Detecting, Examining, Evaluating And Preventing Learning Difficulties

Introduction to the problematics of learning difficulties

The learning process has always involved overcoming obstacles and eliminating difficulties in individual and collective study. Beginning with the second half of the XXth century, the problematics of learning difficulties entered a new stage, through the dissociatiation of the field of learning difficulties from that of special education. If until the 1950s - 1960s, learning difficulties were associated with the term “intellectual deficiency”, the term subsequently proposed to designate the sphere of disorders related to acquiring knowledge and obtaining certain competencies was that of “learning disability”. Initially, the concept of “learning difficulties” was similar to that of “school difficulties” and designated “the difficulties encountered by some students in assimilating knowledge and forming competences” (Stefan, 2006; p.90). Recent specialized literature mentions the unanimous opinion of experts that learning disorders refer to those difficulties that present a certain constant, are based on organizational deficits or the lack of knowledge tools that foster learning (Vrăsmaş 2007). The first attempts to define the field of learning difficulties are attributed to US psychologist and educator Samuel Kirk (1904-1996) who, in his work titled “Educating Exceptional Children” (1962), put forward the following official definition: “A learning disability refers to a delay, a disorder, a slow development in one or more processes of speech, language, reading, writing, arithmetic or other school subjects, resulting from a psychological disability caused by a possible cerebral dysfunction and/or emotional or behavioral disorders. It is not the result of mental deficiency, sensory deprivation nor of social or educational factors” (Rosan, 2015, p. 245). The National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities (NJCLD) in the USA proposed the following definition of the phenomenon:

“Learning disabilities is a general term that refers to a heterogeneous group of disorders due to minimal dysfunctions of the central nervous system, manifested by significant difficulties in the acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning, mathematical or social skills; learning difficulties should not be understood as a direct consequence of mental, sensory, emotional, behavioral or attention disorders, unfavorable social or environmental influences, even if these conditions and influences also lead to learning problems” (Rosan, 2015, p. 246).

The vast range of learning difficulties can be approached from three different prisms of thought (Hussar & Stan, 2013, p.149):

• learning problems encountered by some children in the schooling process - when we state that they are not interested in learning and getting good school results;

• specific difficulties/deficiencies (disabilities) - which represent the subject of study of special psycho-pedagogy;

• general/acategorical learning difficulties, that may occur to any child regardless of their knowledge and learning style, from a perspective that brings all children together, not just those who are considered to be deficient.

Children who exhibit learning disorders are those who show a significant educational discrepancy between their estimated intellectual potential and their level of performance.

Children’s performances are measured by standardized tests that are applied and measured individually, through activities such as reading, writing, mathematics. Their results are below those expected in terms of age, intelligence quotient and school education level. We can therefore affirm that the discrepancy is associable with the disorders manifested throughout the learning processes, that may be related to possible CNS dysfunctions, but are not a consequence of mental retardation, cultural or educational impairment, severe emotional disturbances, sensory impairment. A clear delimitation must be made between actual learning disabilities (specific), which are the result of mental disabilities inherent to the individual, and learning disorders induced by misguided educational approaches or specific social perceptions, or by the manner in which the students are perceived by the people around, thus generating the shaping of a weak self-esteem and mistrust in their own forces, and therefore exerting a major influence on the personality of the child. Even when students exhibit certain cognitive limitations or medical issues that make learning harder, the difficulties they encounter and the educational requirements vary according to the attitudes and expectations of others.

When a child with proper physical development and health status registers lower learning performances than other children at the same chronological age, parents and teachers should consider the possibility of a learning difficulty.

Taking into consideration that we are talking about a series of disorders in the sphere of a child’s learning capacity, highlighted by poor performances in activities such as writing and reading, mathematical computing and communication, with a significant impact on everyday activities and establishing interpersonal relations, an early assessment of such problems can prevent subsequent occurrences of anxiety manifestations, lack of self-trust or loss of motivation for learning.

Early signs of learning disorders can be identified since preschool even by the family, but often there is a tendency to conceal or deny the child’s problems with the hope that time will solve them.

