Raju went to the market and bought 5 apples, 6 bananas. How many fruits does he have?
This statement and simple addition sounds like child’s play, doesn’t it? But for some children, it’s a herculean task to read with ease what’s written and then understand the mathematical problem that is included in the statements. It’s possible that a child who struggles with a statement like this mabe facing a learning challenge or learning disability.
Learning Disability can be defined as challenges in academic reading and writing. The challenges can be noticed in language based subjects , English, Hindi or any mother tongue. There can be challenges in learning skills in Mathematics as well. Students could also experience issues in written work, be it drawing/ drawing or any written based work. Based on these different kinds of challenges, we can categorise Learning Disability into 4 types – Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, Dyscalculia and Specific Learning Disability.
Dyslexia is a learning challenge in reading and writing. Dyscalculia is a learning challenge associated with mathematical skills and concepts. Dysgraphia are challenges in writing on a given space/sheet. Specific Learning Disability can be a combination of two or all three types of learning disabilities.
We must understand that the academic issues are genuine and not get overshadowed by the idea of the kid trying to avoid studying.
(This is our first article in a series to understand more on learning disabilities and the challenges that accompany them)