Learning Disabilities:

The Importance of
Awareness
Ara Percy
Senior Seminar
Tasche Bryant
May 29, 2018
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Intro

“1 in 5 children in the U.S. have learning and attention issues such as dyslexia and

ADHD. Some of these children receive specialized instruction or accommodations, but many do

not”(NCLD). The importance of this statistic is that there are few kids that are receiving special

services. Kids with learning disabilities are not getting the resources they need due to the lack of

knowledge about LD and the different branches of it. It is important that all kids are receiving the

help they need . If more kids are getting the resources they need, the learning process would be

easier. If schools never get the chance nor take the time to understand how kids learn, schools

will never improve on school learning.

Background

A learning disability is when there is difficulty learning and processing also, has to do

with how the brain functions. Everybody’s brain functions differently; for example, some people

process certain aspects learning slower. Others process learning faster and everyone reacts

differently to teaching strategies (Kemp). What this means is that there is not only one way to

teach students. The focus should be on the individual, not the disorder. In an article by Gina

Kemp it states that “a learning disability is a wide branch of learning problems (Kemp).” Kids

with learning disabilities are not dumb, their brain simply works differently than other people.

There are different learning disabilities specific to different subjects in school such as math,

writing and reading.

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A common LD is Dyslexia--this disability is for learning in general. People with this

most likely have trouble with word recognition and understanding words and ideas. Kids with

dyslexia have problems with fluency and understanding what they read. There's also

dyscalculia- which is an LD for math. Kids with this disability have trouble with memorization,

organization and counting using larger numbers (Kemp).

ADHD, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is another LD. Kids with this disability

have problems sitting still in school, and also have problems staying organized in school with

school work. Kids in school could also have trouble speaking up which called a non-verbal

disability (Blair). It's important to understand all these different learning disabilities because

there are different strategies created for these separate disabilities. For example teachers

wouldn’t use dyscalculia learning strategies to try to help someone with dyslexia. There are

different disabilities in different subjects as well. Dyslexia is trouble and confusion with certain

letters, and dyscalculia is a disability that has to with math. It's important to know what

disability a child has, but also to know where a child/ student is at when it it comes to learning in

general and most importantly how their brain functions.

Causes and Effects

Kids with poor families tend to have bad health. Health can affect how kids learn in

school. Health Guides mentions in the article that “poor people are most vulnerable to disability

because they are forced to live and work in unsafe environments with poor sanitation, crowded

living conditions, and with little access to education, clean water, or enough good food” (Health

Guides). A lot of reasons why learning disabilities are caused is because of health issues. A

perfect example of malnutrition is not eating breakfast and not getting enough energy to start
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your day. Not eating a healthy breakfast while in school can be distracting and can make it

difficult to stay focused in class. Malnutrition is not also the cause of LD or any defects, its Ld is

also biological. Gail Grodzinsky, Phd states on the PBS parent websites; “As of now, no one is

certain what causes learning disabilities. It is thought that learning disabilities may be caused by

hereditary, teratogenic factors.” (PBS). The importance of this quote is that LD is not just

caused by eating disorder but is usually caused simply by genetics.

Section 1 - Home Life

At home, situations that affect kids’ learning can be anything, including parents. Parents

sometimes don't understand their child's learning disabilities and they often have a hard time

supporting their child. For some parents they have trouble seeing signs of LD in theirs kids and

some don't even understand what LD is. 91% of parents have heard of dyslexia and 66% don’t

know the other disabilities (Grassgreen Allie). According to this statistics 66% of parents don’t

know about other disabilities; this high percentage shows there is a huge lack of knowledge and

awareness about disabilities that parents should be aware of. It's essential that parents are aware

so they can aid students outside on the classroom. Parents knowing how to help students will

help them through the learning process. Another statistic states that 35 percent of parents of kids

with disabilities are concerned about learning disabilities (Grassgreen Allie). This shows that a

lot of parents are not concerned about about their kids learning which is affected their learning

process dramatically. If there were more parents that were more concerned it would help out a lot

of students to find resources out there to help kids with LD.

