The Parents' Guide to Specific Learning Difficulties

Information, Advice and Practical Tips

Veronica Bidwell

• Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781784503086
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Lernschwierigkeiten

Packed full of advice and practical strategies for parents and educators, this book is a one-stop-shop for supporting children with Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLDs).

Part one introduces a spectrum of SpLDs, ranging from poor working memory, dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, through to ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Auditory Processing Disorder (APD), Specific Language Impairment and Visual Processing Difficulty. It explains clearly what each difficulty is, how it can affect a child's learning and how to help a child to succeed despite their difficulties. Part two includes a host of tips, tools and strategies to support your child's efforts in areas such as reading, writing, spelling and handwriting, as well as advice on motivation, confidence and managing life's setbacks.

Written by an experienced Educational Psychologist, this is the perfect guide for parents and carers who are looking for ways to support their child's learning, as well as for educators and teachers looking for advice on how to differentiate lessons and motivate pupils with SpLDs.

Part 1

UNDERSTANDING
SPECIFIC LEARNING
DIFFICULTIES

Chapter 1

INFORMATION PROCESSING

My son’s teacher said she thinks he is a ‘slow processor’. Lucy’s mother thinks that Lucy is a non-verbal learner and she asked what kind of learner Peter is. The psychologist who I chatted to at a party last week said that many children who are dyslexic have areas of information processing weakness. What are they all talking about?

Sarah Jane never seems to listen or to remember what she has been told, while her sister Florence has full recall of everything which has been said in her presence, even if it’s nothing to do with her. William can never find things, even when they are right in front of his nose, while his sibling, James, can reproduce the details of a building passed once on the bus. Phillip, who is a bright boy, is surprisingly slow to complete mental tasks, whether it is assimilating information or copying from the board. Jasmine is always trying things out and has to pull it to pieces or turn it upside down before she is satisfied, while her sister likes to think things through before acting. Parents are generally very much aware of how their individual children take in and absorb information.

Children will take these information processing preferences, strengths or weaknesses into the classroom with them. The good listener will be way ahead. Much of what goes on in class requires children to listen either to the teacher or to media or discussion. If the teacher makes good use of wall displays, if she accompanies her teaching with visual aids (pictures, diagrams, a visual timetable and so forth), then the poor listener who has good visual skills will be well supported. If she plans for and builds in plenty of practical experience and the chance to move around the classroom she will aid the learning of the child who likes to learn through doing.

One mother explained to me that only one out of her four children was what she termed a ‘normal’ learner. What she meant was that only one of them seemed to find the classroom an easy place in which to learn. The others all needed some back up from home. Two had mild difficulty with attention and concentration, which meant that they were often to be found daydreaming. Their difficulties were not, however, sufficiently marked to be labelled as a specific learning difficulty. The third child had difficulty with a number of physical activities; for him practical activities such as science experiments, painting, writing, sports and gym were all a challenge. He needed much encouragement and support if he was to manage to produce extensive written work. However, his difficulties were not sufficiently marked to warrant a learning difficulty label, even though they shared characteristics with dyspraxia.

There are three key areas of information processing which are in constant use in the classroom: auditory processing, visual processing and kinaesthetic awareness. We will look at them in more detail.

Information processing

Auditory processing

This refers to the speed and accuracy of listening and understanding what has been heard. Difficulty with auditory processing results in poor perception of both speech and non-speech sounds. This has nothing to do with auditory acuity (how good hearing is) but relates to how easily the brain can make distinctions, discriminate and ‘understand’ sounds.

Several years ago I attended a talk about learning difficulties. The speaker gave the audience a hearing test. First he delivered a series of bleeps, which he varied in pitch and volume. Those of us who had heard all these sounds were ‘passed’ as having good auditory acuity. No one in the audience appeared to have any hearing difficulty. He then played back some rather muffled speech sounds. Some of the audience had no difficulty in repeating back what they had heard but others found it almost impossible to make head or tail of it. This test had sampled our ability to discriminate speech sounds and make sense of them.

Auditory processing is complex. Between the time that the sound wave hits the ear drum and the moment when it eventually becomes a signal which the brain can interpret in a meaningful way there are a good number of procedures which could be faulty. The full job of processing and making sense of what we have heard also needs the listener to use their working memory and to pay attention.

The chapters on working memory, auditory processing disorder, specific language difficulty and ADHD describe the ways in which children experiencing these areas of difficulty can find it hard to listen effectively. They are often the children who lose track of what teachers are saying and end up gazing out of the window. In contrast, the good auditory processors are likely to find that they can learn through listening (tapes, discussion and lectures). They are at an advantage in the classroom where much of the day requires them to listen to their teacher.

Visual processing

This does not refer to visual acuity, meaning whether a child may be long or short sighted. It refers to the efficiency of the brain component of the visual system when it comes to the speed of discrimination and sequencing of visual information and also to short-term visual memory. A child with poor visual processing might mix up letters, skip words, find it hard to scan and pick up details, or find it difficult to copy from the board. The slow visual/spatial processor will be slow to complete copying tasks and to make visual discriminations. Any weaknesses here are likely to make it hard for the child to learn to read. Children with poor short-term visual memory often do not do well in maths.

The child with good visual processing may like to use visual aids such as mindmaps, diagrams and handouts to help their learning. They may make good use of information displayed on the classroom wall.

Kinaesthetic awareness

Finally, let’s look at the impact of poor kinaesthetic awareness. Kinaesthetic awareness refers to the sensations by which bodily positions, weight, muscle tension and movement are perceived. The child with difficulty in any of these areas may be fidgety due to the need for constant feedback from the feel of the objects around him. He may find it hard to maintain a stable body position due to poor muscle tension or strength. This may impact his writing and his concentration.

The child with good kinaesthetic awareness may find that he likes to learn through experience, moving, touching and doing (actively exploring their work, doing science experiments, painting, etc.).

So we see that variation in the efficiency in information processing in these three areas will have a dramatic impact on a child’s experience of the classroom and on their progress. Weak auditory, visual and kinaesthetic processing are each associated with areas of specific learning difficulty. For these children it is crucial that their class teacher is adept at presenting information in varied and interesting ways and can adapt her teaching style to meet their strengths and difficulties.

Even the intellectually brightest of children can be slow to process certain types of information whether it is auditory, visual or kinaesthetic. While this does not constitute a formal learning difficulty it is nevertheless frustrating for them, particularly when they are misunderstood or not appropriately supported.

Learning styles

The concept of learning styles is one that has definitely caught the imagination of both parents and teachers in recent years but is controversial. It describes the flip side to information processing deficits in that it focuses on information processing strengths.

One of the most popular theories of ‘learning style’ suggests that there are three types of learner: the visual learner, the auditory learner and the kinaesthetic or tactile learner.

Proponents of this theory claim that visual learners have a preference for seeing (think in pictures, benefit from visual aids such as mindmaps, diagrams and handouts, etc.). Auditory learners learn best through listening (lectures, discussions, tapes, etc.). Tactile learners prefer to learn via experience, moving, touching and doing (actively exploring their work, doing science experiments, painting, etc.). The idea is that teachers can prepare their lessons in such a way that children with different styles of learning can access new information in their preferred mode. Students can work out their preferred learning style through a range of questionnaires that have been designed for the purpose.

The idea that each of us may have a preferred learning or operating style is very comfortable and feels intuitively to make sense but has not been upheld by research.

Many ideas have been generated about how to enable children to learn using different styles; for example, instead of being taught by the conventional method of listening to a teacher, children might be allowed to wander a...