Activity 2.3

A learning disability is a neurological disorder which means that people who have learning disabilities have their brain wired a different way than other people who do not have learning disabilities.   A learning disability cannot be cured.   All students with learning disabilities are just as or if not smarter than their peers but may have difficulties in reading, spelling, reasoning, recalling or organizing information if they are taught in conventional ways or by themselves.  With the right intervention, encouragement and support students who have learning disabilities can succeed and go on to be successful both in school and later in life.  

There are many different kinds of learning disabilities including dyslexia which is where people have trouble understanding words, dyscalculia is where people have trouble solving math problems and understanding math concepts, dysgraphia which is where people have trouble forming letters and writing in a certain space, auditory and visual processing disorders are where people have difficulties understanding language despite having normal hearing and vision, and nonverbal learning disabilities which causes issues with visual-spatial, intuitive organization, evaluative and holistic processing.

Learning disabilities impact a student’s learning and behavior in many ways.    In academics learning disabilities make learning difficult for those students.  Those students often get frustrated and may give up too easy but with help those students can succeed and do well.   The sooner a student gets help the better off they will be and the more successful they will be.  It is key to get students help early as possible because it is harder and harder for students to catch up as they get older.   When students have a learning disability they are often very frustrated and get discouraged.  Students who are discouraged and having trouble learning may act out, have trouble focusing on the task and working.

If students get help as early as possible they will be more likely to be successful in life.  For example if a child has a reading disability they are more likely to be successful in reading if they receive help by first grade.  If students do not receive help before the age of nine they are more likely to have difficulty throughout life with reading.

 Misunderstood Minds Website

My thoughts about Misunderstood Minds website were mixed.   I really contemplated whether I should read this or just record what I have to go through on a daily basis in my life living with ADD and learning disabilities.  In the end I decided that I would miss out on something and I might learn something new.   I really did learn a few things such as talking to students about attention in the classroom and talking about the emotional well being of students.  The activities were especially interesting because I got at least 2 out of 3 correct on them.  I was trying to figure out why and then realized I have learned over many years to look quickly when my mind is focused on the information that I may need and then fill in the missing pieces with my background knowledge with what I do know.  Reading this part I also saw one of my students in everything that was said. 

 In reading all about the reading section what I found most interesting were the following statistics.  Reading is one of the most important things in life and about 85% of students who are diagnosed with learning difficulties have a primary problem reading and language skills.  Most children with reading difficulties can be taught reading and strategies for success in the school and when children’s reading problems are identified early, they are identified early are more likely to learn strategies that will raise reading to grade level.  

I found the writing section to be very interesting.  I had no idea they were so many difficulties that could attribute to problems in writing.  After reading and stopping to think about it though it does make sense.  For instance one has to be able to pay attention in order to think about what they are writing. One of the other things that I have never thought about with the age I am teaching is that some of them may still have graphomotor problems and because of that have a lot of difficulties forming letters which may be a cause for the poor writing skills.  Many of my students this year have difficulty with writing paragraphs; it takes them forever so I am going to look further into this to see if any of the difficulties here may be a cause.

The basic math section was one of the most interesting of all the sections for me to read because I always had difficulty with math.  I remember my mother always telling me how great I was in math and how it was one of my best subjects but I always struggled and had a ton of difficulty.  When working with math there are many brain functions need to be working together including recalling things such as formulas; using language to understand the vocabulary, instructions, and how to explain your thinking; and  using sequential ordering to solve multi-step problems and procedures.  Students also need to know spatial ordering to recognize symbols and recognize geometric shapes, and they need higher order thinking skills to solve problems, monitor their thinking, to assess how reasonable an answer is, and to transfer learned skills to new problems.   Another thing that I have often thought about that was in the website is that the early the intervention occurs for a student having a difficulty the less likely they are to fear math and be more successful.  I always knew it was important for students to develop a great knowledge of the basic concepts so that students can succeed and build upon them.  I am already starting to see students falling further and further behind in because they are having trouble with those basic concepts.   One of my goals in Math this year is to help them become more confident in math.