Helping Children with Learning Disabilities Essay

Children with study disabilities atomic number 18 smart or smarter than their peers, save may have difficulty with things analogous reading, writing, reasoning, and organizing information by themselves. A learning handicap is a lifelong issue that cannot be cured or fixed with a snap of the fingers. Children who have the right support and intervention can espouse in check. Then later they will be able to go and be successful later in life. Children with learning disabilities need the support of p atomic number 18nts, school and their community to be successful.Parents need to be able to encourage barbarianren with their strengths, k at one time what their weaknesses are, and be able to understand the educational system to be able to run short with professionals. Learning Disabilities cannot be categorized into one diagnosis. Learning disabilities are caused by biological factors that are caused by differences in the structure and functioning of the nervous system. more peop le, both in the local and professional community, use the terms handicap and disability interchangeably, but they are not.A learning disability means that preschoolers are unable to complete tasks in a certain way. Children with learning disabilities have a hard time functioning in areas such as sensory, physical, cognitive, and opposite areas. Handicap means that preschoolers are unable to function and cope in their environment. These boorren have impairments such as cerebral palsy or down syndrome. In 1991, the federal g everyplacenment amended the disabilities label to Individuals with Disabilities Act (PL 102-119).This act allowed states to be able to not identify with one of the thirteen federal disability labels, but to classify preschoolers with special necessitate. (Kilgo, pg 27) With the new changes professionals were able to use new terms like developmentally delayed and at risk when identifying children. Developmentally delayed is inflexible on the basis of various de velopmental assessments and/or an informed clinical opinion. Children starting at the age of three years old can now be identified for function. Delays can be expressed in a difference amongst a childs chronological age and his/her procedure levels.Delays occur when a child does not reach his/her developmental milestones at the expected age level or time. If a child is slightly shadow it is not considered a delay until he/she are lagging in two or more areas of motor, language, social or thinking skills. Developmental delays are usually diagnosed by a doctor or medical professional based on strict guidelines and take more than one visit to diagnose. Parents or childcare stomachrs are usually the commencement ceremony to notice children not progressing at the same rate as other children. Testing will help to pretend a childs developmental level.At risk describes children with exposure to certain adverse conditions and circumstances known to have a high hazard of resulting in learning and development difficulties? (Kilgo, pg 28) These children have not been identified as having a disability, but as children who may be developing conditions that will marge their success in school or lead to disabilities. There are three factors that can result in a childs environment. The first is established risk/genetic. This could be where a child is born with cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, or spinal bifida.Biological risk means that a child has a history of pre- or post- natal conditions that heighten the chance of development. These could be conditions such as premature births, infants with low birth weights, maternal diabetes, and bacterial infections like meningitis or HIV. Environmental risks are considered biologically typical, meaning they are environmental conditions that are limiting or threating to the childs development. All three at risk factors can result in cognitive, social, affective, and physical problems. (Kim, pg. 4) Some signs of learning disabilit ies in young children are A toddler may reach developmental milestones quite slowly. The child may have trouble ground the concept of time. Is the child confused by the use of words like tomorrow, immediately, and yesterday? Young children have a lot of energy, but some have an excessive amount of kinetic energy, known as hyperactivity. A child that has difficulty distinguishing right from left may have difficulty identifying words. A child with a learning disability often masters several areas, eyepatch failing in two or more areas.A child that is perceived as disobedient may actually have difficulty understanding and following instructions. Once a child has been identified as having a possible learning disability, assessments need to be completed. An assessment is the process of gathering information for the purpose of making a decision about children with known or suspected disabilities in the area of screening, diagnosis, eligibility, program planning, and/or process moni toring and evaluation. (Kilo, pg. 90)During the assessment, evaluations should be accomplished with the e goal of identifying developmentally ppropriate goals, identifying unique styles and strengths, looking at parent goals and outcomes for their children, reinforcing familys competence and worth, and creating a sense of shared commitment between families, schools, and professionals. Families possess a wealth of information and should play a very active role in the decision making, planning, and evaluations of their children. Schools are need to foster a childs education, offering and supporting the needs of each child through a series of individualized instructions and interventions.School districts must provide documentation stating that the student has received the required instruction by qualified personnel. These interventions help teachers and staff to educate and foster the needs of children with learning disabilities. Assessments are an current process. The initial assess ment should be used to screen, diagnose, and check for eligibility for function. Ongoing assessments are to focus on a childs skill level, needs, background, experiences, and interests, as intimately as the familys preferences and priorities.Over the years practice has shown that there is a link between assessments and curriculum to provide for the needs of the child. It is important to keep records of a childs progress. A very useful way is through portfolio assessments. These portfolios can be considered a looking glass into a childs growth. Portfolios also help teachers and team members to keep observations and comments about a childs activities and behaviors. The information collected can help meet many of the required criteria for planning and monitoring.An important responsibility of an educator is to have an environment that will both nurture and foster learning. When designing an environment childcare providers should use surmount practice guidelines from places like Nati onal Association of Education of Young Child (NAEYC) and National Association of Family Childcare (NAFCC). Environments should look at available space, age of children, visual appeal, safety and health, and organization. (Perri Klass, pg. 46) Always remember that environments exert powerful influences on children and help to play a vital role in childrens lives.Activity areas should admit gross- motor, quiet/calm, discover, dramatic, therapeutic, and arts and crafts areas. Rooms should not have furniture that is used to separate centers or activities but should use things like lower lightening, parachutes hanging from the hood and area rugs to help children understand the use of different centers. The main goal of childcare providers and educators is to provide the best possible services for children with learning disabilities by providing services as early and comprehensively as possible in the least restrictive setting.Services and interventions should be supported in the most inwrought environments that will include the childs primary care giver. Individual Education Plans (IEP) plays a large role in the education process of children with learning disabilities. These IEPs require professionals, parents, and caregivers to work together as a team. They hold teams to accountability standards for the care of children with disabilities. A childs IEP helps to furnish an instructional direction, pattern of like a blueprint of care, to measure the effectiveness and progress of children.If an IEP is carefully written and appropriate goals are set, it will provide special education services to a child that will be reflected throughout his/her life. In the field of early childhood education, the definition of special needs has drastically changed for children with learning disabilities over the years. We live in a very diverse society of languages, foods, music, values and religious beliefs that brings us the strengths of our nation.Every day the makeup of our so ciety changes and so does the needs of our children, especially those of children with learning disabilities. Our community is seeing a growing need for services for children with learning disabilities. Young children with learning disabilities need to receive services at the earliest age possible. Parents need to remember that learning disabilities do not go away overnight and for some children it takes years of recognizing, expressing, thinking, and problem solving to keep an eye on at being the young adult that they are meant to be.