Children with Specific Learning Disabilities: Who are they

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Children with Specific Learning
DisabilitiesWho are they what do they need?

• Dr. Catherine CC LAM
• HK Society of Child Neurology Developmental
  Paediatrics

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Basic Facts

• SLD is a group of disorders affecting listening,
  speaking, reading, writing reasoning or
  mathematical abilities.
• Dyslexia is the most common in the group and
  most serious in its effects on the student

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• Dyslexia involves difficulty with LANGUAGE
• Intelligence is not the problem
• There is an expected GAP between their potential
  for learning and their school achievement

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• Individuals with dyslexia have a wide range of
  talents e.g. art, drama, entrepreneurial work
  etc.
• They often have difficulty organizing themselves

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• Each dyslexic individual has different strengths
  and weaknesses
• They may have additional problems e.g.
  attentional deficit, which is not a SLD
• Often other members of the family have dyslexia
  or similar difficulties

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Underlying bases for Dyslexia

• Intrinsic neurological differences in the
  structure and function of the brain
• Differences mostly found in the left brain
• More common in males
• It is present lifelong, but features can be
  improved through learned compensation

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Diagnosis for Dyslexia

• Physical check-up
• Abilities test
• Oral and written language tests
• School performance and family background
• Academic tests on reading, spelling, oral
  language, handwriting, composition
• Evaluation of social skills/emotions
• Development of IEP

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Identifying symptoms

• Preschool
• delay in talking
• difficulty with rhymes and rhythm
• difficulty with remembering rote information,
  e.g. telephone no., names
• difficulty in remembering and following
  directions

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What to do

• Preschool
• Follow up childs verbal language skills
• Read to child, encourage songs and rhymes
• Note emerging literacy skills

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Identifying symptoms

• Primary School
• difficulty in learning letter /character symbols
  and their sounds
• unusual reading and writing errors
• difficulty in remembering words over time
• difficulty in comprehension from text
• difficulty in organizing ideas in text writing

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• Other common features accompanying dyslexia
• poor pencil grip and handwriting
• poor sense of time
• poor organization and ability to keep belongings
• poor study habits

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What to do

• Find schools and teachers who specifically know
  about the condition and how to help
• Teaching should be evidenced based, supportive to
  the child, but demanding

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• Program should have
• direct instruction in area of deficit
• multi-sensory approach to learning
• systematic step-by-step teaching
• appropriate accommodations

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What accommodations

• All accommodations fall into 4 types
• Timing/scheduling
• Setting
• Presentation format
• Response format

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Accommodations for Dyslexia

• Timing/Scheduling
• more time in completing written work / exams
• avoid closely packed multiple exam sessions

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• Setting
• Testing in a small separate group
• Limit distractions

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• Presentation Format
• Larger print with less crowding
• Questions and answers on same page
• Directions in simple wording, childs
  understanding checked
• Test items read to student

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• Response Format
• answers on large-spaced paper
• students answers verbally
• spelling etc requirements waived
• aids allowed e.g. dictionaries
• use of word processor

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Equal Opportunity to Learn

• Equal opportunity to access educational content
• Equal opportunity to develop abilities
• Equal opportunity to demonstrate abilities