Learning
Disabilities and IQ
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Learning Disabilities and IQ
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Learning disability
is a central nervous system (CNS) disorder that affects
the learning functions of an individual. If a person
has a learning disability, the course of gathering
and processing information becomes a very difficult
task. This also means that information is hard for
the brain to retain. Since this disorder inhibits
the brain to mince and store different information,
retrieval, and even recollection, is also affected.
When information is not properly stored, the CNS finds
it difficult to transmit signals to translate them
into physical actions such as writing and speaking.
The concern of learning
disabilities among children is growing even in a fully
developed country such as the United States.
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Because of its growing cases
among children in the US, the urgent need in finding alternative
education patterns gave way to the passage of Public Law
101-476, or the Individuals with Disabilities Education
Act (IDEA) in Congress.
IDEA generally
addresses that learning disability is a basic psychological
process disorder when it comes to written and spoken language,
and understanding them. This manifests in a person's faulty
ability to think, listen, write, read, speak, spell and
even do logical or mathematical computations. The term learning
disability also defines scopes of perceptual handicaps,
dyslexia, developmental aphasia, minimal brain dysfunction
and even brain injury. However, mental retardation; hearing,
visual and motor disabilities; and emotional disturbances,
are not defined by IDEA as learning disabilities. Environmental,
economic or cultural disadvantages are not also within IDEA's
learning disabilities definition.
Contrary to
common perceptions, learning disabilities are not synonymous
with a person's IQ or intelligence quotient. Children with
average intelligence can be afflicted with learning disabilities
too. The severity of this condition is evident in a child
even in early grade school years and becoming more apparent
as the child reaches higher educational levels. A student
with learning disability finds it manageable to obtain better
grades in early schooling, but gradually finds keeping up
with school works more taxing in the presence of longer
assignments, note taking, and lecture analysis, while advancing
to secondary school level.
To make the
learning process effective for students with learning disabilities,
there must be a strong support service in educating them,
along modification in the teaching process and right accommodation.
Support network means parents, professional staff, special
education teachers, general classroom teachers, resource
room teachers are in close cooperation. Effective strategies
include the use of simple vocabulary terms and short sentences;
clear and precise instructions and expectations; making
use of tape recorders, computers for school exercises and
activities, and other self-correcting materials that give
direct feedback as classroom-teaching tools; practicing
students' listening skills thru oral exams; and engaging
in skill-enhancing social activities at home and school.
Students suffering
from learning disabilities and its problems are not always
immediately diagnosed that is why 35% of these students,
not including students undetected with learning disabilities,
are already out of school when they reach secondary level.
This further pushes researchers to find better ways for
early diagnosis of learning disabilities than the current
method of "discrepancy diagnosis". This tool measures the
discrepancy in a child's IQ score or aptitude and the child's
actual school performance measured by an achievement test.
This is somewhat a "retro" diagnosis since this technique
allows children to fall behind school before diagnoses are
made. Researchers are doubling up their efforts to find
ways that are forward looking to do away with students'
default and catching up position in education to qualify
for services,
Currently, research
is on its full circle to study more facets of learning deficit
in one child. Experts are also determining the role of language
disorders in learning disabilities, especially in reading,
in children afflicted with early language disorders. Studies
are also touching up on genetics. Identifying the symptoms
early snags bigger chances of intervention. IDEA may have
paved the way in understanding learning disabilities but
there are still more to explore.
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