Our expert tutors can assist students who are experiencing learning difficulties to develop their self-confidence, and reach their academic potential.
Learning difficulty is a term used to describe students who have a reduced ability to acquire knowledge and skills that are considered ‘typical’ for their chronological age. Students can experience learning difficulties for a wide range of reasons.
At Optimise, we understand that students experiencing learning difficulties have unique learning needs and require their lessons to be specifically adjusted and tailored. We also understand that students experiencing learning difficulties require consistent encouragement and affirmative reinforcement to develop their self confidence and positive perceptions of themselves as learners.
Our individualised online tutoring services cater for all learners, including students who are experiencing learning difficulties.
Some Common Learning Difficulties
Dyslexia
Dyslexia has defined by the International Dyslexia Association as: “a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. It is characterised by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition, decoding and by poor spelling.
Many children who have been diagnosed as having Dyslexia are not motivated to read due to the difficulties they experience, and sadly some may even view themselves as non-readers.
Whilst learning the mechanics of reading is much more difficult for students with Dyslexia, once they have learned how to read, they can read to learn which opens up a whole new world to them.
To achieve optimal outcomes for students who have been diagnosed with Dylexia is vitally important for parents to seek specialised support for their child.
Auditory Processing Disorder
Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) describes the inability to process the meaning of sound.
Children who have been diagnosed with APD find it difficult to recognise the subtle differences between sounds, which can have a negative impact on their reading development if left untreated.
There are many support options and resources available to students with APD, and it is very important for parents to organise specialised and ongoing support for their child as soon as a diagnosis of APD has been confirmed. Communicating regularly with their child’s teacher and school is another routine parents of students diagnosed with APD, should implement.
To support their child at home parents can reduce background noise wherever possible, speak slowly and intentionally to their child, giving no more than two directions at one time and write lists or notes for their child to reference. One strategy parents can use to ensure that their child has correctly heard and comprehended what they said, is to ask their child to repeat what they heard. Focussing on and reminding young people with APD of what they are capable of will assist them to develop their self confidence, and a positive attitude towards learning.
Attentional Issues
Learning and attention difficulties can affect a child’s ability to focus. The learning difficulty most commonly linked to attentional problems is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
It is imperative for parents of children who have difficulty focusing and maintaining concentration to communicate regularly with their child’s teacher and school. There are specific strategies and routines that can assist and support students with attentional difficulties. By keeping in close contact, teachers and parents can discuss the strategies and routines they have identified as being the most supportive for the child concerned and these can be implemented at home and at school.
Parents of children who have attentional difficulties can support their child’s reading development at home by including reading as part of the daily routine. Sharing a book, or reading aloud to their child just before bed each night, can help them to relax before going to sleep. Writing letters and/or sight words on card and using these cards to play memory, snap or other games can be useful for assisting children to develop their phonological awareness and vocabulary knowledge in ways that are more active than just reading lists of letters or sight words.
Helping their child to focus on one activity at a time, and encouraging them to stop and listen when they are speaking to their child are other strategies parents can use to assist their child to focus, and maintain concentration. It is vitally important for parents to seek specialised advice and support for their child if they feel concerned about their child’s ability to focus or manage their impulsivity.
Visual Problems
Research reveals that approximately 80% of information that is processed by the human brain, is received via the visual system. Students who have visual problems risk compromising their reading development significantly, if they do not have access to the specialised resources and support they require to support them.
Young students with visual problems who are learning how to read, may not be able to recall different letters or numbers. Their ability to focus on print for long periods can be reduced also, which makes it difficult for them to develop efficient reading stamina, fluency and phrasing.
If a student with visual problems sees words on a page as blurry or double, they need to work hard at seeing the letters clearly, which can impact negatively on their enjoyment of reading and their comprehension skills.
Because students with visual problems spend the majority of their time looking closely at letters and the words they form as they read, they often have difficulty tracking the lines of text-which can result in them missing lines. Using their finger to track text can be helpful, however doing so can lead to the habit of voice pointing, which prevents the skills of fluency and phrasing from being developed.
Research shows that when a visual problem has been diagnosed and corrected, most students develop a love for reading.
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