to progress in proportion to the other children in the class. Unlike this normal situation, children with special learning disabilities lag behind other students in their class in reading, writing or math skills. In this case, some teachers and parents evaluate the child with expressions such as ‘lazy’, ‘he has no eyes for reading, his mind is at play’, and they do not address this question. Special learning difficulties should be considered and necessary steps should be taken in this direction in children who do not progress like the normal situation, do not have any problems in their perception in life other than studying, are only cold to lessons and make mistakes in their homework.
Specific learning disability is a disorder characterized by an inability to read, write, or perform mathematical operations in the absence of any neurological or physical disease, autism, or mental retardation. Since there are difficulties in these areas, the problems are mostly noticed when the child starts school and the diagnosis is made during this period. Children with special learning difficulties often have spelling mistakes in given homework, making mistakes in math operations, and difficulties in reading. As an example of these;
mixing similar letters in terms of shape (such as p with b or d, m and n),
letter and syllable skipping,
mixing letters with dots (o-ö, like u-ü),
slow reading,
misreading the word,
skipping some words,
confusing numbers that are similar in shape (5 to 2 etc.),
difficulty in understanding counting and four operations,
difficulty in understanding the problem.
Specific learning difficulties are often noticed by the teacher or the parent who helps them with their homework. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder often accompanies specific learning disabilities. For this reason, life can become unbearable for the parent for the child who has the symptoms of this disease (such as hyperactivity, restlessness, inattention). Similarly, depression, anxiety disorder or conduct disorder may occur secondary to a special learning disability due to the child’s unwillingness to go to school and the feelings of inadequacy among his friends. For this reason, special learning disabilities should be detected early and treatment should be started as early as possible.
The aim of treatment is to provide educational support to the child in the learning area (reading-writing-mathematics skills) where the child has difficulties. Children should be included in a special education program by instructors who have developed themselves in this field. It should be evaluated whether there is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which we know to accompany frequently, and its treatment should be started. Because, at the same time, the child with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder will not be able to make sufficient progress because he cannot pay attention to the special education that has been started. In addition, depressive disorder, which may be caused by special learning difficulties, should also be evaluated in terms of anxiety or conduct disorder, and treatment should be added if necessary.
