2. Learning Disability and Difficulty with Motor Skills: If a child faces problems with movement, balance, posture, eye-hand coordination, processing, and some other cognitive skills, it is known as Dyspraxia. Here the child struggles with planning and completing tasks involving fine and gross motor skills. The child may also have language problems. Tasks such as grooming (doing up buttons, tying shoelaces), handwriting (can’t hold a pencil with a good grip), jumping, catching a ball, using scissors, climbing up and down the stairs, spending a long time getting writing assignments done, remembering instructions and following them, clumsy movement and tendency to trip over, lack of rhythm when dancing or exercising. However, these challenges do not exist in isolation. The child may have other challenges too. They may exist alongside ADHD, handwriting difficulties like Dysgraphia, Mental Health issues, like anxiety to name a few.
3. Learning Disability and Difficulty with Socializing: A child with learning challenges can also have social and communication problems. The child faces difficulty interacting and connecting with his or her peers. The child may play alongside others but not with them and may experience social anxiety. Children who have difficulty with socializing, think of themselves as weird and difficult to understand. Some miss out on social cues. They face difficulty in comprehending social information which is called as non-verbal learning disorder. Children with ADHD or Learning Disability or both try hard to hide their struggles. They have trouble interacting with their peers leading to lack of confidence and low self-esteem.
Also read: 10 things parents can do to help their kids with learning disabilities
4. Learning Disability involves Difficulty with Reading (Dyslexia), Writing (Dysgraphia) and Math (Dyscalculia): Children with Dyslexia have trouble identifying and connecting letters and sounds, inability to associate letters with sounds, inability in breaking words into separate speech sounds, problems with reading that show no connection to the sound of the letters, inability to blend sounds to make words, difficulty with reading comprehension, exhibit dislike towards reading and writing. These children struggle with phonetic strategies, letter and word formation, spellings and organizing ideas. They have difficulty with math problems, understanding time, using money, organization of numbers, sequencing while counting and simple mathematical operations.
5. Learning Disability and Memory: Memory problems can lead to the following difficulties in learning:
The child may not show age appropriate ability to recall content, may know what he or she wants to say but struggles with organizing ideas, or communicating in a right manner. Thus, the child may experience anxiety due to incomplete tasks and his or her inability to recall information in writing or oral expression. Remember, children with Learning Disabilities learn in different ways. Every child is unique. Love and support is what they need to help them become achievers of their dreams. Author: Ms. Venetia Baptista Teaching Faculty – Junior School, The Aditya Birla Integrated School
