In an endeavour to spread awareness about Learning Difficulties, Dr. Puja Kapoor, Director and Cofounder, CONTINUA KIDS delivered a lecture on the same. The session was an interactive one where \”poor scholastic performance\” was discussed in detail.
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.
