Introduction For any human, education is the most valuable tool intheir life. It is the means of a secured employment as well as an independentlife for an individual. However, not all children have the same learningefficiency. Children who face problems with learning might have some learningdisabilities.The neurologically base processing problems are knownas learning disabilities. Such problems can interrupt the basic learning skillssuch as reading and writing as well as higher level skills such as long-termmemory, short-term memory and attention.
Learning disabilities are usually misinterpretedas problems with intelligence and motivation. It is important to realise thatpeople with learning disabilities are not dumb or lazy but they only receiveand process information differently. In 1980s, the National Joint Committee on LearningDisabilities (NJCLD) define the term learningdisability as: “Learningdisabilities is a general term that refers to a heterogeneous group ofdisorders manifested by significant difficulties in the acquisition and use oflistening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning, or mathematical abilities.These disorders are intrinsic to the individual, presumed to be due to centralnervous system dysfunction, and may occur across the life span. Problems inself-regulatory behaviors, social perception, and social interaction may existwith learning disabilities but do not by themselves constitute a learningdisability. Although learning disabilities may occur concomitantly with otherhandicapping conditions (for example, sensory impairment, mental retardation,serious emotional disturbance), or with extrinsic influences (such as culturaldifferences, insufficient or inappropriate instruction), they are not theresult of those conditions or influences.” (Hammill,D.
D., Leigh, J. E.
, G. M., & Larsen, S. C. (1981). A NEW DEFINITION OFLEARNING DISABILITIES . Learning Disability Quarterly ,4. Retrieved January 20, 2016, fromhttps://shareok.
org/bitstream/handle/11244/25555/10.2307.1510735.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.)History of Learning DisabilitiesThe term learning disability was first formulated and popularised by Dr.
Samuel Kirk in 1963 in Chicago. He was apsychologist who mainly worked with parents of children who had minimal braindysfunction and strephosymbolia. He suggested the parents to start referringtheir children as having learning disabilities instead of these cumbersome terms.
(Niolon, R. (n.d.). What is a Learning Disability? Retrieved December 12, 2013,from http://www.psychpage.
com/family/ld.html)During the late 1960s, learning disabilities gained great awareness fromthe general public and congress. This led to the US Office of Educationcreating a federal definition for consisting a part of learning disabilities.This committee was chaired by Dr. Samuel Kirk. In 1968, Dr. Kirk headed thefirst annual report the first annual report ofthe National Advisory Committee on Handicapped Children in which he wrote:”Children with special learning disabilities exhibit adisorder in one or more of the basic, psychological processes involved inunderstanding or in using spoken or written languages.
These may be manifestedin disorders of listening, thinking, talking, reading, writing, spelling, orarithmetic. They include conditions which have been referred to as perceptualhandicaps, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, developmentalaphasia, etc. They do not include learning problems which are due primarily tovisual, hearing, or motor handicaps, to mental retardation, emotionaldisturbance, or to environmental disadvantage.” (Introduction to LearningDisabilities. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.
naset.org/2522.0.
html)Symptoms of learning disabilities are listed belowaccording to the age group:Signs and symptomsof learning disabilities: Preschool age· Problems pronouncing words· Trouble finding the right word· Difficulty rhyming· Trouble learning the alphabet, numbers, colours,shapes, days of the week· Difficulty following directions or learningroutines· Difficulty controlling crayons, pencils, andscissors, or colouring within the lines· Trouble with buttons, zippers, snaps, learning totie shoesSigns and symptomsof learning disabilities: Ages 5-9· Trouble learning the connection between letters andsounds· Unable to blend sounds to make words· Confuses basic words when reading· Slow to learn new skills· Consistently misspells words and makes frequenterrors· Trouble learning basic math concepts· Difficulty telling time and remembering sequencesSigns and symptomsof learning disabilities: Ages 10-13· Difficulty with reading comprehension or mathskills· Trouble with open-ended test questions and wordproblems· Dislikes reading and writing; avoids reading aloud· Poor handwriting· Poor organizational skills (bedroom, homework, deskis messy and disorganized)· Trouble following classroom discussions andexpressing thoughts aloud· Spells the same word differently in a singledocument(G. S., M. S.
, & J. S. (2017, December). LearningDisabilities and Disorders.
Retrieved from https://www.helpguide.org/articles/autism-learning-disabilities/learning-disabilities-and-disorders.htm)AimsTo study thedevelopment of learning disabilities in adolescentsObjectives· To study the emotional well-being of adolescentwith learning disabilities· To compare adolescents with learning disabilitiesto the adolescents with no learning disabilities.
Review of LiteratureTraditionally, the learning disability fieldhas given most of its attention and resources to the issues of service deliveryand teacher training. However in the recent years, research and validationactivities are given increased emphasis. (Deshler, D. D., Schumaker, J. B., Alley, G.
R., Warner,M. M., & Clark, F.
L. (1982). Learning Disabilities in Adolescentsand Young Adult Populations: Research Implications Part 1. Institute forResearch in Learning Disabilities.)In 1980s, a lot of children were referred as learningdisables and were sent for the tests to prove the same and pursue specialeducation. This was thought as the teacher’s incapability or reluctance toteach academic diversity in one classroom.
(Fuchs, D., Mock, D., Morgan, P. L., & Young, C. L. (2003).Responsiveness?to?intervention: Definitions, evidence, andimplications for the learning disabilities construct.
