There are many causes for the children to be in need of a special education. These include children with mental and emotional problems, physical disabilities, visual or audio impairments etc. Special care is needed for gifted children as well as for those with learning disabilities. To adjust the learning process to the specific needs of the student, proper identification and assessment is needed. But first of all, the definition of learning disabilities should be provided. Each child’s development has its individual specifications and some develop faster than their peers. However, it is the development that is essential for learning.
Just like physical development can be measured and monitored, the same way the learning progress can be monitored and assessed. Primarily, attentive parents would be the ones who might notice certain abnormalities and will call for a professional help. In early development the parents should pay close attention to the age when the child starts talking, his fine motor skills, and the way a child plays.
There are various warning signs of developmental challenges and learning disabilities. Those may include forgetfulness, not being able to rhyme words, troubles with learning colors, numbers and shapes, misplacing the letters or averting them, slow speech development, difficulty in following directions. Sometime restlessness in class and inability to effectively communicate with peers and establish friendships might be a sign of disability. Also the assessment of a child’s reading progress helps make a conclusion whether a child has a learning disability. When learning to read children encounter various challenges and their reading speed and comprehension develops in different strides, however, steady progress is expected.
When the parent start having concerns about any signs of abnormality of development or difficulties the child have interacting with other the child should be evaluated by professionals. Early intervention allows children with disabilities to receive specialized attention and training that will allow them to be up to par or even ahead of their peers.
The professional will use any needed standardized tests to ensure the proper assessment of the child’s progress. If the IQ test results will be high and performance tests results will be low that would be a sure sign the student is not reaching his full potential when learning, which may depend on what type of learner he is, or a possible learning disability.
The importance of proper diagnosis and early intervention of a learning disability is hard to underestimate. Misdiagnosis may result the child being placed in the wrong classroom setting. A learner with special need may present a challenge for the teacher of a “mainstream” class. He may also suffer from low self-esteem and his learning progress may be hindered. Misdiagnosis may lead to emotional and even physical trauma. If case of the medication prescribed, wrong diagnosis may lead to heavy side effect and worsening of the child’s condition.
With successful early intervention the child may overcome the disability and will reach his full potential and success in life.