Understanding Students with Learning Difficulties

1. Understanding Students with
Learning Difficulties
Mr. Bansi
MA , m.PHIL, UGC–neT JRF, PURUSUING Phd.
Assistant Professor
Dev Samaj College for Women
Ferozepur city

2. • Definition:- Education Queensland (1996)
states that “students with learning difficulties
as those whose access to the curriculum is
limited because of short term or persistent
problems in one or more of the areas of
literacy, numeracy and learning how to learn”
• The term “Learning difficulties” was first used
in the 1980s in the UK.

3. Introduction
• Learning difficulties, known as learning
disabilities in North America, are conditions
that impact on an individual’s ability to gain
knowledge and skills at the same rate as his or
her peers. They may be due to a mental
handicap or a cognitive disorder.
• Having a learning difficulty does not make
someone less intelligent, it just means they
learn in a different way that can render
traditional classroom activities problematic.

4. Types of learning difficulties
Dyslexia
Dysgraphia
Dyscalculia
Dyspraxia

5. Dyslexia
Dyslexia is one of the most common learning
difficulties. There are different types of
dyslexia but the most common type is
phonological dyslexia which affects the way
people break words down into their
component parts. This has consequences for
decoding in reading and can also cause
spelling and writing difficulties.

6. Dysgraphia
Children who struggle with dysgraphia have a
hard time with writing and may produce text that
is illegible. Writing can be labored, taking a long
time to complete and causing frustration and
stress. The spatial orientation and planning
aspects of writing can be particularly challenging
for people with dysgraphia.
Children with dysgraphia are often eager to avoid
handwriting, particularly in front of their peers.

7. • Dyscalculia
As opposed to dyslexia and dysgraphia which
are both language based learning difficulties,
dyscalculia has to do with processing numbers.
Children with dyscalculia can have trouble
performing simple arithmetic. They may not
know how to approach a math/maths problem.

8. Dyspraxia
• While not always grouped under the learning
difficulties/ learning disabilities header, dyspraxia
is a motor skills difficulty that can also impact on
academic success. That’s because it affects the
planning and coordination of muscles, including
those of the hand.
• As gripping the pen or pencil in written language
production is painful, writing may contain more
spelling errors and less text as a result. In cases of
verbal dyspraxia/ apraxia of speech, the muscles
of the face, mouth and throat are affected, limiting
spoken language production.

9. PROBLEMS FACED BY STUDENTS
WITH LEARNING DIFFICULTIES
 Inferiority complex
 Lack of understanding
 Adjustment problem
 Isolated and segregated
 Feeling of Extra burden
 Insecurity
 Lack of expression
 Introvert nature
 Shyness

10. Solutions and strategies
for improving the students
with Learning Difficulties

11. Co-operative learning
Peer tutoring

12. • Size of class
• Teaching aids
• Restriction of time
• Attention to physical needs