Teaching is a complex process of interaction between the student and teacher. It is well known that good teaching skills are not an innate capability but one that requires commitment to become a better provider of instruction. An educator should demonstrate deliberate and constant efforts to nurture personal knowledge and skills to become a better teacher. In the 21 st Century, the nature of the learners is significantly different from that of a century or even five decades ago. As a result, teachers should incorporate significant techniques and measures to achieve high level of comprehension among the students. The prerequisite of becoming a good teacher is having an in-depth understanding of the process of the teaching learning process. It is primarily driven by big ideas prompting students to take note of context rather than the subject-specific content bringing about real-world understanding. The following paper the efforts teachers can undertake to maximize comprehension among learners with dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia or mathematical learning disability.
Description of the Learners
Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that affects an individual’s ability to read. It is the most prevalent subtype of specific learning disabilities. Though the significant features of the condition may vary from one student to another, they share some common traits. One of the common characteristics is experiencing difficulty in phonemic awareness. In this case, the student struggles to notice, think about, and work with the individual sounds found in words. Phonological processing is another trait evident by the student inability to detect the differences in speech sounds or phonemes. The final struggle is in speech usually evident in word decoding, rate of reading, rhyming, fluency, comprehension, spelling, written expression, and vocabulary making it difficult to receive instruction.
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Dyscalculia or mathematical learning disability (MLD) refers to the specific learning disability in math. The individuals suffering from this condition may experience varying features from one person to the next (Passolunghi, & Mammarella, 2012). However, they share some common characteristics. Majority of the learners will have trouble in counting and doing calculations with significant incapability of learning number facts. Another problem noted is the struggle with performing mental calculations and problem-solving techniques. The specific learning disability extends to the individual’s difficulty with measurement, estimating number quantities, telling time, and counting money (Passolunghi, & Mammarella, 2012). The aforementioned traits make it difficult for the individual to interact in the social setting.
Dysgraphia is another concept used to call attention to the specific learning disability, which refers to both the actual act of writing and its quality in expression. Most of the features observed in learners with dysgraphia are evident among persons with dyslexia and dyscalculia, but may vary from one person to the next. One of the common traits includes an awkward grip on the pen or pencil along with poor body position. The student may also demonstrate lack of desire to engage in writing tasks as he or she tires quickly (Cortiella & Horowitz, 2014). A child with dysgraphia will have trouble ensuring proper spacing between words and letters while also forming letter shapes is difficult. This problem extends into writing or drawing within margins (Cortiella & Horowitz, 2014). A common similarity with dyslexic individuals is evident is the struggle to organize thoughts during writing and keeping track of those already written down. Observations show that there is a significant gap between the written ideas and the understanding portrayed through speech. The written information usually demonstrates errors in grammar and syntax structure.
Description of the Education Setting
In a learning institution where teachers and school administrators encounter such specific learning disabilities, it is essential to adjust the methods of instruction to accommodate the needs of the student. The educators have to ensure constant development of knowledge to ensure accurate understanding of the needs of each student (Cortiella & Horowitz, 2014). As mentioned earlier, despite the common traits evident in the students experiencing the learning disability, each one of them demonstrate specific features that makes it difficult to achieve successful comprehension of context and content of instruction (Cortiella & Horowitz, 2014). There are numerous instances where the teachers fail to recognize the disability early on and may blame the student for failing to put enough effort in learning. Such an occurrence makes the child lag behind in academic progress. However, majority of elementary, middle and high school institutions have incorporated measures of recognizing these learning concerns as early as possible.
The National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) has been at the forefront of enabling better understanding and recognition of students with specific learning disability. According to a recent research carried out on 1980 adults in the US, evenly distributed between males and females, 62% of respondents identified that diagnosing learning disabilities is a joint effort between parents or caregivers, pediatrician, school administrator, and the teacher (Cortiella & Horowitz, 2014). Despite the fact that nearly 84% of the individuals are aware of the growing concerns of these learning disabilities with 91% familiar with dyslexia, two-thirds of them are unaware of the others including dysgraphia, dyscalculia, and dyspraxia (Cortiella & Horowitz, 2014). In this regard, it is evident that extensive knowledge should be provided to the community at large to understand the various LDs. The provision of education will enable better recognition of the conditions as they present themselves early on in child development helping educators and the schools alike to provide the necessary resources for effective learning.
