Does my child have a learning difficulty?
by Dr Teoh Hsien-Jin & Ms Woo Pei-Jun
Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder... You might have heard of these labels through reading or conversations. However, the meaning of these labels are often inconsistent. In practice, they are all different terms to identify different type of learning disabilities. A child is classified as having a learning difficulty when his/her academic achievements do not match up with his/her general ability to learn.
Teachers may describe the child as having the potential to learn, but somehow not studying hard enough to achieve it. If you have noticed that your child has difficulties in kindergarten or is not able to keep up with his or her schoolwork load, he or she may have a learning difficulty.
When learning disabilities are discussed, there are nine areas of concern : Speech and language, Eye hand coordination, Vision, Hearing, Attention, Visual perception, Reading, Spelling and Arithmetic problem. A child may have difficulty in one or more areas.
Diagnosis
The most reliable method of assessing whether your child has a learning disability is to have her academic abilities tested. Systematic testing and diagnosis of learning difficulty can be carried out by a clinical, educational, developmental psychologist or certified school counselor. Diagnosis is usually given after the child has thoroughly gone through an assessment of areas such as attention level, problem solving, processing speed, verbal communication, and planning abilities to name a few. In addition, a reading, spelling and arithmetic test may sometimes be carried out if the child is suspected to having these difficulties. Feedback from both parents and teachers is essential in the diagnosis of the child's difficulties.
Areas of delay: Speech and Language delay
When your child has difficulty articulating, or pronouncing words clearly, or has not started speaking by the age of four, he or she may have a speech and language delay. There are many reasons as to why these problems occur. It might be due to a physical defect, environmental reason or the child may just be developmentally slow. If your child has a speech and language difficulty, a Speech Therapist would be the best person to consult. However, there are children who are able to speak clearly, but have comprehension difficulties. They can name many words but do not understand what it means. In these cases, a Language tutor or Special Education teacher would be recommended.
It is important that you take necessary steps to ensure that your child's speech and language delay is addressed. Through our daily clinical practice, we regularly attend to speech and language delayed children who have difficulty not only in their school work, but also with making friends and paying attention as well.
Eye Hand Coordination Delay
Some children have difficulty with their fine motor skills due to weak finger strength. Hence, the way they hold their pencils or pens are affected and results in unclear handwriting or slow writing speed. Most of these children find it difficult and tiring to write. Subsequently, they avoid completing any assignments that involve writing.
Visual & Hearing Delay/ Impairment
Children with hearing or visual impairment have difficulty learning in the classroom. As a result, they are usually placed in Special Education classes. The Education Department would need to be contacted before your child may receive any of this assistance. Other children may not have major impairments, but have slight visual or hearing deficits (partially blind or deaf). Difficulty with hearing certain sounds may be due to ear infections. An audiologist would need to be consulted with regards to hearing difficulties, and an optometrist could be consulted for suspected colour blindness, short/long sightedness or astigmatism.
Attention
Many parents and teachers complain that their children do not pay attention in class or when completing their homework. Attention problems are observed in the form of the child having difficulty concentrating in class, following and carrying out a short instruction, or completing a task/ game which he/she likes. In addition, some of these children may also be impulsive and hyperactivity. When this occurs, parents need to consider that the child may have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Visual perception
Some children skip words or sentences when they are reading. Others get confused when reading a book with too many words, and some children have difficulty differentiating different kinds of handwriting. In all of these cases, the child may have a visual perceptual difficulty where the child's brain has difficulty interpreting different visual information.
Reading difficulties
Some children have normal mental abilities, but still have difficulties in reading. They are usually slow in reading the words aloud, and usually do not understand its meaning. However, once the words are read to them, they are able to comprehend the meaning of the words without too many difficulties. In these cases, the child may need more time when reading a passage or completing an exam that requires him/her to read.
Spelling difficulties
Spelling difficulties are common symptoms of dyslexia. These children often have difficulty interpreting the phonetic sounds they hear into letters or words.
Arithmetic difficulties
In addition to this, some children have difficulties with understanding concepts. This leads to problems understanding additions, subtractions, multiplications and divisions.
A lot of the times, learning disabilities are misunderstood as being behaviour problems. Hence, it is important that parents consult their child's school teacher or a specialist to find out more about their child's behaviour, in addition to whether a learning disability exists.
What you can do?
Assessments and diagnosis are only the first step towards dealing with the problem. What really counts is the remediation programme to help your child. Based on the assessment results, the programme should be individualized to your child's needs. Your child would progress best if he receives the programme at school as part of the school curriculum. Learning support teachers would be needed to help guide him through the programme. However, in practice not many schools have learning support or special education teachers to assist these students. Thus, many parents instead seek professional help outside the school system.
If you suspect that your child has a learning disability:
• Contact the school and the child's class teacher to alert them of your concern.
• Ask the teacher for her evaluation of your child's academic performance.
• Request a learning assessment from the school counsellor or seek one on your own from a psychologist.
• Ask the assessor to make specific recommendations for any remedial education that your child needs.
The following are points to keep in mind when considering a private tutor:
• The tutor should have a tertiary qualification preferably in Special Education.
• The tutor should assess your child's progress at regular intervals and inform you on the outcome.
• The tutor should liaise with the child's class teacher to ensure that both teachers are working towards the same goal.