Learning disorders in children: characteristics

Learning disorders in children can range from difficulties or delays in writing, reading, arithmetic, or early childhood motor skills. Don't immediately accuse him of being lazy, let alone stupid. Indeed, not all children can easily accept the lessons they get at school. The following is a complete explanation of learning difficulties, starting from the definition, characteristics, causes, and how to overcome them.

What are learning disorders in children?

Children who have learning difficulties, it does not mean that your child is not smart and does not have the ability at all to accept the lessons given.

A child's learning disorder is a problem that affects the brain's ability to receive, process, analyze, or store information, thereby slowing the child's academic development.

Further, Helpguide explains that children's learning disorders are related to toddler development problems in the aspects of reading, writing, mathematics, thinking, listening and speaking.

However, as a parent, you shouldn't be disappointed just yet. In fact, children who have this disorder tend to be smarter and smarter than normal children.

What causes learning disorders to occur in children?

Most learning disabilities occur due to disruption to the child's brain development, whether the child is in the womb, at birth, or when he is a toddler.

Several things that can cause a child to experience impaired brain development, namely:

• The mother experiences complications during pregnancy.
• There was a problem during childbirth, which made oxygen unacceptable to the baby and disturbed his brain.
• As a toddler, the child experiences severe pain such as meningitis or trauma to the head.
• Genetic factors from families who have learning difficulties.
• Physical trauma is like an accident that interferes with the child's learning process.
• Psychological trauma, such as childhood violence that affects brain development.

Even so, until now experts do not know exactly what causes this learning disorder to occur in children.

What are the types of learning disorders in children?

There are many types and types of learning disorders that can be experienced by children, here are some of the most common disorders, namely:

Learning disorders in reading (dyslexia)

Launching from Healthy Children, reading disorders are one of the most common learning disorders in children.

Children who have trouble reading can imagine letters, but have difficulty combining words with different sounds.

Most of the learning disabilities in reading related to difficulty in recognizing basic words and understanding the textbook.

Dyslexia is a form of learning disorder in terms of reading and writing skills. Dyslexia is a learning difficulty in children that makes it difficult for them to write, read, and spell.

Some of the common symptoms experienced by children with dyslexia are difficulty processing and remembering new things, difficulty pronouncing new words, including the language development of toddlers in learning foreign languages.

The characteristics of a child who is dyslexic

Quoting from the Mayo Clinic, there are several characteristics of children experiencing dyslexia according to age. For children under three years, namely:

• It's a bit difficult to pronounce something
• Slow talking
• Difficulty remembering things from movies or things he likes
• Has difficulty learning the basic letters (alphabet), difficulty distinguishing or recognizing colors
• Difficulty distinguishing between similar words, or even similar letters (such as b and d)

If the learning disorder occurs in a school-age child, possible signs of dyslexia are:

• Difficulty remembering numbers with more than one digit
• Children will have difficulty reading, spelling, and writing
• Children will have difficulty learning foreign languages
• Difficulty following directions; right or left
• When you do something, especially homework, your writing or pattern will be less neat
• It's hard to find words to answer other people's questions
• Difficulty distinguishing letters or words

If the learning disorder occurs in a teenager or older person, possible signs of dyslexia are:

• Difficulty pronouncing what was read
• Often mispronounce names or words, use words that are not quite right
• Difficulty understanding a writing or story
• Difficulty summarizing the story
• Difficulty learning foreign languages
• Difficulty memorizing
• Difficulty retelling a story or event

The severity of the condition varies from child to child, but the condition will become clearer as the child begins to learn to read.

Exercises to help dyslexic children

There are several exercises that can be done at home to help children with learning disabilities in reading or dyslexia, namely:

Using block letters

Arranging a word with colorful toy blocks in the shape of letters can help children to connect sounds with letters.

To improve your little one's practice, you can categorize different colors for groups of vowels and consonants, red and blue, for example.

As they arrange words, ask them to spell out the sounds of the letters, then ask him to say the whole word clearly when he has finished composing the words.

Read, compile, write

With a sheet of cardboard, make three columns: Read, arrange and write. Then, provide markers and blocks of colorful letters.

Write down the vocabulary you want to practice in the Reading column and ask your child to look at the letters that make up the word. Then, your little one will arrange the words in stacked columns using block letters.

Finally, ask him to try writing the word down in the writing column while reading it aloud.

Create a vocabulary wall

For words that are frequently seen or used in a complete sentence, for example “I”, “at”, “to”, “from”, print these words in large and colorful sizes. Then stick them in alphabetic order on the walls of your child's room.

Helping to recognize a number of vocabulary words can help children's cognitive development.

Impaired writing ability (dysgraphia)

Learning disabilities in terms of writing skills are almost the same as reading. The difference is that children have difficulty composing sentences, arranging paragraphs, using grammar, punctuation, and correct spelling in written form.

If the child has verbal or pronunciation problems, they are more likely to have problems with their writing and math or numeracy skills.

