Social acceptance plays such a pivotal role in a child's life, yet it is quite hard to obtain for a child with a learning disability. Individuals with learning disabilities have always been ridiculed, ostracized, and labeled dumb, slow learners, and subnormal by their peers. Learning disability refers to the different learning problems that an individual may face (Greaney, 2018). Children with learning disabilities have often been associated with failure and stigmatization, which lowers their self-esteem. One of the most common learning disorders affecting children is dyscalculia. It is a disorder in which the affected children have difficulties in applying common arithmetic methods to solve mathematical problems (Haberstroh et al., 2019). The problem is marked and persistent and unlike the usual difficulties that children usually have in understanding mathematical problems. It is a problem that affects the part of the brain that is in charge of processing numbers and quantities. It is a common problem because it affects about 3-7% of adults and children. Normally, students with such a disability usually suffer from low self-esteem due to poor performance in class. Academic challenges experienced by a child with Dyscalculia may become a constant source of frustration, particularly in areas where there is a need for reading, calculation of mathematical problems, self-control, memory, or reasoning (Abney, 2016). Therefore, it is no secret that children with Dyscalculia constantly struggle with social acceptance and bullying from their peers and society, lowering their self-esteem (Rubinsten & Tannock, 2010). The low self-esteem might lead to worsening mental health issues and might make these children slip into depression which significantly increases their risk of committing suicide. There is therefore need to come up with various measures to help improve the self-esteem of those affected in order to improve their learning ability as well as reduce the risk of suffering from adverse effects of worsening mental problems. This study aims to understand the impact of social support in helping children with dyscalculia to gain self-esteem and self-concept. The hypothesis of this study is that social support helps to improve the self-esteem of children with dyscalculia. The null hypothesis is that social support does not improve self-esteem of children suffering from dyscalculia.
Methods
The study involved students who had been diagnosed with Dyscalculia who were drawn from various Disability schools in the State of California. The study recruited 250 children but only 200 children met the inclusion criteria of being diagnosed with Dyscalculia and who are on medical follow up for the disorder. Out this number, 120 were boys while 80 were girls. The mean age of the participants was 10 years. The exclusion criteria was presence of other medical illnesses that could have interfered with the outcomes of the experiment. 30% of the study participants were African-Americans, 20% were of Asian descent, 40% were Native Americans while 10% were from mixed races. Each of the study participants was assigned to registered counsellor whose sole responsibility was to stay with the child after school and offer them support in doing their assignments, offering them emotional support, explaining to them about their condition and the need to adhere to the prescribed treatments and answering any questions that they had regarding their condition and assisting them with mathematics homework. The counsellors were all trained on how to handle children with dyscalculia. The caregivers if these children signed an informed consent after thoroughly explaining to them what the study would entail. Those who did not consent to the study were withdrawn from the study and all the participants were given the liberty to withdraw from the study if they felt uncomfortable. The researchers promised to sponsor the children who took part in the study in their entire elementary school journey as a token of appreciation for taking part in the study.
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The counsellor was to spend a minimum of 5 hours with the child every day of the week except Sundays when the children were given a chance to interact with their peers. The study was conducted for 3 months. Before the start of the study, the self-esteem of every child was measured using the Rosenberg self - esteem scale and the result of every child was recorded. The average score of every child was then calculated.
Results
Before the study, 80% of the study participants which was equal to 160 children had a Rosenberg self - esteem scale of 15 and below which was indicative of low self-esteem. While 20% of the study participants which was equal to 40 children had a score of 15-20 which was a sign that the children were at risk of suffering low self esteem. After one month into the study, the children took the test again and 65% of the participants which was equal to 130 recorded a score of less than 15. While 35% which equates to 70 children scored above 15. In the second month of the study, 55% of the children which amounts to 110 children recorded a score of below 15 while 45% scored above 15 which was equivalent to 90 children. After the 3 months, 30% of the participants which is equal to 60 children scored less than 15 while 70% of the participants which equals 140 children scored above 15.
Discussion
The Rosenberg self - esteem scale is a measure of self-esteem that measures how generally feel about their self-worth. It involves a set of questions where the participant can give an answer ranging from ‘strongly agree’ to ‘strongly disagree’. Each response is assigned a specific score and the cumulative score for all the questions determine the score of the participant ("Using the Rosenberg self-esteem scale | SOCY L sociology department L University of Maryland," n.d.). A score of less than 15 is indicative of low self-esteem while a score above 15 is considered acceptable and indicates that the participant has no self-esteem issues.
In this study, majority of the children had a score of less than 15 which meant that majority of the children with Dyscalculia had self-esteem issues before any intervention was taken. After the second month, an improvement in self-esteem was noted as the number of those who had scored below 15 had reduced to 65%. This was a sign of good progress. On the second month, another massive improvement was noted as the number of children who had scored less than 15 had further reduced to 55%. In the third month, the number of those with a score of less than 15 had reduced to 30%. These results mean that the number of children who had low self-esteem before the study had dropped from 160 children to 60 children only which was indicative of the effectiveness of social support in improving the self-esteem of children with dyscalculia. These results therefore prove the hypothesis of the study true.
Low self-esteem is a common problem affecting children with learning disabilities across the world. About 2.3% of children with learning disabilities suffer from low self-esteem around the world. It is a big problem since it affects how these children perform in class (Rubinsten & Tannock, 2010) . Poor performance leads to worsening low self-esteem which make it a vicious cycle that if not checked might lead to other mental health complications such as depression which might even lead to these children committing suicide. As this study has shown, there is a big role of social support in helping to improve the self-esteem of these children. Social support can take many forms from offering emotional support, counselling which would help the child to accept themselves more despite their condition and providing them with the needed resources in order to cope with their various shortcomings. Every family that has a child with a learning disability should ensure that they offer social support to the child and should not stigmatize them or engage in actions or utter words that might demean their abilities as this would only worsen the condition. It should be a collective role of the family as this would make the children feel more accepted despite their condition. Improvement in self-esteem would lead to an improvement in performance of these children.
Even though this study utilized a small sample which might make it difficult to generalize the findings, it forms a good basis from where other researchers can undertake a more comprehensive research to determine the suitability of social support in improving the self-esteem of children suffering from dyscalculia. Additionally, more studies should be conducted to determine the relationship between social support and the role it plays in improving the educational performance of children suffering from dyscalculia.
References
Abney, J. J. (2016). Formation of social identity among students with learning disabilities who participate in physical activity. Mercer University.
Greaney, B. G. (2018). Dyslexia in nursing and education-a case study (Doctoral dissertation, University of Birmingham).
Haberstroh, S., & Schulte-Körne, G. (2019). The diagnosis and treatment of dyscalculia. Deutsches Aerzteblatt Online . doi: 10.3238/arztebl.2019.0107
Rubinsten, O., & Tannock, R. (2010). Mathematics anxiety in children with developmental dyscalculia. Behavioral And Brain Functions , 6 (1), 46. doi: 10.1186/1744-9081-6-46
Using the Rosenberg self-esteem scale | SOCY L sociology department L University of Maryland . (n.d.). SOCY SOCY l Sociology Department l University of Maryland. https://socy.umd.edu/about-us/using-rosenberg-self-esteem-scale
