Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities: Theories and Approaches

Introduction: Defining Learning Disabilities

This paper explores the concept of teaching students with learning disabilities. The concept of learning disabilities is defined, and then the constructivist and behaviorist approaches to addressing the problem are presented, followed by a conclusion on how best to improve the quality of education for children with learning disabilities.

Pastor and Reuben (2002) define a learning disability as a disorder that affects one or more of a person's basic psychological processes involved in understanding or using spoken or written language, which may manifest as an inability to speak, listen, read, write, or perform mathematical calculations. According to Pastor and Reuben (2002), this definition is the one provided by federal legislation in the regulation of educational services in public schools. Learning disability can therefore be regarded as a neurological disorder that affects the ability of an individual's brain to process and respond to various types of information. It can also be understood as an unexplained difficulty in acquiring basic academic learning skills in an individual whose intelligence is average or above average.

A student who has learning difficulties does not necessarily suffer from sensory problems such as hearing impairment or blindness, yet may still struggle to keep pace with others in their age group in learning functions and participation in regular, day-to-day activities. It is worth noting that a learning disability is never a single disorder but rather encompasses a large group of disorders.

The U.S. Office of Education (1977) defines learning disabilities as disorders affecting psychological processing that arise as a consequence of deficiency in at least one of many academic skills. A child who has been given this label does not necessarily suffer from mental retardation, major physical disabilities, or behavioral disorders. Lerner (2003) indicated that a child with a learning disability has difficulty in various processing skills such as memory, perception, visual processing, auditory perception, and thinking. This in turn leads to problems in mathematics, reading, oral language, writing, and study skills, as well as difficulties with self-esteem, self-control, and attention, as noted by Mercer (1997).

Issues, Causes, and Available Approaches

Whenever an individual experiences a learning disability, clear differences may exist between their level of achievement and the general level of expectations, along with various difficulties they face while executing their daily lives. These difficulties in learning and achievement may manifest across several phases of development, and affected individuals also frequently exhibit difficulties in emotional and social skills.

According to Brown (2003) and Geary (2005), learning disabilities can affect an individual's basic skills of comprehension, listening, reading, writing, reasoning, speaking, and calculating. Because a learning disability is not a disease but is likely a genetically inherited or genetically caused disorder, and because there is no known cure, it can be effectively managed through identification, modification, and accommodation. The process of identification involves recognizing the condition in individuals so that adequate support can be provided by parents, doctors, and teachers. Complicated cases may require the involvement of a learning specialist. Several kinds of interventions may be provided depending on the type of learning disability, the age of the person, and the severity of the condition. Individuals with learning disabilities have the right to exclusive assistance in the classroom and at school as a whole. If employed, they must be provided with special educational and employment benefits, as noted by Thompson (1998).

The Legislative Perspective

With regard to legislation, persons with learning disabilities are protected by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1997 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990. These laws were established so that individuals are entitled to all forms of assistance and protected from all forms of discrimination. Another important piece of legislation is the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 (UK), which discourages discrimination on the grounds of disability (Thompson, 2001).

Teaching Approaches: Constructivist and Behaviorist Theories

The approaches to teaching children with learning disabilities are grounded in the theories of constructivism and behaviorism.

Constructivist Theory and Its Application

The use of instruction based on constructivist theory is applied in several general education classes across various educational institutions (Brooks & Brooks, 1999). One of the main ideas associated with constructivist theory maintains that learning must be meaningful and related to practical, real-life situations, as noted by Grobecker (1999). For instance, when teaching children how to make change in a given currency such as the dollar, it is best to provide them with actual money rather than figures alone. Children with learning disabilities are likely to benefit from the constructivist approach.

Duhaney and Duhaney (2000) pointed out that teachers who employ the constructivist approach base their instructions on the knowledge and foundation that students already have. This means that to introduce a new idea, they must first discuss with students some related ideas that the students are already familiar with. This practice is very helpful for children with learning difficulties given their low self-esteem and repeated experiences of failure. Other techniques such as brainstorming and concept mapping are also recommended by Ellis (1997).

Another principle underlying the constructivist approach is a deep focus on main ideas and relationships among key ideas within a given subject area (Grobecker, 1999). Applying this principle means that a teacher must stress the connections among the more important concepts that form the main idea of a given discipline, rather than teaching isolated bits of knowledge.

Duhaney and Duhaney (2000) also proposed the use of active learning as an important element of the constructivist instructional approach. When students are actively involved in a given lesson, they tend to learn and retain more of the presented information (Harris & Graham, 1996).

Behaviorist Theory and Its Application

The other approach to teaching children with learning disorders is the behaviorist theory, which has in most cases been referred to as direct or explicit instruction. Mercer (1997) pointed out that even though the application of this approach in general education settings has been met with considerable criticism, it has been shown to be effective for children with learning difficulties, and its positive aspects are therefore worth considering.

One of the strategies associated with the structured approach to student teaching involves breaking down available tasks into smaller, manageable teaching segments (Grobecker, 1999). This simplification process is very important for students with learning difficulties because they are easily overwhelmed and frustrated when their learning process is complicated, causing them to give up prematurely (Lerner, 2003).

Another important component of the direct instructional technique is modeling (Olson & Platt, 2000). This means that a teacher must be able to explain and demonstrate each and every stage of the task being taught.

Grobecker (1999) pointed out that the explicit instructional approach involves practicing and reviewing new learning activities until mastery is achieved. Olson and Platt (2000) noted that explicit teaching entails reliance on structure and a systematic process of planning.

Conclusion

The academic and processing deficits associated with learning disabilities make teaching such students a complex undertaking. It is therefore important for instructors to understand the strengths and weaknesses of various teaching approaches, such as constructivist and behaviorist techniques, in order for effective learning to be achieved. A combination of approaches should be adopted alongside strong legislative frameworks so that people with learning disabilities have free and fair access to education.

References

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Thompson, N. (2001). Anti-discriminatory practice (3rd ed.). London: Palgrave.

U.S. Office of Education. (1977). Assistance to states for education of handicapped children: Procedures for evaluating specific learning disabilities. Federal Register, 42, 65082–65085.