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Basic Concept om Learning, Mental Ability and Learning Disabilities

• The Process of LearningThere are two main concept in the term learning disabilities.

First concept describe the learning process

Second explain the phenomenon about children who have average or even above average ability to learn but who experience difficultiesin learning.

What is Learning?• Is the process by which experience and

practice result in a stable change in the learner’s behavior.

• Result from efficient teaching that develops the learner’s genetic capacity to learn to the maximum in an environment that is conductive to an effective-learning process.

Stages of Learning

KNOWING2. Proficiency and Automaticity: high rate and accuracy1. Acquisition and 0 to 85% accuracyreversion: 60 to 85% accuracy

USING4. Generalization: uses in novel settings3. Maintenance: high rate and accuracy over time

INVENTING6. Adoptation: creating new uses by adapting learning skills

The “Knowing” Stage of Learning

Acquisition and Revision• Acquisition of knowledge and skills

takes place when the intruction goals and objectives, skills and competencies, strategies and materials match the learning abilities of the student.

• Revision. Correct practive, drill, revies and similar strategies are used with immediate feedback and reinforcement.

Proficiency and Automaticity

• Are determined by the strength of prior learning. When mastery of a skill or concept is attained, the learner moves on the substages of proficiency and automaticity.

The “Using” stage of Learning

Maintenance• The learning of new skills is built on the

skills that are maintained. If the learned skills are not used they will weaken even if they were learned earlier with proficiency.

• Appropriate feedback and reinforcemnt are given to strengthen the maintenance of the skills.

Generalization

• One skill is learned proficiently, it should be availabe for using in any appropriate situation.

Goals of Generalization:

a) For the learner to recogniza a new or different stimulus as a prompt to apply the learned skills

b) To use the acquired skills in various situations, bahaviors, settings and time.

The “Inventing” Stage of Learning

• Adaptation In this last stage of

leraning,the student recognize the need to apply learning skills in situation outside the school.

Measuring of Mental Ability

Another significant concept to understand in teaching children with learning disabilities is the level of learner’s intellectual functioning or mental ability.

Concept 1. Standarized test of mental ability measure intellectual functioning•Standarized test of mental ability have been proven to be the best single predictor of school achievement.

Concept 2: Scores seem to distibuted throughout the population according

to the normal curve

• To discribe how one particular score varies from the mean or average score, the population is divided into units called standard deviation (SD). A standard deviation is a mathemathical concept that refers to average score of all the score in norm sample.

Concept 3. Intelligence testing is not an exact science

• Even though the major intelligence test are among the most carefully develop and standardized of all psychological test, they are still far from perfect.

• Factors affect an individual IQ score Motivation The time and location of administration The inconsistency or bias of the test

administration in scoring reponses that are not precisely covered by test manual

Definition of learning disabilities

• The term learning disabilities was introduced in 1963 by Dr. Samuel Kirk, well-known American special education expert.

• In the Philippines, special education for children with learning disabilities is only in tis early years of implementation.

• Children with learning disabilities have relatively average or even above average intelligence who experience severe learning or academic problems in schools.

• Learning disabilities is a generic term that refers to a heterogenous group or disorders manifested by significant difficulties in the acquisition and use of listening, speking, reading, acting, reasoning or mathematical abilities.

• The group of disorder is heterogenous, that is, there is not only one but several disorder that occur at the same time.

Common Types of Learning Disabilities

Dyslexia Difficulty with reading Problems reading, writing, spelling

Dysclaculia Difficulty with math Problems doing math problems, understanding time, using money

Dysgraphia Difficulty with writing Problems with handwriting, spelling, organizing ideas

Dyspraxia (Sensory Integration Disorder)

Dissiculty with fine motor skills

Problems with hand-eye coordination, balance manual dextenity

Dysphasia/ Aphasia Difficulty with language Problems understanding spoken language, poor reading

Auditory Processing Disorder Difficulty hearing differences between sounds

Problems with reading, comprehension,language

Visual Processing Disorder Difficulty interpreting visual information

Problems with reading, math, maps, charts, symbols, pictures

AD/HD Attention problem Problem with accessing information

IQ Achievement Discrepancy

• The child does not learn knowledge and skills in accordance with his or her potential to learn as measured by a standardized mental ability test. While his or her mental ability is appropriate to his or her chronological age, the child’s performance in school shows that achievement is two or more years below the grade level.

• Learning disabilities is intrinsic to the individual. This means that the learning disabilities are organic, biological, genetic or environmental. Organic or biological factors are traced to the central nervous system particularly the brain. In most cases, causes of learning disabilities remains a mystery.

Three Criteria in Determining the Presence of Learning Disabilities

1. Severe discrepancy between the child’s potential and actual achievemnt

2. Exclusion or absence of mental retardation, sensory impairement and other disabilities

3. Need for special education