Assisting Learners With Learning Disabilities In Education: Challenges And Solutions

Assessing the nature of the problem

You are the senior ETD practitioner in an organisation that is committed to the development of its people. One of your educators comes to you with a concern that one of the learners in her group may have a learning disability. Discuss what you would do to assist this learner, in terms of:

1.Assessing the nature of the problem

2.Adapting your existing learning programme to meet the learner’s needs

3.Managing and monitoring the learner’s progress.

Education system is growing its reach and prospects day by day due to the growing needs of the individuals and the type challenges they face while adopting different learning styles. Along with the complexities, problems are also increasing in the education system. There are a lot of challenges faced by any institution while learning or training a disabled person. However, the problem has been overcome in a great way by various initiatives on this ground as and the introduction of much legislation to support the disabled people to get better learning opportunities. Disabilities differs from person to person such ad auditory, Dyscalculia, Dyslexia, non-verbal and other. Thus, depending on the type of disability a person is facing, a learning style is designed for them (NILD 2018). This paper discusses about the problem of disability on the learning initiatives. Further it suggest some ways by which the different problems affecting the workplace aided learning of Lucy and Lennox can be helped for their better development.

Assessing the nature of the problem

Learning disability is growing challenge faced by educational institutions in today’s world. Disability in learning can be due to physical problem or mental problem. Disability caused in learning due to mental problem is caused due to weakness in the brain to function or understand anything quickly. This is also known as neurological dysfunction that occurs in the brain that makes a person difficult to receive information. Moreover, people with such difficulties appear to be a challenge for educational institutions for teaching in the same manner as they do for individuals without such disability (NILD 2018). However, individual with such disability is string in some subject or the other. They are just backed up by their weakness such as inability to grasp certain things (Independentliving 2018). However, the problem in the case of Lucy and Lennox is the problem with the low level of education they have. They are slow learners and require help in certain aspects of learning but they need the help of the different aids of learning for the disabled.

Adapting learning programs to meet the learner’s needs

Legislation affecting learners with special needs

The learning and the training of the adults in South Africa is under the Adult Education and Training Act 52 of 2000 which was amended in 2010 grants and looks after the rights of the adults able or disabled to gain access to the proper education in the country. the various disabilities and psychological barriers to learning like dyslexia and slow learning come under the purview of the act (Saqa.org.za, 2010). The case of Lucy and Lennox is under this act they are slow learners and need special attention to aid their learning because they had limited early education opportunities. The different aspects of their learning assessment showed their disability in grasping certain learning process. The law gives them the right gain access to the education and the aid they require (du Plessis, P. 2013).

Use of standard tests

Along with the legislation certain tests were also put forward to test the level of disability or learning issue a person is facing. One of the famous standard tests is the Psychometric test that the institution carries out to check the level of the issue the individual is facing and the effort they will require to teach them. Standardize testing is done before delivering appropriate instruction to the individuals (Fairtest2018). According to the law about 95 percent test participation is necessary for the individuals with disabilities.

Example of Psychometric Test: Psychometric test will be undertaken for testing the verbal reasoning and specific skills of the individual. This will be done by taking up aptitude test, verbal reasoning and numerical reasoning. This will help to judge the capability of the person with respect to reasoning and adapting skills. Individual will sit for the test within a given time frame and their capability will be judged on the basis of number of answer given within the given time.

Impact of disability on learning

There are different types of disabilities faced by individuals that affect their learning capabilities over the time. The academic disabilities involve individuals to struggle in their school and learning capabilities. The disability affects all areas of their schooling such as language processing difficulties, memory issues and writing difficulties as seen in the case of Lucy and Lennox. The individuals with such difficulties take time to process information in their brains. Thus, such challenges make them lag behind other individuals that do not have any such difficulties to face. Other than this the individuals with learning disabilities finds an imbalance in their ability levels (NILD 2018). They feel tension and stressed about the fact that they are unable to learn like the other individuals. This makes them frustrated and depressed thereby affecting their self -esteem and performance.

Managing and monitoring the learner’s progress

Learning strategies for learning impaired

There are certain programs and styles that are efficient for the institutions to deal with the disable individuals. The common styles that are used and are appropriate for the disabled individuals are breaking the learning materials into steps, regular feedback between studies, including audio learning in class, using of diagrams and graphics for teaching them new words and involve interaction with the individuals. These strategies are already existing in the inclusive education can will prove to be helpful for disable people in a great way. This is because disable individuals require much attention and interactions to help them learn things (Iansyst 2014). The strategies help in the development in the learning abilities of the individual who are slow in learning and have a problem in grasping the topic taught to them. Moreover, the aided learning also hastens their learning process by outcome focussed learning strategies according to the individual needs of the individuals. Secondly, break learning is also an effective way to help the individuals deal with their problem. It will give them ample time to take up information in their brain. With all these techniques, taking up interactive sessions with such individuals will be an effective way to know the areas where they lack and guide them accordingly (Morgan 2018). This shows that already existing learning techniques and styles are adequate for guiding the individual with such impairment.

