MAKING SENSE OF SPECIFIC LEARNING DISABILITY

In India, around 13 to 14 per cent of all School Children suffer from Specific Learning Disability as per 2000-2001 censuses of India statistics. The disability is acquired during the pregnancy itself. But it will come to light only after 2 years of birth. Early detection, regular treatment and good family support play a crucial role in dealing with this problem. If it is not so, it will be prolonged throughout their life cycle. 

Earth-quake in Empty Vessels
A shocking statistics shows that half of the School Children with anyone type of Specific learning disabilities like Reading, Writing and Calculations (Prathibha Karanth 2009). More quite interesting information is that majority of the Male Children fall prey for these menus. Males out number females 3-to-1 across all grades. This earth quake in empty vessels is ignored by the parents, School authorities and even to Government.
 
Specific Learning Disability
The term learning disability is not meant to be used for Children with minor or temporary difficulties in learning but with a severe discrepancy between ability achievement in educational performance and severe discrepancy described as learning disabilities with significant learning problems that cannot be explained by mental retardation, sensory impairment, emotional disturbance or lack of opportunity to learn. (Dr.S.A.Kirk 1971).
 
Causes for Specific Learning Disability
Generally, Genetic factors, poor psychological well being during the first two months of pregnancy, too much drug consumption during the pregnancy, Delivery complications like low birth weight, premature birth, Blood pressure, umbilical card around the neck, forceps used in Delivery and caesarean rises the occurrences of Specific Learning Disability. Further parents' consumption of alcohol during pregnancy. Parents who have Specific learning Disability, Language Learning Disability influenced on their wards.
 
Symptoms of Specific Learning Disability
Children with learning disabilities exhibit a wide range of symptoms. These include problems with reading, mathematics, comprehension, writing, spoken language, or reasoning abilities. Hyperactivity, inattention and perceptual coordination may also be associated with learning disabilities but are not learning disabilities themselves. The primary characteristic of a learning disability is a significant difference between a child's achievement in some areas and his or her overall intelligence. Learning disabilities typically affect five general areas: Spoken language: delays, disorders, and deviations in listening and speaking.

1. Written language: difficulties with reading, writing and spelling.
2. Arithmetic: difficulty in performing arithmetic operations or in understanding basic concepts.
3. Reasoning: difficulty in organizing and integrating thoughts.
4. Memory: difficulty in remembering information and instructions.​
   

Diagnosis of Specific learning Disability 
Learning disabilities are often identified by School Psychologists, clinical psychologists, and neuropsychologists through a combination of intelligence testing, academic achievement testing, classroom performance, and social interaction and aptitude. Other areas of assessment may include perception, cognition, memory, attention, and language abilities. The resulting information is used to determine whether a child's academic performance is commensurate with his or her cognitive .ability. If a child's cognitive ability is much higher than his or her academic performance, the student is often diagnosed with a learning disability. The DSM-IV and many school systems and government programs diagnose learning disabilities in this way.

Although the discrepancy model has dominated the school system for many years, there has been substantial criticism of this approach among researchers. Recent research has provided little evidence that a discrepancy between formally-measured IQ and achievement is a clear indicator of LD. [8] Furthermore, diagnosing on the basis of a discrepancy does not predict the effectiveness of treatment. Low academic achievers who do not have a discrepancy with IQ (i.e. their IQ scores are also low) appear to benefit from treatment just as much as low academic achievers who do have a discrepancy with IQ (i.e. their IQ scores are higher).
 
Remedy to Specific learning disability 
Mostly the Specific learning disability Children are good at physical fitness personality and vocational skill related activities. India is a skills deficit nation where 12 per cent of it's population is skilled and only two per cent of them receive any formal training in any employable trade. For rehabilitation of the Specific Learning disability Children skill based teaching curriculum along with physical fitness lessons offering in Schools is need of the day not only to the specific learning disability Children and even too normal.

Academic level revolutions are needed to make the Specific learning disability Children as twinkling stars even in the dark sky.
 
Reference

1. Bernice H. Baumer (1996). How to teach your Dyslexic child to Read. New York: Citadel Press.
2. Dean, R.S., & Rattan, A.J. (1987). Measuring the effects of failure with Learning Disabled Children, International Journal of N euro Science, 37, 27- 30.
3. Eugene M.Halvesion. (1987). Management of Dyslexia and Related Learning Disabilities, Journal of Learning Disabilities, 20, 415-421.

 
A.P. Senthil Kumar 
Asst. professor, Department of Social Work, CMS College of Science and Commerce, Coimbatore-641 006.