Learning Disabilities Research& Practice, 18(3), 157-171.)Learning disabilities not only affect anadolescent’s academic life but also factors like their self-esteem andaspiration. Adolescents with learning disabilities are found to have depressionand suicidal tendencies due to the difficulties faced by them in the society.
Oncomparing the adolescents with learning disabilities to adolescents with nolearning disabilities on the basis of academic self-concept, attribution ofadolescents, anxiety, depression and suicide it was noted that adolescents withlearning disabilities have more negative set back of mind as compared to theirpeers.( Huntington, D. D.
, &Bender, W. N. (1993). Adolescents with learning disabilities at risk? Emotionalwell-being, depression, suicide. Journal of learning disabilities, 26(3),159-166.) BASIS ADOLESCENTS WITH NO LEARNING DISABILITIES ADOLOSCENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES Academic Self- Concept On the basis of Perception of Ability Scale for Students, adolescents with no learning disabilities scored significantly higher than the adolescents with no learning disabilities In the Perception of Ability Scale for Students, adolescents with learning disabilities scored lower than adolescents with no learning disabilities. This proves that the academic self-esteem of adolescents with learning disabilities is lower and usual and it may affect their all emotional well-being.
Attribution Researches show that adolescents with no learning disabilities have better success and failure attribute with helps them in maintaining a healthy self- esteem. After several researches if has been found that the adolescents with learning disabilities face many difficulties in their secondary school. Researches demonstrate that these adolescents have internally higher attribute in both success and failure. But these internal attributions for failure at difficult tasks could lead these students towards fairly severe self-criticism. Anxiety Students with no learning disabilities had competitively higher confidence which led to having lower level of anxiety when having to appear in front of their fellow beings. It was found that students with learning disabilities had their trait anxiety levels higher than usual.
Also the anxiety level was correlated to their disturbed sleep due to their fear of appearing amateur in front of their fellow beings. The research also stated that there might be more severe consequences when it came to dealing with anxiety for these students. Depression These students were not found to be as depressed as the students with learning disabilities. These students were found to be at severe risk of being depressed as compared to their peers due to their low self-esteem and high level of anxiety. This was found to be very alarming for both the teachers as well as the parents. Suicide There has been a quick rise of suicide among the adolescents in the past few years. The reason for this was mainly peer pressure and high social expectations.
But the increasing suicidal rates in these students were comparatively lower than students with learning disabilities. These students were found to have abnormally low self-concept. Due to this, they were found at a higher risk of suicide or parasuicide. Along with low self-concept there were other reasons found of increasing suicide rates such as cognitive deficit, inaccurate social perception and stressful situation with their peers. Tabular representation of the comparisonbetween adolescents with learning disabilities and adolescents with no learningdisabilities on the basis of 5 factors.
( Huntington, D. D., & Bender, W. N. (1993).
Adolescentswith learning disabilities at risk? Emotional well-being, depression,suicide. Journal of learning disabilities, 26(3),159-166.)The article Subtypes of Learning Disabilities in Adolescents and Adults had the hypothesisthat if the classification scheme developed forthe subtyping of learning disabilities in children is used population ofadolescents and adults then it would be easy to subtype into more specific andsimilar group for cognitive functioning and achievement.
The authors dividedtheir subject population into three groups- arithmetic disability (AD), readingdisability (RD), and reading and arithmetic disabilities (RAD) and comparedthem amongst and with a comparison group with normal achievement (NA) on differentcognitive and achievement measures. (Shafrir, U., & Siegel, L.
S. (1994). Subtypes of learningdisabilities in adolescents and adults. Journal of learningdisabilities, 27(2), 123-124.)Fromthe comparison, following were the findings:· Each group varied from the other on the testsof spelling, memory, reading, and various cognitive measures· Reading Disabilities and Reading and Arithmetic Disabilities groupsshowed a deficiency in vocabulary, spelling, and short term memory.· In several tasks the Reading and Arithmetic Disabilitiesgroup performed more poorly than the other groups; · The Normal Achievement and Reading Disabilities groups performedbetter than the Arithmetic Disabilities and Reading Arithmetic Disabilitiesgroups on a visual-spatial task. (Shafrir, U., & Siegel, L.
S. (1994).Subtypes of learning disabilities in adolescents and adults. Journal oflearning disabilities, 27(2), 123-124.
)Children andadolescents’ are assessed for reliability and validity based on four approachesincluding models based on aptitude achievement, low achievement, intra-individualdifferences and response to intervention. Based on the mentioned approaches, itwas found that the reliability of the models based on aptitude achievement andlow achievement are identifies with severe psychometric problems. The aptitudeachievement and intra individual differences had validity problems. Whereas themodels for response to intervention are more likely for addressing both validityand reliability. When speaking of relation to the treatments, models for lowachievement and response to intervention have the solidest evidence base andrelation to the treatment. This type of model is mainly implicated for clinicalassessments of children with learning disabilities. ( Fletcher, J.
M., Francis, D. J., Morris, R.
D., & Lyon,G. R.
(2005). Evidence-based assessment of learning disabilities in childrenand adolescents. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 34(3), 506-522.) Discussion The above researches help us in understanding and viewinglearning disabilities from a different view. Adolescents with learningdisabilities not only face difficulties with their socio-academic life but alsowith their self-esteem, attribution toward self and self-confidence. The risksof suicide and depression have increased at an alarming pace and have been themajor concern for the teachers and parents.
In the 1980s, teachers were foundto be unable or unwilling to teach in a classroom with huge academic diversity.The lack ofacceptance in the society has affected the emotional well-being of an adolescentwith learning disabilities.