Learning aids or learning disabilities problems

Learning Disabilities	Learning Aid
Dyslexia	·         Identify the strength and weakness of the child ·         Help the child to overcome the problem all by their own by gaining confidence, self-awareness and  resilience ·         Change the learning school of the child so that they can have better resources
Non-Verbal Learning Disabilities	·         Train the faculty to deal with the individuals carefully ·         Take up regular classes of teaching them new signs ·         Shorten the amount of homework so that they get time to progress ·         Carry out social skills training ·         Reward the individual for the efforts

Possible sources for guidance

Along with such guidance, institutes should also offer other additional sources to the individuals to deal with the problem. The sources can be internal or outside the learning institution. The institutions can also take up interactive sessions with the parents of such individuals to let them know certain ways by which they can guide them to help their child (Independentliving 2018). The interactive session helps the learning processes of the adults with disabilities as in the case of Lucy and Lennox as they have developed level of ambient learning processes. The different learning abilities are also hindered by the type of learning processes and the ambient learning used in this case helps the individuals to achieve their learning outcomes.

Another approach that inclusive education program can take up is remedial classes for the individuals having learning disabilities as they are the special individuals and require special attentions. Remedial classes offer more individual instruction to the individuals rather than offer them classes within a full class system. This helps in the improving of the learning process of the individuals. Moreover, it also helps in making the learning process more suited to the job profiles of the individuals and their learning processes.

Types of Learning Disabilities

It is now necessary to monitor and manage the program that has been set for the individuals with learning disabilities. The managing program that educational institutions can use for such kinds of individuals is taking up learning in various tiers in which individuals will move from one tier to other after qualifying the previous one. This will help them to take care about the learning benefit that they are getting from the program. This also requires them to take up regular exams with the individuals and interacting with them to know their weakness. Moreover, the progress of the individuals can also be measured by taking up time based skill test of the individuals. This will help the teachers to realise the time improvement they have made while grasping new things. Games is also a nice way to monitoring the learning skills these individuals have adopted. Moreover the teachers can also choose twenty words and ask the individuals to write meaning of those words within a time limit. Take up video classes and ask them to identify the words or number shown in the video. In case of mathematical problems ask the individuals to solve the sums within a set time limit. Thus monitoring the progress of individuals with problems of disabilities will always require them to complete task within a time frame to judge their grasping capabilities.

Milestone	Number of classes	Training	Expected outcome
To overcome Dyslexia	Two week that is 10 days	Take reading classes and language training classes by asking the disabled individuals to talk on some topic or the other by taking time	To become a fluent reader by the end of the training. At least speak fluently for one minute
To overcome Non-verbal Learning Disabilities	Three week that is 15 days	Take up action classes in which individuals will be asked to recognize the actions done by the trainer	Understand actions and signs to some extent

Conclusion

From the above analysis it can be deduced that the individuals with learning disabilities faces a lot of issues in in taking new things compared to other individuals. They require special attention rather than studying in a full class. For the purpose individual classes should be arranged for the individuals with such problems. Moreover, rather than just taking lectures in classes, teachers should take up more audio visual classes. This will help them grasp things by seeing and listening to new things. For mentoring purpose, the trainer should give them various activities from time to time and ask them to finish it within time limit. Time limit should be set every test they take for these individuals as it will help them to judge the time a individual is taking to learn new things and the improvement they have made from before the training program

References

du Plessis, P. 2013. Legislation and policies: Progress towards the right to inclusive education. [online] Scielo.org.za. Available at: https://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2225-71602013000100006 [Accessed 18 Jan. 2018].

Fairtest.org. 2018. Standardized Testing and Individuals with Disabilities | FairTest. [online] Available at: https://www.fairtest.org/standardized-testing-and-individuals-disabilities [Accessed 18 Jan. 2018].

Iansyst 2014. How teachers can help individuals with learning difficulties in the classroom. [online] Iansyst.co.uk. Available at: https://www.iansyst.co.uk/news/assistive-technology-dyslexia/how-teachers-can-help-individuals-with-learning-difficulties-in-the-classroom/801749865 [Accessed 18 Jan. 2018].

Independentliving.org. 2018. South Africa’s Integrated National Disability Strategy. [online] Available at: https://www.independentliving.org/docs5/SANatlDisStrat4.html [Accessed 18 Jan. 2018].

Morgan, H. 2018. Successful Strategies for Teaching Individuals with Learning Disabilities. [online] Learning Disabilities Association of America. Available at: https://ldaamerica.org/successful-strategies-for-teaching-individuals-with-learning-disabilities/ [Accessed 18 Jan. 2018].

NILD 2018. What is a Learning Disability? Impact on Individuals – NILD. [online] NILD. Available at: https://nild.org/learning-disabilities/ [Accessed 18 Jan. 2018].

Saqa.org.za. (2010). ADULT EDUCATION AND TRAINING ACT 52 OF 2000. [online] Available at: https://www.saqa.org.za/docs/legislation/2010/act52.pdf [Accessed 25 Mar. 2018