What is it about ?
A learning disability is a problem that occurs during early childhood in learning skills such as reading, writing, arithmetic, speaking, language, and even movement (motor skills). If left untreated, they can lead to more serious problems later or slower progress during the early years of school. The Belgian nursery education system provides for pre-school education. These are steps taken for the early notification and management of potential problems.
The most common learning disabilities are:
- the dyslexia (reading problems) and dysgraphia (writing and spelling problems); the two disorders are often associated.
- the dyscalculia : the child has difficulty understanding mathematical concepts such as the order of numbers and the perception of space.
- the dysphasia : the child has speech or language learning problems. Most often, this disorder is noticed in the early stages of a child’s development. If your child doesn’t use words by age two or form sentences by age three, he may be suffering from dysphasia. The resulting language delay can have consequences in adulthood, manifesting in the form of language or comprehension problems.
- the dyspraxia : the child has a particular motor awkwardness, characterized by poor coordination of movements; this disorder has nothing to do with intellectual retardation or a general medical problem.
- the habitual motor clumsiness : This disorder is often associated with a larger developmental problem, such as ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).
What is their frequency?
During the 2014-2015 school year, the psycho-medico-social centers (PMS) supported around 44,000 young people under the age of 21 with specific problems, including learning disabilities.
Overall, we can say that:
- more than 10% of children have problems learning to read, and nearly 6% of adults still have difficulty reading. Dyslexia is often inherited; reading problems are therefore also often encountered among close relatives. More than a third of children whose parents have dyslexia face serious problems learning to read.
- about 10-15% of students have difficulty learning arithmetic, and about 3% of these children suffer from a severe form of dyscalculia.
- about 3% of the population suffers from dysphasia. The risk of language delay is greatest when other family members also have language problems.
How to recognize them?
Assess your child’s skills and determine if he is ready for school. Knowledge and physical skills can vary greatly between two children of the same age: some may start school a year earlier; others a year later. If you are in doubt as to your child’s ability to start school, seek advice from a school readiness specialist.
How is the diagnosis made?
A learning disability can be isolated or in combination with other disorders. A team of different experts is needed to assess the situation by looking closely at the learning performance and development of the child. In particular, they consider the presence of other underlying conditions explaining the learning disability (for example, hearing or visual impairment). Collaboration with the school is very important. The help of a speech therapist can usually be helpful.
What can you do ?
School readiness assessment
It can be difficult to delay your child’s entry into school. Indeed, the school can stimulate the development of the child. A specialist in school readiness can advise you on this matter. There are solutions aimed at providing additional support in nursery education. However, it is important to take into account the learning needs of the child.
Child support
“Reasonable accommodations” in mainstream education systems are sufficient for most learning disabilities. By “reasonable accommodation” we mean stimulation of the child, private lessons or the use of a laptop computer equipped with specific software for dyslexic children.
If the child is not encouraged and motivated early enough and appropriately to put in extra effort, learning disabilities can lead to other, bigger problems or slower progress in school. In case of problems in learning to read, for example, the accompaniment should ideally start at the start of the first year of primary school, or just before.
If the child’s language development is normal, but he has difficulty remembering the names of the letters around the age of 6, it is advisable to start reading exercises a few months before entering the school. primary school, especially if there are already cases of dyslexia in the family.
Special education
Children with very serious learning disabilities often cannot be supported in mainstream education, but most often have to be referred to special education.
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