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When it comes to home, organization is important. Organization is important because it

helps keep everything in place like assignments and projects. Remembering due dates for

assignments will relieve some stress mentally. One way parents can help their kids who have

learning disabilities is to help with organization skills. The Learning disabilities association of

America article mentions a problem : “Poor organization; forgetting to bring home the

homework or not having the time management skills to meet deadlines” (parenting strategies ).

Skills like that are important steps to helping out kids’ learning process.

Section 2- Strategies For Parents

It's important for parents who have a kid with LD to take the time to find strategies to

help their kids succeed. If parents took the time to help and get to know their child’s strengths

and weaknesses, that would help benefit their learning. And learning about their strengths and

weaknesses will give the child a base for improvement. Finding out strengths will help keep

learning optimistic and finding weaknesses will give students power to improve and focus on

those weaknesses.

An additional strategy is “allowing flexible deadlines” (Children's Health). Allowing

deadlines for kids with LD helps with stress level. Allowing more time helps with the learning

process in a positive way. Providing extended time is particularly important on projects. Projects

are given to help learn something an a more enthusiastic way. For example on projects and

classwork that require more thinking time outside of school. This gives the student some time to
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think and reflect on topic and also ask for help and get a better understanding of the topic/unit

there are learning about. Given extended time also will help relieve stress on the student/ child.

It's frustrating in school for kids with LD because of bullying and because they often

develop other mental issues as a result of being bullied. The Association of Children’s Mental

Health states, "Nationally, only 40 percent of students with emotional, behavioral and mental

health disorders graduate from high school, compared to the national average of 76 percent.”

Kids at that age who have behavioral and emotional disabilities start to develop those behavioral

problems due to bullying through middle school and high school.

When kids at these ages develop these types of behavioral problems, parents need to take

a stand and help out with those problems. The percentage of concerned parents is low, and that

creates an issue for kids’ learning. Since parents are not actively involved in the learning process

that has an impact. Up to one-third of parents of kids with learning disabilities (LD) don’t feel

prepared to take on the challenge (Morin). Therefore, when it come to their children going to

school they don't know how to deal with it. In particular, parents should learn about and be more

concerned about bullying. Kids are being bullied in school and that affects their learning which

also makes school hard to deal with. An online articles states “45% of parents say their child is

being bullied” (The Association Of Children's Mental Health) .

It's also important to recognize symptoms. When it comes to doing something to help as a

parent it is important to stay in touch with teachers and come up with strategies together to help

the child. The PBS Parents website suggests, “parents and teachers can share observations about

the students." Sharing observations will help the teacher finds ways to help out and for the

parents to also help the teacher. Parents and teachers should identify and discuss children's
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strengths and interest. One of the most important things that can happen is that parents can

communicate and work with the school to provide the best situation for their children. It’s

important to remember that parents are more aware of the students characteristics and therefore

play huge role in planning their education.

Counter Argument

Some might argue that parents aren’t equipped to help their children through school and

therefore shouldn’t be expected to and therefore, teachers are supposed to deal with mental

issues. While teachers can help, parents are very influential. An online article argues that

“Parents are the biggest influencers on young people when deciding their career path after

leaving school”(RSS). Parents do have a huge effect on kids learning and with parents aid there

can be an improvement in their education. That's why it is important that parents help out at

home to create a learning environment at home.

Section 3: Strategies for Schools and Teachers

“Teachers play a huge role in kids’ lives. They are in charge of kids’ whole learning

process”(LDA). The effects can be negative or positive when it comes the learning process.

Some kids just struggle in school their whole life. Their learning process affect kids lives

dramatically. There are negative and positive ways of teaching. There are a variety of strategies

that could help teachers and the school curriculum to improve and grow learning wise. With

extending time on projects, classwork, and homework, kids with LD can have more time to learn

and process learning. Homework is meant to help students learn even when they're still at home.

Sometimes the workload can be overwhelming for kids with LD. So when it comes down to

giving homework too much of it can be stressful. Decreasing the workload can help with the
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learning process. When too many subjects are piled up students with LDs can build up a lot

stress and disorganization.

