Poor scholastic performance : Discussion by Dr. Puja Kapoor

In an constant endeavour to disseminate knowledge about poor scholastic performance in school going children, CONTINUA KIDS, under Dr. Puja Kapoor,director & co-founder CONTINUA Kids, Consultant pediatric neurologist, organised a camp at Pataudi,at West Academy School. Ms. Komal Sharma, special educator at CONTINUA KIDS, provided useful tips to the kids with learning disabilities, and ADHD. Ms. Sakshi, clinical psychologist at CONTINUA KIDS, performed the diagnostic work up for these children and did counselling of the parents. We are thankful to the principal Mr. Rajendra Yadav for the enthusiastic support.

Excerpts from the discussion were :

Learning Disorders (LD) are neurologically-based processing problems

 They can be Identified via psychological/educational testing by a psychologist. The outcome can be improved with specific interventions by a special educator. They can exist in isolation or combination with other neurological disorders like autism, cerebral palsy etc.

Learning Problems DON’T  involve  :

  1. impairment in areas of hearing, vision and motor function.

  2. Emotional disturbances

 3. Cultural, economic, or environmental disadvantage

 4.  Intellectual disabilities

 Learning Disorders (LD) can  interfere with :

• Acquisition of skills: reading, written expression, oral expression, or mathematics.

• Executive skills such as organization, time management, planning, attention, memory, analysis skills

• Can affect social interaction and relationships with others

Common Terms Used with  LD are :     

DYSLEXIA – Reading      

DYSGRAPHIA – Writing     

DYSCALCULIA –Mathematics    

PROCESSING DISORDERS- Language , Auditory and Visual

Symptoms are

 •  Slow reading, lacking fluency which can affect comprehension of material

 •  Poor spelling skills, lack of recognition of patterns of words (i.e. like, mile, sale)

 •  Pronounce a word many different ways within the same reading passage Substitute one word for another (for/of, were/where,are/and, was/saw)

•  May struggle with the ‘vocabulary’ of math and understanding word problems

•  May have difficulty recalling words for both oral and written expression

•  Often attempt to hide their struggles

•  Self esteem may be very low.