Learning Disabilities in Today's Children
Learning Disabilities in Today's Children
While researching children’s learning disabilities and Attention Deficit Disorder, issues were brought to my attention, that I unfortunately, had never noticed. As I look back, even as far as elementary school, I remember children who were teased or made fun of, because they were “slow.” I now realize, almost all the children fit the disorder’s every description, and somehow still remained unnoticed by my peers and teachers. When looking at the topics from the LD/ADD website I chose gifted LD and self-esteem. I chose gifted LD because I had never thought of a person who had a learning disability to be gifted. This was a disorder that I never knew existed. In gifted LD, the child is exceptionally smart but has either a learning disability, or an emotional disorder, which prevents them from being in gifted programs. The children’s intelligence is then overlooked; ignoring all the children’s potential and instead focusing on the disabilities at hand. The saddest thing I learned about this disorder is, “ If students pass through public schools with one or both qualities unaddressed—and in most cases it's the giftedness left unnoted—research studies say it's more than likely such students will fall well short of their considerable potential for achievement and enter adulthood without skills to compensate for their learning disabilities. The result, numerous studies say: emotional turmoil, low self-esteem, and, probably, an academic washout.” This statement blows my mind. The fact that these students are above average, but will never reach their full potential, or for that matter, know they even have potential astounds me. It is my opinion that a teacher’s job is not only to recognize a problem but also to help try and solve it, and from this research, they are doing neither. In researching self-esteem, I was surprised to learn that high self esteem is connected to problem solving. Rather than answering for a child, it is better to help them, letting them reach their own conclusion. I was also interested to learn how easy it is to damage children with learning disabilities, self-esteem. Research shows that children with learning disabilities are more likely to suffer from lack of self-esteem than their peers, which adds to their frustration. I also learned about Scoptic Sensitivity Syndrome/ Irlen Syndrome. This is a perceptional problem, which...