Identifying and Supporting Children with Specific Learning Difficulties
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Identifying and Supporting Children with Specific Learning Difficulties

Looking Beyond the Label to Support the Whole Child

Pamela Deponio, Christine Macintyre

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eBook - ePub

Identifying and Supporting Children with Specific Learning Difficulties

Looking Beyond the Label to Support the Whole Child

Pamela Deponio, Christine Macintyre

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About This Book

Many children experience difficulties which impact on their learning at home and school. Some children are considered to have a specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia or dyspraxia, but other children display a range of indicators which cross the boundaries of specific named 'conditions'. If teachers are to offer appropriate support, the authors of this highly practical book argue that they must look beyond the label to assess the whole child.

This is an informative book which:

* encourages teachers to consider children as individuals rather than attempting to match them to existing sets of indicators
* pinpoints the overlap of indicators within different specific learning difficulties
* considers the process of assessment
* explains the implications of the children's difficulties
* offers tried-and-tested strategies to promote inclusive learning.

Teachers, teaching assistants, Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators and students undertaking teacher education courses will all find this a refreshingly accessible book.

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Information

Publisher
Routledge
Year
2003
ISBN
9781134377824
Edition
1

Chapter 1

Raising the issues

An overview

In the opening years of the twenty-first century, there has been an astounding 80 per cent increase in the number of children who are being identified as having a specific difficulty which hinders their learning (Keen 2001). This means that there will be children with these difficulties in every class. Members of staff therefore have to understand both the distinctive aspects of and the considerable overlap between each specific learning difficulty. While there are many such difficulties, the ones considered in this book are dyslexia, dyspraxia, the attention deficit disorders (ADD), or with the added hyperactivity (ADHD), Aspergerā€™s syndrome, specific language impairment (SLI) and the Scandinavian-named DAMP (deficit in attention, motor control and perception). ā€˜Specific learning difficultiesā€™ is an umbrella term which indicates that children display discrepancies across their learning, exhibiting areas of high competence alongside areas of significant difficulty.
Whether in reality there are more children than ever before or whether parents and other professionals are more aware of the symptoms which indicate that problems may be looming and are more anxious to push for diagnosis and help is a moot point; but ā€˜more childrenā€™ there certainly are, to the extent that physiotherapists, occupational therapists and psychologists say they cannot cope with the increased demand on their services. Certainly in schools, teachers find that the number of possible referrals is very limited and waiting times to see specialists are unacceptably long. To offset this and to try to ensure that all children are enabled to fulfil their potential and make the most of their time in school, teachers are being urged to make a comprehensive assessment of childrenā€™s difficulties. This includes evaluating the strategies they put in place to help them, e.g. reflecting critically on any learning materials which have been adapted to meet the childrenā€™s needs.
Many caring professionals would claim that they are doing much of this already, for they are constantly on the look out for difficulties as a natural part of their teaching and supporting the children. When these appear, they consult the support for learning staff or SENCOs (special educational needs coordinators), plan the most appropriate learning materials together and then monitor the childrenā€™s progress. Others, however, claim that this seemingly ideal cooperation just canā€™t happen. They explain that with the best will in the world, ā€˜itā€™s almost impossible to find time to understand all the complexities of each specific learning difficulty and prepare differentiated work for children, taking into account their different levels of physical, intellectual, social and/or emotional difficultyā€™. Many blame the priority given to ā€˜getting children to meet the [externally imposed] targetsā€™ and find that teaching to meet this outcome results in other important aspects of education having to go on the back burner! Nursery staff often feel particularly aggrieved that they have no in-house experts to help them identify difficulties. At a critically important time, when early intervention could be particularly effective and when some difficulties could be ameliorated before the children were even aware that they had them, these professionals have to cope alone. Across the board something has to be done.
The premise of this book is that there are common features within specific learning difficulties and that understanding these will also show how the children can be helped in groups. This would prevent feelings of isolation, even ā€˜being picked onā€™ which children describe and reduce the amount of differentiated planning which would need to happen if each child was supported individually. This sounds ideal ā€¦ but what evidence is there to show that this overlap exists? In Canada, Kaplan et al. (2001) present data from a study of 179 school age children assessed for seven disorders: reading disability (dyslexia), developmental coordination disorder (dyspraxia), attention deficit disorder (ADD) with the addition of hyperactivity (ADHD), conduct disorders, depression and anxiety. They discovered that ā€˜fully 50 per cent of the sample met the criteria for at least two of the diagnosesā€™, and also claimed that ā€˜children with ADHD were at a higher risk of having a second disorderā€™. As the numbers of children with difficulties are increasing so that there may be several in each class, this book offers parents and teaching staff help in identifying children with difficulties, in understanding their symptoms and in designing strategies to facilitate teaching and learning. In the ethos of an inclusive culture, it
