Monday, January 21, 2013

How To Effectively Help Children Overcome Their Learning Disability

Dyslexia is a well-known learning disability that occurs when the brain recognizes, processes, and interprets symbols or information in another way. It is a lifelong challenge that many children go through as it prevents them from acquiring the proper skills of reading, writing, spelling, and to some degree, speaking. And oftentimes, such learning disability is mistaken for poor intelligence and also laziness.

Understanding dyslexia will help parents recognize the essential symptoms of the learning disability and this can be a great factor in effectively treating it should specialists confirm such a condition in their child. Once the symptoms are recognized, the family as well as the teachers of the child with dyslexia should come together and think about the best intervention programs that will promote dyslexia treatment.

Dyslexia symptoms in children may include difficulty in pronouncing words, recognizing letters as well as matching letters to sounds, problems with learning and accurately using new vocabulary words, troubles in rhyming, and many more. Since there is no known cure for dyslexia yet, the only solution is to seek literacy programs that are designed to address the many symptoms of the learning disability and help the child overcome certain difficulties associated with it.

Educational tools are generally used as treatment as opposed to medication. Basically, an initial assessment should be conducted to evaluate the child's weaknesses and strengths. Parents should approach a specialist or perhaps an innovative education establishment that are centered on treating dyslexia. Then expert teachers together with assessors will work hand in hand to formulate an individualized education program that will address the child's difficulties in reading, writing, spelling, and speaking. Such intensive literacy program must enumerate in detail the child's particular disabilities along with the specific teaching methods.

Well-structured programs created by professionals with countless experiences with children with dyslexia usually apply a multi-sensory approach that may focus on vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, reading and writing, synthetic and analytical phonics, and phonemic awareness.

When it comes to treating dyslexia, it does not solely depend on the teachers at school, the tutors, and other educators who specialize in the learning disability. An effective treatment of a child's dyslexia should also include the responsibilities of the parents. Having a structured environment at home can definitely motivate a child to work on his or her skills in reading and writing. Parents and other family members can instrumentally reinforce the child's comprehension by helping him or her to maintain focus and also by emphasizing certain lessons.