Can Children Overcome Their Learning Disability?
Children diagnosed with learning disabilities need positive reinforcement to help them live a happy and fulfilling life. Many parents worry about the way their children will cope with school and how they will interact with other kids. While there is no cure for children with learning disabilities, their effects can be lessened through early intervention. This involves providing your child with social and emotional support to help them work through their challenges in school and adult life.
It is important to accept your child’s learning disability during the early years so that they can build a strong foundation for lifelong success and a sense of self-confidence. Facing and overcoming a learning disability can make your child stronger and more resilient. In this article, we will be discussing whether children can overcome their learning disability and how several specialists work as a team to assess this problem.
Understanding the Causes
Many reasons could explain why a child can be struggling with their learning disability. Many have underlying neurological immaturities that interfere with their ability to receive and process information. Some have undiagnosed problems with their vision or hearing while others are overloaded with allergic irritation. It is important as a parent or guardian to understand the cause of your child’s learning disability by diagnosing the problem during their early years. An early diagnosis can help children overcome their learning disability, as it boosts their confidence and self-esteem in dealing with their studies and life situations.
How Children Can Overcome Their Learning Disability?
It is important to keep in mind that learning disabilities have no cure but their effects can be lessened through early intervention. Children struggling with learning basic concepts such as reading, speaking and listening can always develop ways to cope with their disabilities. In most cases, they will need the help of a psychologist, a speech-language pathologist, or a special education expert. Most importantly, they will need full support from their parent or guardians to help them through tough times.
Every learning difficulty comes with different challenges and parents can benefit from knowing what kind of emotional and academic support their child needs. Introducing your child to strategies and skills they require to be successful is a good start. However, it is also essential to foster confidence in your kid by nurturing self-directed learning and encourage a healthy self-image. Self-directed learning allows a child with learning difficulties to be responsible for certain aspects of the learning. This includes the amount of time spent on a given unit as well as the material covered in a session.
They can be offered modular courses where learning is broken down into small sections that are easy to read and understand. They allow children to work with the pace that is right for them while reviewing or repeating a material when necessary. Other important skills that allow a child to develop is to set goals, work towards them, keep track of their progress, and prioritize different aspects of their studies. More responsibility leads to increased confidence, self-esteem and brings pride in achievement.
Tips for Dealing with Your Child’s Disability
Praise Effort Over Performance
Although a child with a learning disability may not have achieved a perfect score, it is important to recognize their effort even if it is a slight improvement from the last assessment. Teachers may focus on the strategy used by the child to study the way they approach their assessment.
Give Them Time
It can take some time for your child to acquire new skills and strategies. However, it is important to focus on long-term goals and remind the student that their effort and approach matters more than the time taken to complete something.
Keep Them Motivated
It may seem a difficult task to motivate a child to learn when they feel inferior or different from other children. Choose the topics the child feels most interested in and explain why a particular task is worth doing. You can also plan your day with fun activities or put up reward schemes that break up more challenging tasks.
Getting help earlier for a child with a learning disability increases their chances of success in school and adult life. A child may feel frustrated if a learning disability is not addressed in time, bringing about low self-esteem and other problems. Interventions may vary depending on the extent and nature of the disability. Experts can help build on the child’s strengths and come up with ways to counteract their weaknesses.