Factors that Contribute to Learning Difficulties

1. Factors that Contribute to Learning Difficulties By Andrea Thomas

2. Neurological Reasons: Dyslexia About Dylexia • Dyslexia is a neurologically-based disorder which interferes with the acquisition and processing of language. Varying in degrees of severity, it is manifested by difficulties in receptive and expressive language, including phonological processing, in reading, writing, spelling, handwriting, and sometimes in arithmetic.-International Dyslexia Association • 20% of America's population are effected by dyslexia • Primary Dyslexia- Characterized by seeing floating letters, rotations (b d), revolutions (b q), normal hearing and vision • Secondary Dyslexia- Characterized by missing critical components to reading, abstract reading, lack of reading to learn—possibly because of inadequate instruction • Many people with dyslexia learn to read by memorizing the shape of a word

3. Neurological Reasons: Dyslexia Difficulty (in varying degrees) with: • speech acquisition, learning of new words, and rhyming words • letter knowledge, writing, and letters order • associating sounds with the letters that represent them • identifying or generating rhyming words, or counting syllables in words • segmenting words into individual sounds, or blending sounds to make words • learning to decode written words • distinguishing between similar sounds in words • accurate reading and reading out loud • associating individual words with their correct meanings • keeping and concept of time when doing a certain task • organization skills

4. Neurological Reasons: Dyslexia Students with dyslexia need teachers who understand that accommodations must be made for: • reducing fear & anxiety • reading assignments • spelling assignments • handwriting assignments • test taking Students suspected to have dyslexia should be tested by a certified dyslexia testing specialist.

5. Neurological Reasons: Hyperlexia HYPERLEXIA is a neurobiological disorder characterized by heightened literacy skills combined with significant difficulty in understanding verbal language as well as impaired social skills. CHARACTERISTICS: • ability to read words, far above what would be expected at their age • fascination with letters or numbers. • difficulty in understanding verbal language • abnormal social skills • ritualistic behavior difficulty with transitions, • auditory, olfactory and / or tactile sensitivity • strong auditory and visual memory • difficulty answering question, such as "what," "where," "who," and "why" • difficulty with abstract concepts • selective hearing

6. Neurological Reasons: Alexia ALEXIA: • is the loss of the ability to read, usually caused by brain lesions. also called word blindness. • Is an acquired reading disorder – due to an accident or an illnesswas literate – now is no longer literate • usually occurs in adulthood conditions • In some cases, people with alexia are unable to comprehend spoken language and/or are unable to understand written text.

7. Psycho-Emotional Reasons: • The Matthew Effectrefers to the phenomena of a gap that forms between students having early literacy skills compared to those who do not. • Some students rapidly develop and build upon strong literacy foundations with intervention and students who lack those early skills lag behind their peers • All students should have literacy foundations that consist of basic letter knowledge, phoneme awareness and vocabulary • That gap widens over time • Early intervention is more effective than later intervention or remediation • Diagnosing and prevention is key • A student at risk needs a highly-qualified reading teacher that provides good foundations in reading skills

8. Psycho-Emotional Reasons: • Simple assessments performed on students, such as letter knowledge, phoneme awareness and vocabulary, can identify the students who are at greatest risk of developing life-long reading difficulties • Undiagnosed reading problems can lead to more serious problems in a student’s future

9. Psycho-Emotional Reasons: • As a result of poor early intervention, many students may either need special education (leading to underrepresentation and to many students being misdiagnosed), students having difficulty learning to read, students failing competency exams, becoming drop-outs or remaining unemployed for long periods of time in adulthood.

10. Psycho-Emotional Reasons: To help lower the risk of psycho-emotional reasons for learning difficulties, prevent early reading difficulties by: • encouraging support from home • providing strong reading teachers • using good, research-based assessments of • letter knowledge • phonological awareness • phoneme awareness • knowledge of the alphabetic principle • vocabulary • decoding • providing early reading instructional activities • campus and district leaders must playing a more active role in school improvement if all children are to become successful readers • understanding that all students come from diverse backgrounds

11. Environmental Reasons: POVERTY AS A RISK FACTOR: • puts students at risk • creates an even more diverse classroom • should be thought of as a new type of culture • occurs many times as a result of high mobility • may result in low attendance • can have a psychological effect on students • means that teachers should pay special attention and take action to help • may reduce student motivation to learn • can cause a lack of readiness to learn • can, many times, be remedied by involvement of parents and families

12. Environmental Reasons: AT-RISK • refers to children who are likely to fail in school or in life because of their life’s social circumstances. • when more than one factor is present, there is a compounding effect and the likelihood for failure increases significantly.� OCCURS AS A RESULT OF: • very young, single or low educational level parents • unemployment • abuse and neglect • substance abuse • dangerous neighborhoods • homelessness • mobility • inadequate or inappropriate educational experiences.

