Also known as Learning Disability (LD)
Take a look at the photo of children. Which one(s) have learning exceptionalities? It’s hard to tell, eh?!
Children with learning exceptionalities are often difficult to distinguish among other children. They are often misunderstood and teased early in life due to their inadequacies in school demands for specific ways of learning. These children often demonstrate obvious intelligence, yet their learning and social behaviours are often inconsistent which contributes to the difficulty teachers have in recognizing the real challenges these children are having in the classroom. It is common for these children to be accused of being unmotivated and lacking effort. It is very important to notice the signs, the challenges, they are having early on so that they can find the support they need in the classroom. If not, then increased frustration and low self concept may develop and often these children will end up hating school. That being said, children with learning exceptionalities often have a strong determination to overcome their limitations when they find the appropriate support.
Learning exceptionalities are due to genetic and/or neurological factors or injuries that alter the brain’s function and processes towards learning. Over 50 percent of the students served by special education fall into the category of learning exceptionality. These students may display mild to severe challenges with reading (dyslexia), writing (dysgraphia) and math (dyscalculia), including reading decoding and comprehension, problem solving, working with numbers and receptive and expressive language. They may also struggle with organizational skills, social perception skills, taking the perspective of others and social interactions. Note that attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD), in most provinces, also falls under this category of exceptionalities or the category of emotional/behavioural disorders (EBD). Many of these students have greater strengths in other areas such as creativity, ability to see patterns and solve problems in their head, innovative thinking, strong persistence, story telling, building things and many more unique interests and abilities. These children have great potential, as all children do, to thrive in life and contribute to our society. Many famous people such as Albert Einstein (scientist), Wayne Gretsky (NHL hockey player), Steve Jobs (Apple inventor) and Walt Disney (storyteller and entertainment) had a learning exceptionality.
Inclusion is important for the greater success of these individuals, as well as the success of the other students they share the classroom with. Using differentiated learning will help inclusion of this group immensely and serve the other students just as well that may not be diagnosed with learning exceptionality but have their own unique needs too around how they learn.
Facebook Challenge Activity:
● Try decoding the sentences below. Many dyslexia people have to do this every time they read something.
Not easy to decode, eh? It takes time and imagine if no one else saw it this way and only you did?
Sentences decoded:
Resources:
There are many resources out there about learning exceptionalities. Here are a few:
What I wish teachers knew about dyslexia-- Children sharing their thoughts. (8 min)
Dyslexia and the brain-- Short informative video about Dyslexia. (9 min)
See dyslexia differently-- Easy short child friendly video about dyslexia (3 min)