Specific Learning Difficulties
“Speak to your children as if they are the wisest, kindest, most beautiful and magical humans on the earth, for what they believe is what they will become.”Brook Hampton
Types of specific learning difficulties:
ADHD
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a condition which affects parts of the brain which control attention, impulses and concentration. It can have an impact on school, peer relationships, self-esteem and family life without appropriate treatment.
Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a common specific learning difficulty that can cause problems with reading, writing and spelling. Unlike a learning disability, intelligence isn't affected.
Common characteristics of dyslexia:
- Difficulties with reading and writing
- Poor spelling and/or handwriting
- Writing letters in the incorrect order
- Difficulty understanding written information
- Difficulty planning and organising tasks
- Difficulty with time perception
Some of the strategies our tutors may use when working with and supporting a child with dyslexia:
- Build a supportive and collaborative relationship
- Use multisensory approaches to tasks and activities
- Give students a choice in how they complete a task
- Use highlighters, reading guides, L shaped cards to block out sections of work
- Present all new information in small chunks
- Explicitly teach exam strategies
- Use concept checking questions to check learners understanding of new language and ideas
- Recap, review and revisit new learning
Dyspraxia
Dyspraxia, also known as developmental co-ordination disorder (DCD), is a common disorder that affects movement and co-ordination, such as tasks requiring balance, playing sports or learning to drive a car. Dyspraxia does not affect your intelligence.
Common characteristics of dyspraxia:
- Problems with activities that require any kind of physical movement or coordination, such as playground games
- Navigating around the house, including going up and down stairs
- Writing and drawing, or doing craft activities
- Tying shoelaces or buttoning up clothes
- Using cutlery
- Sitting still.
Some of the strategies our tutors may use when working with and supporting a child with dyspraxia:
- Pay close attention to the utensils the students are being asked to use e.g. pens, scissors, the line size of writing paper etc. These may need to be adapted
- Consider alternative activities to handwriting e.g. dictation, typing
- Teach touch typing
- Provide a lot of breaks
- Give plenty of extra time
- Break task down into step by step activities
- Provide written, visual and auditory support
- Think ahead if tasks require find motor skills e.g. cutting, folding, painting, sewing and allow differentiated tasks or practice time
Dyscalculia
Dyscalculia is a term used to describe specific learning disability that affects a child's ability to understand, learn, and perform maths and number-based operations.
Common characteristics of dyscalculia:
- A poor understanding of number and estimation
- Weak mental arithmetic skills
- Difficulty in remembering mathematical facts and procedures, even with extensive practice
- taking a very long time over calculations
- difficulty counting backwards
Some of the strategies our tutors may use when working with and supporting a child with dyscalculia:
- Talk or write out a problem
- Draw the problem
- Break tasks down into subsets
- Use real-life cues and physical objects
- Review often
Dysgraphia
Dysgraphia is a term that refers to trouble with recognising written words, letters and the sounds they make. As a result writing, spelling and forming words is challenging for those with dysgraphia.
Common characteristics of dysgraphia:
- Unclear, irregular or inconsistent handwriting
- Writing very slowly
- Mixing styles and upper/lower case letters
- Inconsistent letter and word spacing
- Unusual or cramped grip or position while writing
- Incorrect spelling
Some of the strategies our tutors may use when working with and supporting a child with dysgraphia:
- Allowing extra time to complete written tasks
- Utilising assistive technology such as voice to text software to remove the burden of handwriting
- Use of a scribe
- Providing templates and more scaffolding for written tasks
- Explicit instruction in phonics and spelling
- Reducing the amount of written work that needs to be completed (quality over quantity)
- Allowing alternative assessment practices, such as oral assessments and presentations
Get in Touch
Contact our friendly team to book a consultation. Our educational expert will discuss with you your child’s strengths, areas where support is needed.