ā€¢ highlights the overlap of difficulties within different special needs conditions
ā€¢ considers the process of assessment
ā€¢ explains the source and the implications of these difficulties
ā€¢ lists tried and tested strategies to help the children, their parents and the school professionals cope
ā€¢ confirms that these steps complement the new inclusive policies.
This information means that parents and children can be reassured that new, inclusive ways are evolving and that a greater understanding of childrenā€™s difficulties will lead to them being given the most appropriate help for the correct length of time.
In the past, children who did not match some hypothetical ā€˜normā€™ were often simply urged to cope as best they could. There was one lesson for all, albeit with some extension work for the ā€˜ableā€™ ones and some less challenging work for those needing more practice. Very often this resulted in the latter group believing they were stupid or inadequate, when indeed the education system had made no real provision for their difficulties. Trying to make the children match the norm, teachers often concentrated on the things the children could not do ā€“ to little avail ā€“ and failed to recognize and develop the competencies the children had. It is no wonder that many children and adults floundered and eventually rejected a system which saw them as failures. Children with the most severe difficulties were educated in special schools where specially trained teachers understood and managed their problems and where the more favourable teacher:child ratio allowed for individualized care. But then the children were seen as ā€˜differentā€™ and they missed out on opportunities for social interaction which is such an important part of development. Neither could they benefit intellectually from sharing lessons with their peers and so their difficulties were compounded by the very arrangements which had been designed to help them.
The policy of inclusion means that this should no longer happen, and while this is very good news, there is much progress still to be made. There are many unanswered questions about ways to make inclusion ā€˜workā€™ in a culture of meeting targets and gaining a high place in league tables ā€“ goals which do not appear to consider that all aspects of the childrenā€™s education are of equal importance. There are conflicting pieces of advice as to what to do and how to do it and many theories still to be evaluated in terms of realistically making them work in schools. Much rests on the debate as to what education in school is for and the place competencies like ā€˜compassionā€™ and ā€˜empathyā€™ have in the value system that drives the ethos of the school.
Why should there be confusion and even conflict when everyone has the same goal, i.e. to understand the childrenā€™s difficulties and to develop strategies to overcome/circumvent them? There are several reasons why:
ā€¢ the large number of children who have to be assessed
ā€¢ the correspondingly large number of assessors involved
ā€¢ the pressure these assessors feel in ā€˜havingā€™ to give a diagnosis in case children are subsequently denied individual programmes of help
ā€¢ the overlap of symptoms making assessments complex
ā€¢ the fact that there are different levels of impairment and that childrenā€™s competence may fluctuate, making accurate assessment problematic.
The sheer number of children presenting with specific difficulties means that different groups of professionals are making assessments and advising what is to be done. Their own professional training is likely to have concentrated on different aspects of the childrenā€™s development, so this may cause them to focus on things which are familiar to them. The overlap of key indicators means they are likely to identify these before ā€˜the whole childā€™ has been assessed. Classroom teachers are likely to focus on the skills of reading, spelling, talking and writing because developing these fundamental and pervasive skills is an important part of their initial training. And so, when children find these areas difficult, the teachers may well diagnose dyslexia (Croll and Moses 1985), missing the possibility of SLI (specific language impairment). On the other hand, teachers of physical education, physiotherapists and occupational therapists, trained in the observation of perception and movement, may first consider dyspraxia because they have focussed on the practical, ā€˜being able to doā€™ side of things and they know that competent movement underlies much learning. Moreover, they know that they have the expertise to help poor coordination, balance and any movement difficulty, which impacts on the childrenā€™s learning.
And what of psychologists and/or psychotherapists who have studied behaviour difficulties? Perhaps when they see children who canā€™t pay attention or concentrate, they will most readily suspect ADD (attention deficit disorder) or, if constant movement is a key disabling factor, ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). Again these are competencies which strongly impact on the ability to learn, for children who disrupt others, by moving around, interrupting inappropriately or being aggressive, may soon find that they are rejected and blamed even for things they did not do. Yet this inability to sit still and concentrate may have been caused by poor muscle tone which affected the childrenā€™s balance or they may have poor body awareness and need continuous tactile feedback to let them know where they are functioning in space. These children need help for these specific competencies. They may not have ADHD at all. Farnham-Diggory (1992) claims that 80 per cent of children are misclassified. This is a very frightening statistic.
This being the case, i.e. that different experts concentrate on different aspects of the childrenā€™s behaviour (see Figure 1.1), it is not difficult to understand the perplexity and bewilderment of parents who discover that other children, with ostensibly the same difficulties as their own, have been given a different diagnosis. They are left in a quandary, wondering who is right. The whole child must be assessed.
Figure 1.1 Diagnostic difficulties
image

How can this confusion arise?