13. Environmental Reasons: Diversity • poverty makes both teaching and learning more challenging � • Teachers may be unaware of the array of needs that children of poverty bring to the classroom • Social contexts have a significant impact on the development of children • Focus should be placed on finding a harmonious relationship between the cultural values of students and values emphasized in school.� • Some students may belong to more than one cultural group; poor in addition to being non-English speaking minority group �

14. Environmental Reasons: HIGH-MOBILITY High-mobility a symptom of poverty and its surrounding social factors. Parents may rent by the week or even day.� Students may move from town to town as their parent searches for work or runs from problems They may live in homeless shelters or battered women’s shelters. They may live on the streets. Life experiences can have a significant effect on their education and achievement. High-mobility may be a very emotional event for children.� High-mobility and homelessness impacts children in their emotional, social and cognitive development and can be overwhelming.

15. Environmental Reasons: DUE TO POVERTY, HIGH-MOBILITY, AND AT-RISK CAUSES: • school attendance is often irregular. • transfer to a new schools becomes the norm.� • children have difficulty making friends. • students may behave hostilely or be totally withdrawn. • students not motivated to try to make good grades • difficult for schools to track the records down. • schools find it challenging to place these children in classrooms and get them additional services they may need • children become aware of social and economic status differences • activities and lessons need to be based on how children perceive themselves and the world at the various stages of development/class systems.

16. Environmental Reasons: TEACHING WITH THE CONCEPT OF DIVERSITY IN MIND • Activities should be followed with both group discussion and individual reflection to help children think critically about their experiences. • Planning and preparation absolutely critical. • Content needs to be related in varying ways to meet the needs of the diverse students in the classroom.� • Constructivism is a key because it affords students the opportunity to become active learners by questioning, hypothesizing and drawing conclusions based on their individual learning experiences. • Providing emotional support, modeling, and other forms of scaffolding, teachers can help students use their strengths, skills, and knowledge to develop and learn. • Learning experiences and problem solving based on real-life problems can help them deal with some of the issues they may be faced with in their lives. • Learning by doing gives students the opportunity to be active and imaginative problem. • Provides them with a variety of opportunities to develop into productive citizens.

17. Environmental Reasons: HOW TO HELP STUDENTS OVERCOME: • Provide all students with a rigorous curriculum.� • Have high expectations for ALL students. • Make students responsible for their own learning. • Involve parents. Early intervention is critical. • Help children to succeed. • Create an environment and use activities that foster mutual respect, resilience, self-esteem, self-regulation and self-efficacy. • Develop relationships with students to identify their needs (emotional and intellectual) and identify their individual learning style. • Emphasize that each student is unique with value, talents and abilities. • Promote awareness and acceptance of diversity. Encourage students to recognize similarities as well as differences. • Use principles of constructivism to make learning interesting, valuable and relevant to students.� Teach for meaning. • Provide developmentally appropriate, meaningful learning activities and use thematic or integrated instruction, cooperative learning, inquiry and authentic learning.

18. Environmental Reasons: • Correctly determine the nature and source of a student's difficulty. • Provide targeted instruction to remediate difficulties and increase skills level. • Accommodate a student's weaknesses and build upon his or her strengths.

19. Environmental Reasons: KNOW THE EARLY READING MILESTONES: • Make sounds that imitate the tones and rhythms that adults use when talking • Respond to gestures and facial expressions • Begin to associate words they hear frequently with what the words mean • Make cooing, babbling sounds in the crib which gives way to enjoying rhyming and nonsense word games with a parent or caregiver • Play along in games such as "peek-a-boo" and "pat-a-cake" • Handle objects such as board books and alphabet blocks in their play • Recognize certain books by their covers • Pretend to read books • Understand how books should be handled • Share books with an adult as a routine part of life • Name some objects in a book • Talk about characters in books • Look at pictures in books and realize they are symbols of real things • Listen to stories • Ask or demand that adults read or write with them • Begin to pay attention to specific print such as the first letters of their names • Scribble with a purpose (trying to write or draw something) • Produce some letter-like forms and scribbles that resemble, in some way, writing

20. Educational Reasons: ALSO KNOW THAT: • Some students that are more prone to reading difficulties. • Good reading instruction is necessary for students to learn to read. It is also no simple task. • With so many different reading components, it can be difficult to diagnose students' difficulties and find precisely the right techniques to remediate them. • To be successful, teachers need strong and deep understanding of reading theory and practice. • Some students struggle with reading, but do not have a diagnosed disability. • Some students may just lag behind.

21. Educational Reasons: • Some students are formally diagnosed with a learning disability. These students can receive special education under a federal law called the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). • To outline the educational goals and services that the student needs to be successful, an Individualized Education Program (IEP) is developed.