Once the child starts school these learning problems become more acute, and the child is unable to cope with the rigors and pace of the various activities, while the tasks become more and more complex, demanding and diverse.

The inability to learn is generated by certain brain malfunctions that play a role in the assimilation, processing, reproduction and use of information. It may be generally encountered in early and middle childhood, but as well in adolescence and adulthood, and manifests itself throughout the entire lifespan, marking significant difficulties in the acquisition and use of one or several of the following instrumental functions: phonematic hearing, pronunciation of sounds, reading-writing, reasoning or math skills.

The learning process is not realized through an endeavour marked by success alone, but also involves setbacks, continuous comebacks, overcoming various obstacles and barriers, resuming efforts, recalibrating problem-solving strategies, giving up temptations or removing disturbing factors that come from the outside. It requires a sustained voluntary effort, focus, tenacity to achieve the learning goal and to overcome the obstacles imposed by solving learning tasks.

Even with students who constantly achieve good learning results it is possible that, under the influence of different internal or external factors that have a significant impact on them, moments of setback may occur, weak concentration, poor organization of the learning activity, with negative effects upon the quality of the obtained results.

Children are not always able to go through all of the learning sequences and experiences proposed by teachers, and this may lead to gaps, incomplete knowledge, skills and competencies that are insufficiently formed and developed, difficulties in going through learning materials, assimilating content, solving exercises and problems, establishing interpersonal relationships.

In the sphere of psycho-pedagogical disciplines, the field of learning difficulties is permeated by current tendencies towards “change”, as a necessary requirement for the fulfillment of the fundamental objectives of the current education and training process, where both partners of the educational act, both the instructor and the instructible, are subjected to the same process.

Overcoming the obstacles proposed by the tasks and exigencies of the teaching activities represents an important prerequisite for the accumulation of new experiences, in order to successfully accomplish the new objectives.

Detecting, examining, evaluating and preventing learning difficulties

One of the largest problems, frequently cited by teachers working with school-aged children, continues to be correctly identifying which children exhibit real learning difficulties, as there is a tendency to include children with learning difficulties in the category of those with mental disabilities and direct them towards special schools.

At the core of learning difficulties lie dysfunctions of the nervous system. However, neurological examination may or may not indicate such dysfunctions. For this reason, essential elements in the diagnosis of learning difficulties are considered to be achieved through psychological assessments (observation, anamnesis, experiment, analysis of activity output etc.), education, or language evaluation.

Correctly diagnosing learning difficulties is a high-finesse process that involves a psychological, educational, medical and social expertise that can clearly delineate the subject’s symptoms from those related to other particular disorders that affect learning abilities.The field of learning difficulties is differentiated by that of other school dysfunctions, covering a specific area of ​​issues requiring specific educational interventions.

Vrăsmaş (2007) defines evaluation as “a complex process of identifying particularities, capacities, abilities and skills, measuring and comparing them, a process that requires time and various tools, and that is realized with the aim of an intervention that may develop skills and remedy certain functional limitations” (p.62).

In respect to the assessment of children with special educational needs, we can state that this is a complex activity, which correlates numerous data obtained through anamnesis, medical diagnosis, psycho-pedagogical diagnosis, knowledge of environment factors (especially the educational environment) as well as personal factors (related to each person individually), and it is oriented in four major directions:

• medical assessment - clinical examination, laboratory and paraclinical investigations are carried out in order to establish a complete diagnosis;

• psychological evaluation - by reference to existing standards, it is carried out through specific tests and tools that investigate: psychic processes, intelligence, skills, personality in its entirety;

• educational assessment - involves establishing the child’s level of knowledge and degree of assimilation, as well as correlating this knowledge with the child’s aptitudinal and intellectual potential; it is in this stage of the evaluation that the identification of the special educational requirements is carried out;

• social assessment - considers the personal factors and those related to the environment in which the child develops (Hussar &, Stan, 2013, p.162).

