Teaching Tips: Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities
Are your students having difficulties in learning new skills and remembering facts? Is the student having a hard time memorizing lessons and focusing attention in classroom discussions and activities?
During school years, persistent patterns of learning difficulties are experienced by children and are carried over to adolescence. These difficulties and other co-occurring characteristics which affect the learning and daily functioning of children are potential manifestations of a learning disability (LD).
What is LD?
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), a U.S federal law amended in 2004, defines learning disability in general as a “disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia”.1
Learning Disabilities, which may be caused by hereditary, teratogenic, medical, and environmental factors, vary from one person to another. Some common types of LD are dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, dyspraxia, and visual and auditory processing disorders.
How can LD be identified?
Not all students who are slow in learning have learning disabilities but students with LD must be given immediate specialized teaching strategies to help them overcome such learning difficulties. Early identification and intervention are vital in helping students with LD succeed academically and socially.2
The National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) in U.S. provides a Learning Disabilities Checklist to help teachers and parents observe and identify students’ learning problems and risk for learning disabilities. Click here to view the NCLD Learning Disabilities Checklist.
Teaching Strategies for Students with LD
Since learning disability is a neurological disorder which affects the brain’s ability to receive, process, store, and respond to information, students with LD bear a distinct gap between their expected level of achievement and what they actually achieve. Thus, specialized teaching strategies must be used to address the needs of students with LD.
However, some educators believe that students’ learning difficulties could be addressed without having to resort to special education services. In the Response-To-Intervention (RTI) approach, students can receive special education in general education classrooms. Each student’s progress is monitored and is used as a determining factor whether the student can continue with general education instruction or should be referred for special education services.3
Click here to view the summarized scheme for the RTI Problem Solving Approach and the RTI Standard Protocol Approach (from teachingld.org).
For more information and online resources on RTI, visit these links:
Information: Response to Intervention (by NCLD)
Basic Principles of the Responsiveness-to-Intervention Approach (by SchwabLearning.org)
Responsiveness to Intervention: Implementation in Schools (by SchwabLearning.org)
Parents’ Guide to Response to Intervention (by NCLD)
Response to Intervention: What Parents Need To Know
New Roles in RTI: Creating Success for Schools and Children (by NASP)
For more teaching strategies and tips on how to identify, evaluate, and help students with learning disabilities, please visit these links:
Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities: A Practical Guide (by DRES)
Strategies for Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities (by ISESD)
Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities (by ADAPTS)
Five Homework Strategies for Teaching Students with Disabilities (by ERIC)
Tool Kit on Teaching and Assessing Students with Disabilities (by USOSEP)
List of Resources for Teachers (by LDA America)
For Students with LD: Online Resources, articles, and advice (by NCLD)
For resources on using technology to help students with LD, visit these links:
Assistive Technology for Kids – An Overview (SchwabLearning.org)
Learning Disabilities and Assistive Technologies
Technology and Learning Disabilities (LD Online)
Teaching Resources: Transition and Technology (by TeachingLD.org)
Sources:
1,3n.d. TeachingLD. “Understanding Learning Disabilities”. TeachingLD.org. Retrieved November 28, 2007 from http://www.teachingld.org/understanding/default.htm
2n.d. National Center for Learning Disabilities. “LD at a Glance”. Retrieved November 28, 2007 from http://www.ncld.org/content/view/448/391/
(Published 03 December 2007, Smart Schools Program)
