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Special Education

Notes (1) They cannot sustain attention for the required amount to time.
(2) They are unable to attend to the relevant and ignore the irrelevant. They may be attracted to
every stimulus that surrounds him.
(3) They can be diverted easily form one topic to another.
(4) They put excessive attention to unimportant details while disregarding the essentials (attends
to the page number than to the printed matter or the picture on the page).
(2) Memory Problem of LD : Many LD children are passive learners and do not use strategies
(rehearsal, mneumonics). These children are poor task planners and organisers. They display
certain characteristics as regards remembering.
(1) Disorder of memory involve difficulty in the assimilation, storage, and retrieval of information,
and may be associated with visual auditory, or other learning processes.
(2) The LD children have difficulties in reproducing rhythm patterns, sequence of digits, words,
or phrases.
(3) They have difficulty in revisualising letters, words or forms.
(4) Both the short-term and the long-term memory of the LD child are poor.
(5) They fail to see the relationship between his present and past experience.
(3) Reading Problem of LD : Nearly 85 to 90 percent of learning disabled children have reading
problems and therefore, have poor academic achievement. These include micpronunciation,
skipping, adding or substituting words as well as problem in memory, reversing letters or
words and blending sounds together. They display both oral reading and comprehension
problems.
In case of learning disabled children one finds visual and auditory spellers. The visual spellers
write right letters in wrong orders-WTARE-Water. The auditory spellers try to sound outwards:
Posishun-Position. There are also omission errors or substitution errors. These defects continue
to adolescence and are responsible for learning deficits.
(4) Reading Disability : Children suffering from reading disability are unable to read. There are
two forms of this disability. In a mild form, the affected person has difficulty in reading, but in
severe cases of the impairments, there is a total loss of the ability to read. This is sometimes also
known as ‘Word Blindness’. Children with the mild form of the disability are already in the
general classroom. If identified early, proper help can be given and integration with their normal
peers is also easier. The severely affected child will need intensive remedial exercises.
(5) Writing Disability : The affected children are not able to write spontaneously. There are two
forms of this impairment-the mild and severe. Children affected by the mild form have difficulty
in learning to write legibly. They study in general schools. Their problem can be corrected if
identified early and provided timely help. Those affected by the severe type of impairment can
copy writing without distortion but they cannot write spontaneously. They are identified by
their inability to learn to write. The severely affected child need remedial exercises and are thus
hard to integrate in the academic areas.
(6) Problem in Comprehending Communication : Children with this disability have a problem in
communication through writing, speaking or reading. Those affected by the mild form of this
impairment have difficulty in understanding both the spoken and written words. The child finds
it difficult to understand even signs and gestures. These children can be integrated if corrective
measures are given in time. Otherwise, linguistic problems of articulation and fluency may develop.
The severely affected child is unable to understand speech and written material, nor can he learn
to speak, read and write. He is unable to communicate even through signs and gestures. Such
children are difficult cases for integration. They need intensive remedial exercises.
(7) Problems of Numerical Ability : The affected child has problems incalculations, even simple
arithmetic, because of an inability to manipulate number relationships, Numerical inability is
again of two kinds-mild and severe. Numerical problems seem difficult even if they are very
simple for a normal child to do. Children with the mild form of this disability may already be

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