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Children
with Special Needs -> What Causes Learning Disability
When parents
get to face the fact that their child has a learning disorder,
they cannot help but ask how their child got it, why,
and what caused it.
Scientists
are in the process of studying the causes of learning
disability (LD) as they are also in the pursuit of finding
ways to prevent it. To date, there is actually no known
exact cause of learning disability amidst chasing down
probable and contributing factors leading to LD. There
are simply too many matters to consider before pinning
down its cause with detailed accuracy.
Mental health
experts stress this to parents who insist on looking at
the past for reasons that could have led their child to
this condition. It is strongly advised that the family
accept the situation, look positively forward and help
find ways to improve the child's condition instead.
Scientists
once believed that all learning disabilities rooted from
one specific area of the brain. Further research backed
by the NIMH proved that the causes are far more complex
and varied than arising from a single neurological malfunction.
Research showed that different regions of the brain encounter
difficulty to piece together the information making it
hard to "intellectualize" them.
A leading theory
gaining popularity explains that learning disabilities
emanate from slight disturbances in brain structures and
functions. Oftentimes, these disturbances are believed
to begin prior birth.
Errors affecting
the development of fetal brain
As the fetal
brain develops from a few universal cells during pregnancy,
it grows into a new and complex structure known as neurons.
These are billions of intricately interconnected nerve
cells with specialized structures. It is during this cell
evolution that things may go haywire in the developmental
process that can alter or affect the formation or interconnection
of the neurons.
Brain stem
forms in the early pregnancy stages which controls breathing
and digestion, the propellers of life. What goes to develop
later is a deep ridge that separates the thinking part
of the brain or cerebrum into two - the right and left
brain hemispheres. Other areas follow to develop associated
with the senses such as sound, sight, and those with thinking,
emotion and attention.
Nerve cells
grow and move to their necessary places to form brain
structures forming networks along other brain parts. Information
is shared through these networks transmitting them to
other regions of the brain.
Development
of the brain is very vulnerable to disturbances during
the entire pregnancy. The fetus may not survive when disruption
happens in the early stage, or if it happens to survive,
the borne infant may suffer various disabilities and even
mental retardation. If disturbances occur on the later
stages of pregnancy where cells have started to develop
accordingly, these disruptions may leave errors on cell
location, connection and composition. Some scientific
experts are convinced that these errors affecting fetal
brain development are the culprit of learning disorders.
All brain structures are present during birth.
Cracking
brain development interferences
NIMH scientists
and other fellow researchers are engaging in long hours
studying the brain development's natural process in the
hopes of understanding the complex process and structure
better when disruption or irregularities arise. By gaining
full understanding of the process, scientists can start
to identify and pinpoint exactly where things will go
wrong.
In the course
of these studies, other factors are being looked into
such as genetic issues, abuse of substances, problems
encountered during pregnancy and harmful toxins that can
affect brain development.
Genetic
Issues
It is a fact
that learning disabilities have a tendency to run in the
family that makes it a genetic issue. Children with difficulty
in reading when it comes to hearing sounds of words usually
take after a parent experiencing related difficulty. But
of course, the parent's difficulty already takes a different
form in the child. This can be seen in a parent with a
writing disorder having a child who has expressive language
disorder. It goes to show that specific learning disorders
are unlikely to be inherited directly. A slight brain
dysfunction of a parent can lead to a child having full
blown learning disability.
Aside from
genetics, learning disability may actually be influenced
by the environment of the family seeming the condition
to be hereditary. If a parent has expressive language
disorders, tendency is they do not communicate with their
children well, or their language is distorted, they end
up in less talk. This makes the child unable to acquire
a sense of good language while growing up, making the
child appear learning disabled.
Substance
Abuse: Alcohol, Smokes and Drugs
Pregnant women
are strongly advised not to take drugs, drink alcohol
and smoke tobacco or cigarettes as these will affect the
baby's health since these are directly passed onto the
fetus. The U.S. Public Health Service warns against the
dangers of this unhealthy practice.
Data show that
mothers who smoke during pregnancy are more prone to delivering
smaller babies less than 5 pounds. This little weight
makes the baby susceptible to health problems. LD is one
of them. Alcohol also shrinks the chances of a baby to
be born normal since alcohol can distort neurons that
are just starting to develop. Fetal alcohol syndrome is
a result of heavy alcohol intake during pregnancy. This
is a condition that causes intellectual impairment, physical
defects, low birth weight and hyperactivity in a child.
Alcohol can also affect the child's learning, memory and
attention. It is better to steer clear from alcohol during
pregnancy.
Conceiving
women doing drugs especially cocaine in smoke-version
called "cracks" are posing extreme dangers to their baby.
These drugs can affect the development of the child's
brain receptors. Research shows that drug abuse causes
receptor damage. The receptors are responsible for transmitting
signals to the brain from our sensory motors directing
us to react to our environment. If the receptors are damaged,
there is difficulty in understanding sounds, speech and
letters. This makes researchers believe that learning
disorders and even ADHD are associated with faulty or
damaged receptors.
Pregnancy
and delivery problems
One possible
factor that can be attributed to learning disability is
pregnancy complications. There are cases that the pregnant
woman's immune system gets to react to the fetus and treats
it as an infection. This can lead to disruption in the
child's formation of brain cells forming in the wrong
portion of the brain. Another factor is when the umbilical
cord gets twisted around the baby's neck temporarily interrupting
the supply of oxygen during delivery. This sudden absence
of oxygen can impair the baby's brain functions that can
lead to conditions of LD.
Environmental
Toxins
A year after
a child's birth, production of neural networks and new
brain cells still occur. A one-year old child's cells
are still prone to development disruptions.
As researchers
explore relative factors leading to LD, their studies
also look into environmental toxins that can be detrimental
to a child's brain development. The presence of harmful
toxins found in the environment like lead and cadmium
are still the highlights of neurological studies. Cadmium,
an element used to create steel products, can mix with
the soil where we grow food, while lead, a former component
in gasoline and paint, can still be traced in water pipes.
The National Institutes of Health sponsored a study to
see the effects of exposing animals to lead. Rats exposed
to lead showed significant changes in brainwaves reflecting
slow learning ability. Lead exposure caused the animals
to exhibit prolonged learning problems even when the lead
has long been taken out.
Children with
cancer undergoing radiation and chemotherapy can also
be subject to learning problems since their cells get
affected in the process. LD is more exhibited in children
with brain tumors going through radiation.
Children
with Special Needs -> What Causes Learning Disability
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