Learner Assessment
To employ effective teaching methods and delivery of instruction for students suffering from the mentioned learning disabilities, it is important that one accurately understands. According to the research conducted by Stuebing and colleagues (2012), the definition of specific learning disability highlights a significant disorder in one or more psychological processes used to comprehend and utilize language in written or spoken forms. The impact of such disability becomes profound where the affected individual demonstrates impaired ability to listen, spell, speak, write, read, or perform mathematical calculations (Stuebing, Fletcher, Branum-Martin, & Francis, 2012). Alternatively, some scholars believe that the LDs are based on cognitive discrepancy that should be the primary factor of assessment in identifying the needs of the learner. For instance, difficulty in word recognition, spelling, and fluency are distinct cognitive processes that highlight the presence of dyslexia among students. Therefore, the educators should take up significant measures of attending to the recognized needs.
The fact that the individual learner portrays distinct features of a particular LD is a clear indicator of the importance of identifying the actual deficit that the child is experiencing. Some may progress well through early grade levels before experiencing stunted development in later elementary and middle school years. In this case, the causes for dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia could be of a wide range but primarily hinge on effects on the cognitive level (Geary, Hoard, Nugent, & Bailey, 2012). The abnormal functioning of the brain results in the presentation of the numerous disorders. It is evident that despite the occurrence of specific learning disability, all children can learn. Children at the middle school age may present a lack of desire or readiness to learn by portraying behaviors of disregard for instruction and lack of attention in the classroom. Research emphasizes great importance to providing the students with skills of comprehending and understanding the content taught.
Purpose and Rationale
It is critical that educators, caregivers, parents, and school administrators understand the growing issue of specific learning disabilities in the modern society. This report provides a few examples of the impact that numerous children in America may encounter during their development (Geary et al., 2012). Therefore, the need to incorporate a high level of understanding between the student’s capabilities between the various LDs noted. It is clear that the common issues presented in the learning disorders may cause significant misdiagnosis on the part of the teacher consequently resulting in inappropriate efforts of improving comprehension and academic performance in the student (Berninger, Nagy, Tanimoto, Thompson, & Abbott, 2015). The research by Berninger et al., (2015) identifies the use of computer instruction as an effective measure of improving handwriting, spelling, and composing. The research evidently shows the importance of technological developments as an appropriate strategy to alleviate the issues affecting the learning process for these children.
Theoretical Basis of Teaching Approach
It is evident that learning disabilities result from abnormal functioning of the brain in processing information. In this case, biological and cognitive theories can accurately help educators get a better understanding of the disability presented by the student. Recent research has shown that significant difference in structure or the abnormal functioning of the cerebellum influences the manifestation of the dyslexia (Stuebing et al., 2012). In this regard, the primary occurrence is difficulty in speech processing along with general motor control processes. The educator should incorporate measures of easing into learning content incorporating highly structures and usually phonically based programs that help achieve a linear progression. The individual learner will be able to complete and master a particular skill of reading or learning process before advancing to another.
References
Berninger, V. W., Nagy, W., Tanimoto, S., Thompson, R., & Abbott, R. D. (2015). Computer instruction in handwriting, spelling, and composing for students with specific learning disabilities in grades 4–9. Computers & Education, 81 , 154-168.
Cortiella, C., & Horowitz, S. H. (2014). The state of learning disabilities: Facts, trends and emerging issues (Third Edition). New York: National Center for Learning Disabilities. Retrieved from http://www.hopkintonsepac.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/2014-State-of-LD.pdf
Geary, D. C., Hoard, M. K., Nugent, L., & Bailey, D. H. (2012). Mathematical cognition deficits in children with learning disabilities and persistent low achievement: A five-year prospective study. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104 (1), 206-223.
Passolunghi, M. C., & Mammarella, I. C. (2012). Selective spatial working memory impairment in a group of children with mathematics learning disabilities and poor problem-solving skills. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 45 (4), 341-350.
Stuebing, K. K., Fletcher, J. M., Branum-Martin, L., & Francis, D. J. (2012). Evaluation of the technical adequacy of three methods for identifying specific learning disabilities based on cognitive discrepancies. School Psychology Review, 41 (1), 3-22
