Learning Disabilities and the Classroom

Students with disabilities need to be physically, programmatically, and interactionally included in classroom activities that have been planned by a qualified teacher in conjunction with support staff as needed.

In middle school, I remember a few students that had disabilities. There was one boy that had autism, and he would stay with my class all day. The teachers would give him easier worksheets to

     When a child doesn’t seem to be learning, some teachers and parents in his/her life might criticize the child and think of them as stupid, or maybe just too lazy to want to learn. What they don’t realize is that the child might have a learning disability. But how are these children being helped? There are many programs, special schools and facilities, home teaching methods and many other ways in which children with Learning Disabilities are being helped.

Another major obstacle teachers may face in the classroom is accommodating those students with development disabilities . Every individual being develops at a different rate and this is not any different for students.

Think back to your experiences as a student. Picture yourself, your classmates, and your teachers. If you pictured a classroom full of normal children, you were like most children growing up about a decade ago. You see it was until recently that children with learning disabilities (LD) were allowed to join classes where they are least restricted. Restricted in what sense, you ask? For example, Emily can solve mathematical problems, is only slightly socially awkward, but struggles in reading. In previous years she would have been placed in a resource room with other children like her, students with LD. However, now Emily sits among general education students, and only receives extra assistance in the area she needs, reading.

Background: Children and adults with learning disabilities are at risk to drop out of school which can then lead them to commit criminal acts compared to people without learning disabilities. This study reviews the effect of learning disabilities in adults and children primarily. Method: Longitudinal and correlationals studies were conducted on students with learning disabilities. Results: Eight studies were included in this research. Correlationals studies showed positive correlation between learning disabilities and violent delinquency. Another correlation study showed that children without learning disabilities did better in math compared to children with learning disabilities. A longitudinal study showed that children with learning disabilities

One of the most challenging experience I went thought was during all of my elementary school career I had a speech impediment. I went through seven years of speech therapy to correct my mispronunciation of the letters l, r, and t. The speech impediment caused me to be teased and be put down as possessing a learning disability. I did struggle with learning how to read and how to spelling words, because I would sound out the word wrong. Today I see it as a learning experiences because I never look at someone with disabilities as being stupid or unable to do something. If I was to ever do that it would be looking down on myself because I still have moments where I cannot say a word correctly or it affects my spelling or reading. Having a speech

I was given the opportunity to observe different types of students with disabilities in a self-contained special education class. I viewed many different types of disabilities such as Autism Spectrum Disorder, speech and language impairment, intellectual disabilities, visual impairment, and physical disabilities. Four out of the six students in the self-contained class I observed lacked social, communication, academic, and some behavior problems. Due to many of the students lacking these components sometimes tensions were high within the classroom which would make it challenging for students to learn and follow directions. The one disability that that stuck out to me was Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Being a teacher, one will encounter many students with learning disabilities or learning differences. These things can be anything between attention deficit disorder to down syndrome. It is the teacher’s job to understand what that child is going through in order to ensure that they receive the best available education possible. Now a teacher might say, “I am not required to know how to teach special education”, which is where most of these students will be placed. But ones with minor learning differences will be seen in everyday classroom environments. Therefore, a teacher should want to educate every student to the best of their ability to ensure that no matter what learning difference a child has that that child can be successful in life. One specific learning difference I am going to talk about today is dyslexia. Many do not know what this learning difference really is or even all of its causes, and symptoms. Many people probably do not know what the child has to go through when getting an RTI or what that even is. They may not take in perspective on what impact that child has on its family. Teachers should know how to give dyslexic children the best education possible, and this starts out by getting with the family and forming and RTI. Then there are many appropriate tools that may be used to ensure that the children can succeed in their education.

Description of the local problem. (The local problem that prompted the study is clearly defined and is discussed in terms of the local setting and the larger population or education situation):

When I first entered the classroom I would not have suspected many disabilities but after I was able to work with Student A and Student B independently I was able to see their different strengths and weaknesses. Student A is very quiet and prefers to get her work done but is slower at copying notes down and gets easily distracted when copying notes. Therefore, Student A would miss a lot of the notes/lecture that the other students would be able to record. This would be very harmful to Student A in the end because she would not have the materials that she would need in order to be able to study accurately. She would also get bad grades when the teacher would decide to do a “notebook check.” A notebook check is where the teacher goes around and checks all of her

I begin the interview by introduced myself, and explaining the purpose of the interview, I informed the narrator that this interview will be recorded, transcribed and both the disability and interview experience will be presented in the class. I asked if she was comfortable with these conditions, and letting her know if at any time she feel uncomfortable to answer any type of questions, she is under no obligations to answer them. I started the recording and the interview by asking her a brief basic personal information, including her age, where does she live and if she considered herself as disable. Once we established that she considered her slight disable, to better understand why she considered herself disable, and why only slightly, I asked her if she can describe on what she meant. She implied that her learning disability affects her workforce, and her mental disability effects mostly on her social participations. She would make mistakes at work, and having bipolar disorder mean she was easily overwhelmed and may cause her coworkers to avoid her, and when she is depressed, she would avoid interact with her coworkers.

While observing the student with a learning disability, I observed a few interesting qualities that this student had that stood out from the other students. One of the qualities that I observed was that he was quiet. Unlike the rest of his class who would turn around and talk with the kids behind them, he would just sit there and wait for further instructions. Another interesting observation that I made was that my student would be interested in his work, but as time went on he began to lose interest in his work and would need someone to remind him to stay on a task which was one of his accommodations. I found that his ability to become unmotivated was more prevalent when he was taking notes with the class off the Smart Board compared to when the class was in a group discussion and the teacher was asking open ended questions.

Every person deserves an education. It is what shapes us, allows us to grow. As future and current educators or parents, understanding the perspective of persons with disabilities in the classroom is important. Being confident in your own abilities and not being afraid to use the resources available to you.

It is essential that regular classrooms should have equipment to ensure that all, irrespective of age, gender and disability, can enjoy their basic human rights and enjoy learning in class. There are not tools, equipment, materials in classrooms to support the needs of children, therefore the right learning environment may not be provided. The research is to then find out if educational classes aren’t including such provision and teacher training to accommodate special need learners, and if not, why are these not provided.