One strategy that can help students is for teachers to develop a learner centered

classroom. A learner centered classroom is one that focuses on taking out teaching strategies

that are repetitive and don't really benefit that students. Basically it’s a classroom that focuses on

changing and developing new learning strategies. Some examples of this would be “creating

ongoing project”(ASCD). The ongoing projects will helps give students time to spark different

ideas to do projects to learn better. Projects also leave room for creativity. Another strategy

teachers can use is “replacing homework with engaging in- class activities”(ASCD). With more

in-class activities the student can learn hands on.

To finalize this topic, children/ students with LD will benefit from awareness and

acknowledgement about the learning process. Also if parents take part in aiding their children

and caring more about their education then it will benefit them. At home parents should and need

to show more interest in kids with LD education. Parents can support their children who have

learning disabilities by finding resources to help them outside of school. Teachers can also

support students with learning disabilities by contacting parents and getting know the students

and sharing ways to help each other improve kids’ learning process. If parents and teachers

work together, the learning of kids with LD will improve dramatically.

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Works Cited

“Collaborating with Teachers.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 2 July 2012,

www.pbs.org/parents/education/learning-disabilities/supporting-your-child/collaborating-

with-teachers/​.

Causes of LD.” Edited by En.hesperian.org, ​Hespain Health Gude ​, 3 Sept. 2017,

en.hesperian.org/hhg/A_Health_Handbook_for_Women_with_Disabilities:Causes_of_dis

ability.

Grasgreen , Allie. “Dropping the Ball on Disabilities.” ​Students with Disabilities Frustrated with

Ignorance and Lack of Services​, INSIDE HIGHER Ed , 2017,

www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/04/02/students-disabilities-frustrated-ignorance-and

-lack-services.

Health Guide. “Hesperian Health Guides.” ​Causes of Disability - Hesperian Health Guides​,

Hesperian Health Guides, 31 Aug. 2017,

en.hesperian.org/hhg/A_Health_Handbook_for_Women_with_Disabilities:Causes_of_dis

ability.

ldaamerica.org/what-do-parents-of-children-with-learning-disabilities-adhd-and-related-disorder

s-deal-with/.of America , LDA. “New to LD.” ​Learning Disabilities Association of

America​, Mar. 2018, ldaamerica.org/support/new-to-ld/.

J, Blair, et al. “The Health Needs of People with Learning Disabilities: Issues and

Solutions.”​Intellectual Disability and Health​, 14 Dec. 2016,

www.intellectualdisability.info/how-to-guides/articles/the-health-needs-of-people-with-le

arning-disabilities-issues-and-solutions​.
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Kemp, Gina. “Learning Disabilities and Disorders.” ​Learning Disabilities and Disorders: Types

of Learning Disorders and Their Signs​, HelpGuide.org , 31 Aug. 2017,

www.helpguide.org/articles/autism-learning-disabilities/learning-disabilities-and-disorder

s.htm.

L, Smith. “Parenting Children with Learning Disabilities, ADHD, and Related

Disorders.”​Learning Disabilities Association of America​, 17 Nov. 2013,

Morin, Amanda. “Learning Disabilities Facts, Trends and Stats.” ​Understood.org​,

Understood-Nonprofit , Sept. 2017,

www.understood.org/en/learning-attention-issues/getting-started/what-you-need-to-know

/learning-disabilities-facts-trends-and

Pultarova, Tereza. “Parents Encourage Interest in STEM but Ill-Equipped to Help.” ​RSS​, RSS, 6

Sept. 2016,

R. C., Kessler. “Problems at School | Association for Children's Mental Health.” ​ACMH​, 27 Oct.

2017, ​www.acmh-mi.org/get-help/navigating/problems-at-school/​.

Turnball, A. “Specific Learning Disabilities.” ​Project IDEAL​, Exas Council for Developmental

Disabilities, Oct. 2017, www.projectidealonline.org/v/specific-learning-disabilities/.

The State of LD​. 2 May 2017, www.ncld.org/?s=LD.

(US), National Research Council. “Influences on Children's Health.” ​Children's Health, The

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eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2016/09/parents-encourage-interest-in-stem-but-ill-equipped-to-

help/.
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