When speaking about learning difficulties exhibited in school, we can point out several types of evaluations, such as (Vrăsmaş, 2007, pp. 63-64):

• depending on the tools used, two forms of assessment are distinguished: formal and informal. Through formal evaluation, a series of tests can be employed to assess intelligence, abilities, learning, understanding, motor skills, chromatic and auditory discrimination, language skills, behavioral and social adaptation. Informal evaluation can be carried out through procedures and techniques that include systematic observation, analysis of work samples, tasks, errors, interviews, questionnaires, analysis of different records etc.

• depending on how different actions are taken, the evaluation may be static or dynamic. Basic static assessment emphasizes what the student actually does, while dynamic assessment is based on development potential and investigating the psychological processes involved in learning.

The main functional or operational domains in which learning difficulties manifest themselves, as described by Hodder, Waligun and Willard (Vrăsmaş, 2007, p.49), have been identified within the fields of motor coordination, perceptual motoring, visual and auditory perception (deficiencies or inabilities to structure perceptual-motor basic schemes, spatio-temporal orientation), written, read and nonverbal language, intellectual development (lack of control over, even absence of functional features of thinking such as complexity, adaptability and flexibility, differentiation, judgment and symbolic thinking, reflection), the inability to operate with mathematical symbols and problem-solving schemes, as well as social and personal factors.

Throughout their activities, teachers can identify certain signals in students’ behavior and school evolution, manifested in different learning situations, which would allow an early detection and diagnosis of potential development disorders.

Among these atypical signals or attitudes that can be identified in school students, we can highlight (Vrăsmaş, 2007, pp.71-72):

• sinuous school evolution, leaps, stagnation or setbacks;

• high difficulties of compliance/responsiveness to the psycho-pedagogical requirements at school, repeated refusal to perform certain tasks in the classroom, deficiencies in the development of an own learning strategy (not forming a personal learning style);

• the presence of medical conditions;

• difficulties in the sensory-perceptive sphere, inclined head, very often blinking, teary red eyes;

• skipping of lines or words when reading;

• symptoms of hyperactivity or hypoactivity, sometimes hypoglycaemia;

• poor concentration capacity;

• motricity issues (fine or global), body scheme and laterality;

• ambidexterity after the age of 6, clumsiness;

• inability to jump or climb, difficulty in going down the stairs and maintaining a one-leg standing position;

• inability to jump rope;

• difficulties in closing buttons and tying laces;

• inability to follow oral instructions;

• difficulties in realising usual gestures/activities;

• language disorders (written - about 80% of the cases, written and oral), frequent spelling mistakes, poor communication ability, lack of knowledge of concepts (meaning and form), vocabulary poverty, inversion of letters or words, difficult calligraphy, poor pencil position;

• difficulties in acquiring mathematical language with its specific spatial and temporal notions, confused space and time orientation;

• symptoms of affective or behavioral disorders (low self-image, choleric accesses, hostility, excessive impulsivity, disorientation and closing in oneself etc.);

• social difficulties (tendency to play with younger children, difficulty in establishing relationships with the people around, avoiding new social situations, egocentrism);

• anxious reactions to the school environment.

The impact of learning disorders on the course of the education process

Although the mechanisms through which a child develops a learning difficulty are not known, it is believed that learning difficulties are caused by difficulties of the nervous system that affect the reception, processing or communication of information.

On the background of increased diversification of psycho-pedagogical, psychiatric and psychological intervention techniques, more and more specialists maintain that learning difficulties are treatable.

The main causes that lead to learning difficulties can be classified as it follows (Vrăsmaş, 2007, p.58):

a. biological and physiological:

• premature births (in approximately 7 - 8 cases out of 10, preterm babies develop learning deficiencies), difficult births with prolonged labor, incidents;

• morphological, structural immaturity;

• metabolic problems (Hussar & Stan, 2013, p.161), calcium, magnesium, vitamins deficiency;

• hormonal problems;

• sensory thresholds at the limit of normality;

b. psychological:

• intelligence quotient close to limit intellect;

• perception problems, spatial-temporal-rhythmic disorientation, poor body scheme, insufficient segregation of object and background in perception, precarious shape consistency or quantity conservation;

• affective - emotional imbalances, motivational deficiencies;

• general psychological immaturity, excessive timidity, chronic inferiority complexes;

• school phobia, lexo-phobia and grapho-phobia;

c. environmental: divided into four subcategories: school, family, social and relational.