This disorder is related to ADHD or behavioral disorders that occur in children. They also have difficulty writing good and correct writing. Sometimes the writing cannot be read because it is not clear.

Dysgraphia, known as writing difficulties. A child who experiences this will find it difficult to even hold a pencil or pen to write.

Other signs that can be seen from learning disorders in writing skills are:

• The child shows a dislike for drawing or writing activities.
• It is difficult to write sentences in a good and correct form.

You can consult a doctor or psychologist for proper treatment.

How to train a child with dysgraphia

There are several ways to train children who have dysgraphic conditions or learning disorders in writing, namely:

Undergo therapy

Reporting from the Mayo Clinic page, therapy is very useful for children who have learning difficulties. For children who have dysgraphia and at school he needs written exams, give therapy to improve hand and eye coordination.

You can train children by taking notes on a laptop while learning to type well.

Using drugs according to doctor's recommendations

Medicines are used when doctors see a child experiencing severe depression or anxiety because of a learning disorder. These drugs are used for children who are hyperactive to improve the child's ability to concentrate at home.

Change habits

Apart from using the medicines your doctor prescribes, you can also change your habits.

Some changes that you can make, such as changing toddler eating patterns and schedules, taking vitamins, exercising eye movements, and using electronic devices to help children write and read.

Impaired numeracy (dyscalculia)

Learning difficulties in terms of counting are characterized by the child often making mistakes for basic math.

For example, the child has difficulty working on non-aligned columns for addition or division. Difficulty calculating simple addition or subtraction and remembering numbers.

In medical terms, counting disorders are called dyscalculia. Dyscalculia is the inability of a child to count.

The signs of dyscalculia will vary from person to person, but most children with dyscalculia cannot recognize numbers.

When they grow up, they will find it difficult to do simple calculations and even remember numbers, so that children experience learning disorders.

Exercises to help your numeracy skills

Handling children with dyscalculia is not easy. The following are some recommendations from experts that are useful to help understand children with dyscalculia:

• Create a specially designed study plan
• Make it up games or math-based learning games
• Often invite children to learn mathematics even from the simplest

Other ways that can be applied to help children with dyscalculia:

• Let the child count by hand or scribble on paper
• Use paper or a lined book. This helps to keep columns and numbers on the correct lines.
• Use music when studying math.
• Find a math tutor who can help.
• Draw a math problem.
• Played games that has to do with math.

Even though it feels difficult, don't give up easily so that your little one can take math lessons slowly.

Impaired motor skills (dyspraxia)

Impaired motor skills are diagnosed when a child has significant developmental problems that interfere with daily activities.

Motor skills disorders are characterized by coordination between limbs that is not going well. In their teens, children with this disorder are not good at sports.

One of the motor disorders that is often encountered is dyspraxia (dyspraxia). Dyspraxia is a disorder that occurs in the motor coordination of children, such as coordination of hand or leg movements.

Here are some signs of dispraction from three years of age to school age.

Learning disorders in motor skills in three year olds:

• Difficulty using cutlery and prefer to use hands.
• Cannot ride a tricycle or play with the ball.
• Being late in being able to use the toilet.
• Dislikes puzzles and other composing toys.
• Children talk late until they are three years old.

Dyspraxia from pre-school to elementary school age:

• Often bumps into people or objects.
• Difficulty jumping.
• Being late in using your dominant hand.
• Difficulty using writing tools.
• Trouble closing and unbuttoning.
• Difficulty pronouncing words
• Difficulty interacting with other children

Characteristics of dyspraxia at middle school age (SMP and SMA):

• Avoid sports lessons.
• Difficulty exercising.
• Difficulty following commands that require hand-eye coordination.
• Trouble following instructions and remembering them.
• Unable to stand for a long time.
• It is very easy to forget and often loses a lot of things.
• Difficulty understanding other people's non-verbal language.

Some of the symptoms of this type of learning disorder are that the child becomes sensitive to light, taste, or smell, it is difficult to move the various senses of his body.

How to help a child with dyspraxia

The symptoms of this learning disorder in the coordination of body movements can be observed since children are 3 years old, but most of the cases are officially diagnosed at the age of over five years.

The doctor may also check for other neurological conditions to make sure that the child's coordination is due to dyspraxia.

If a child is known to have dyspraxia, there are several things you can do to help him with his activities. Among others:

• Occupational therapy to improve activity skills, such as using tools and writing
• Talk therapy to train the child's ability to communicate more clearly.
• Perceptual motor therapy to improve language, visual, movement and listening and understanding skills.

In addition to therapy with a doctor, Some of the ways you can do at home to help children with dyspraxia are:

• Encourage children to actively move, by playing or light exercise such as swimming.
• Playing puzzles to help the child's visual and spatial perception skills.
• Encourage children to actively write and draw with writing tools such as pens, markers and colored pencils.

You can also invite children to play ball throwing to help eye-hand coordination from learning disorders.

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