Case study 1

Listen to Gayle, Leahā€™s mum, talking about her daughter who is eight years old and ā€˜totally miserable at schoolā€™. Gayle ā€˜is at her witsā€™ endā€™ and has had several interviews with professionals at school which were helpful but still havenā€™t resolved the problem. She explains,
Leah is a fragile, dainty child, very pretty but rarely smiling. She appears to cooperate with anything sheā€™s asked to do but she never finishes a job and never seems to realize that this is unacceptable. She avoids getting involved in games with other children, or going swimming where she has to get undressed and dressed again ā€“ this is a real difficulty for her. Generally she seems to have no confidence in herself at all. Her teacher says she comes into class, sits quietly and just dreams the day away. She has a wonderful imagination and sometimes will tell a long story, but getting her to write even a short one is practically impossible yet she can write and spell. If she isnā€™t hurried, her writing is neat, but she only offers a few words. Sometimes we worry that the imaginative scenarios become too real for she is so immersed in the characters and the plot that she doesnā€™t seem to differentiate between that and reality.
In most curriculum areas sheā€™ll begin a task and then she gives up. She says she canā€™t remember what to do next so she drifts into a world of her own and then comes out with a poem that is simply amazing. She doesnā€™t smile when the other children give her a clap for this ā€“ they just donā€™t understand her and so no one has her as a friend now. Itā€™s agony for her and for us.
She can follow instructions if they are given one at a time but finding her way in a new environment is impossible for her. She loses her coat regularly and never feels the cold so she doesnā€™t miss it. At school she is always being scolded and at home too Iā€™m afraid that we sometimes get impatient because she canā€™t or wonā€™t hurry up and has no idea about getting herself organized for the day. She is bright Iā€™m sure, but sheā€™s in all the bottom groups and so schoolwork doesnā€™t motivate her either. Whatā€™s wrong and what can we do?
This real life scenario perhaps helps to explain why discrepancies in assessments sometimes occur. Leah doesnā€™t communicate her feelings to other children readily ā€“ could she have Aspergerā€™s syndrome? And yet she has a wonderful imagination and can pretend ā€“ competencies which some children with Aspergerā€™s find difficult. She has the planning and organizing difficulties often found in children with dyslexia, yet she can read and spell. Could she then have dyspraxia? She has difficulty with getting dressed and that involves hands crossing the midline of the body which is difficult for children with dyspraxia and she has the forgetfulness and the lack of awareness of temperature which some dyspraxic children display. She avoids any kind of contact activity, but her fragile build could explain that. She doesnā€™t pay attention ā€“ could she have ADD? But she is very still and quiet so that rules out hyperactivity or impulsivity. Certainly assessments like this are complex!

The overlap of indicators

At first glance it would seem straightforward that all children presenting with certain difficulties would be given one diagnosis or ā€˜labelā€™. However, each syndrome or specific learning difficulty has a number of indicators and while there may be a key difficulty which would seem to point to one particular condition, there can also be a significant overlap or co-occurrence of others and this confuses the picture. (This has happened with Leah (Case study 1).) As many as 50 per cent of children diagnosed as dyslexic may well have the poor coordination which is also seen in dyspraxia. Poor concentration or poor short term memory (a possible component of both dyslexia and dyspraxia) may also be found in children with attention disorders or communication difficulties yet they may have been diagnosed as having Aspergerā€™s syndrome. Other children with dyslexia may be nimble and dexterous while children with dyspraxia may have no reading difficulties at all, yet both may find difficulty making friends ā€“ a symptom which can also present in children with Aspergerā€™s syndrome and SLI. Diagnosis can never be easy when children present different blends of difficulties at different levels of severity and when symptoms overlap between conditions (see Table 1.1). Kirby (1999) explains, ā€˜it is very difficult to find the ā€œpureā€ childā€™. Recognition of this results in some children having a double label, e.g. dyslexia and dyspraxia and even then traces of other conditions may be present too. These difficulties will be dicussed in Chapters 3, 4 and 5.
Table 1.1 Some key overlapping difficulties
image
Some important indicators, e.g. low self-esteem, can result from the difficulties which the children experience. Many children with specific learning difficulties have low self-esteem arising from frustration and disaffection.

Variability of performance

A further problem for those making the assessments is that children may be able to do a task satisfactorily one day yet be totally unable to comply the next. For children with specific learning difficulties, progress is often...

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