1. school related causes (theoretical and practical overload of academic work, oversize of the educational content, fast pace, extended school stress, school failure etc.);

2. family related causes (lack of affection within the family, family disinterest for school work, lack of an organized program regarding the child’s learning and living conditions, extreme exigency, overprotection, poor financial conditions and low socio-cultural level, dysfunctional families, tense, aggressive family environment, alcohol abuse within the family unit, bilingualism, trilingualism, negative role-models, excessive punishment, mental shocks, acute crises, repeated intra-family disputes);

3. social causes (relocation to a different city or country, excessive distance to school, high-risk neighborhoods marked by antisocial behavior, juvenile delinquency, drug consumption).

4. relational causes (communication and group integration difficulties).

Learning disabilities vary from the simplest of difficulties to the highest degree of disability and represent a varied picture, determined by an individual combination of the instrumental disorders involved. For this reason, in the absence of psycho-pedagogical intervention, any slowdown, stagnation or lack of progress in learning can turn into school failure.

The impact of learning difficulties on the learning process is to be analyzed from two points of view:

1. from the student’s perspective , characterized by reticence towards school tasks, anxiety, tendency towards isolation and a conduct seeking to take refuge (copying, giving formal answers, convenient excuses);

2. from the teacher’s perspective, characterized by the cognitive dissonance between the student’s learning potential and the constant performance level, the formation of stereotypes about the student’s attitudes towards school tasks, the formulation of generalizations on deviant behavior. It is necessary to eliminate the various effects associated with didactic situations (the “Hallo”, “Pygmalion” effect etc).

Learning difficulties can be related to the lack of intellectual development and the lack of skills, but they are often the symptom of school inadaptation or the effect of a didactic methodology that does not take into account the students’ individuality.

If not detected and treated in due time, learning difficulties can have a “snowball” effect - for example, a child who fails to understand addition in primary school will certainly not be able to acquire math knowledge in subsequent training cycles. The role of the specialists’ team to intervene in the diagnosis of learning difficulties is fundamental, and consists in establishing as accurately as possible the type and degree of the disorder. Thus, the various affective and behavioral disorders, limit intellect and mental pseudo debility must be excluded after a thorough psychological examination.

Personalized intervention plan

Once the assessment/testing of the child is completed and the logopaedic report is concluded, specialists are to proceed to the next level, that is, preparing a personalized intervention plan

.The Romanian National Disability Council has established in the draft law titled “Leveling the Playing Field for people with disabilities in Romania” (No. 186/25.05.2005 art. 5f) that “a personalized intervention plan is meant to set medium and short term objectives, specifying the intervention means and support mechanisms for people with disabilities through which the general objectives proposed by the personalized service plan are to be achieved”.

Students with learning difficulties may receive school support through specialized, supplemental and complemental activities in the classroom, well adapted to their special educational needs.

Drafting a personalized intervention plan is a laborious endeavor, highly important for the success of the subsequent stages, the information obtained through the evaluation of the children being particularly necessary for its construction.

The structure of the personalized intervention program is not standardized; there are numerous models, but the common elements of all personalized intervention plans are:

• setting short-term objectives;

• establishing the timespan within which the objectives are to be met;

• regulating the methods to be employed throughout the intervention process;

• pointing out the means to be employed throughout the activity;

• selecting partners, factors involved in reaching the desired objectives (parents, other students, the whole class);

• defining the means to evaluate the results.

The personalized intervention plan aims to:

• support the personal development effort of students with language disorders or students in the class;

• clearly state the sphere of responsibilities and the concrete actions to be undertaken by each partner involved in the educational intervention, starting with the student and continuing with the teachers, the school psychologist, the psycho-pedagogue teacher, the speech therapist, the child’s family;

• help the partners of the educational intervention to become aware of the purpose, objectives, stages, mode of implementation and deadlines set by mutual agreement;

• offer a consistent basis for progress assessment and final evaluation of school performances, with the main objective of registering school and, respectively, educational success;

• ensure the prevention of risk behaviors and the overcoming of difficulties.