A Learning Wall

Learning brings in many positive elements that can be utilized even in the simplest and most complex life situations. This is why the process should be kept in a patent and continuous manner. But there are times when hindrances may come along and cause difficulty for the learner.

The wall that can block a person’s path to learning can be called as learning disability or disorder. This is a case in which an individual has difficulty absorbing the needed concepts which is primarily caused by an unknown component. This unknown component targets the part of the brain responsible for receiving and processing information.

Furthermore the disorder can bring about problems that would render the person unable to learn on the same page as that of another individual without learning disability. It must be made clear that such disability is not indicative of the degree of intelligence the person has. It’s just that people with such disorder do not have the innate capacity to perform particular tasks on their own or in conventional settings.

There are two types of learning disabilities. These are information processing deficits and specific learning disabilities. Let’s take a closer look at the two.

Information processing deficits are identified with four stages of information processing utilized during the learning process. These are input, integration, storage, and output. Input is the information captured via the different senses like visual and auditory perception. Integration is the phase wherein perceived input is categorized, interpreted, or related to previous experiences. Storage is mainly associated with memory and output comes out in the form of language and muscle activity.

Sensory deficits can give the learner a very hard time to interact with the environment. Shapes, sizes, and position of objects are irrelevant when there is impaired visual perception. Sounds are hard to discriminate whenever auditory acuity is in jeopardy. There can be sequencing problems when temporal perception is not working in full gear.

Integration problems can lead to poor performance when it comes to memorizing sequences such as that of stories and general time frame. Although understanding of new concepts may take place there is difficulty is coming up with a generalized form of learning wherein facts are connected together to form a bigger picture.

Memory problems are common within the short-term or working memory. This will demand engaging in repetitive memorization which is more than usual in order to absorb new materials. People with inability to produce appropriate outputs in spoken and written from may have to deal with difficulties responding to a question. These individuals will also have a hard time performing gross and fine motor skills such as climbing, running, or riding a bicycle.

Problem areas in the information processing aspect can also be manifested in several specific learning disabilities. Certain individuals can even manifest more than one of these difficulties. This condition is termed as comorbidity or co-occurrence of learning disabilities.

Reading disability or what is commonly labelled as dyslexia is the most common learning disability. The common manifestations of this disorder are phonemic awareness which demands for the ability to break up words into component sounds and difficulty with matching letter combinations to particular sounds. Writing disability involves speech and language disorders like dysphasia and aphasia. There are also impairments in spelling, handwriting, composition, and organization of ideas.