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In the early '90s, an expecting couple went into the labor room. The doctor asked that a Caesarean section be performed on the woman as the unborn child was too big. The father adamantly refuted this - he was scared to lose his wife. Labor was long and tedious, and alas, she was delivered of a baby girl, but she wouldn't move or cry. The doctor's prognosis was - she'd be deaf, dumb, blind and cripple. A miracle happened; the nurse in charge of the baby kept tapping her bum until she began to cry.
Two years passed, she could see and talk. And even though she was a big child, she could walk. She was enrolled in school with children her age, but she did very poorly. The couple had another child by then - a boy, without all the complications of the first. He was a healthy boy. They were well to do and soon enough threatened to remove their daughter from the school. It was a young school that just begun, and they were one of the parents that paid promptly, so her report card changed. She began to make the first five. When asked, the teacher said she was giving her tutorial classes, her parents were elated.
Two years passed, and her brother began school as well, he was brilliant. When he brought home his assignments, he needed little or no help doing them. It wasn't long until they noticed she could barely write, and she rarely brought home assignments. So they gave her books at home to draw or scribble, but she could hardly hold a pen. Eventually, they changed her school. They put her in the same institution as her brother. She had to start from kindergarten with him because she didn't fit into her former class. Yet he excelled, and she failed. Her parents became weary as promotion came; he was due for one, and she wasn't.
Not long after, they had had another child - another healthy boy. They asked the school authority to promote her with her brother. She'd do better if she got acquainted with the school's method of teaching. She needed special assistance, so a minder was assigned to her. Her speech wasn't impaired, but she seemed to see things under the lines or above them. She never saw them in a straight line. Her brothers excelled. She got glasses to correct her sight. Surely it had to be what was wrong with her.
Soon enough, she became rebellious as her brothers were often referred to as better than her. It was what parents did in a weak attempt to motivate a child to perform better. She learnt the act of cramming, so as stories were read to them, she crammed it word for word until she could feign reading. Meanwhile, her brothers had learnt to read. During spelling drills, her brothers could spell the familiar words from the storybooks they read, but she couldn't.
Soon enough, they wanted to play with the kids who understood as much as they could, and she was relegated to staying indoors because they didn't want her to say something the other kids would use to mock her. It wasn't that they were ashamed of her; they just wanted to protect her from the harsh realities of the world. They felt she just couldn't learn.
Her parents tried to enroll her in special schools for special needs kids, but every time they saw the other children's appalling states, they knew their daughter wasn't half as bad. They got lesson teachers to tutor her and her brothers, but time after time, they focused more on the ones who could comprehend. Soon enough, she no longer wanted to learn. She felt they understood, so they should learn, and since she didn't, she became uninterested.
Soon pastors, relatives, and seeming well-wishers asked them to pray, seek spiritual help, and whatnot. They visited tons of pastors and were told to pray and fast. After countless visits, they accepted felt she was a lost cause and admitted defeat. To date, they still find new teachers and pastors, hoping they'd perform some miracle on their daughter.
Research by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation published in September 2018 showed a significant rise in the number of children with developmental disabilities. It showed that from 1990 to 2016, it had risen by 66.7% (1.5million - 2.5million). The study noted that more than 53 million children under the age of five years worldwide had developmental disabilities in 2016.
The top three leading contributors to the global prevalence of development disabilities in 2016.
The top three leading contributors to the global prevalence of developmental disabilities were India, China, and Nigeria. According to a world-renowned expert in global health and leader of GRDDC, Dr. Bolajoko Olusanya, this data is troubling when viewed within the context of the challenges typically encountered by children with disabilities and their families in a developing country like Nigeria.
In his words, “These children often require more help to communicate, play, learn, understand or use information than others every day. They require a great deal of support to be as independent and successful compared to children without disabilities.”
Failure to provide necessary assistance to these children in the first five years of life, especially when the brain is most amenable to stimulation, has a lot of adverse consequences on educational and vocational attainment. He explained that it is not uncommon for disability to be attributed to an ‘evil force,’ supernatural causes, or linked to some superstitious beliefs. He also added that on such occasions, often out of ignorance or frustration with available (or lack of) services, mothers resort to either ‘spiritual healing or appeasement’ or traditional medicine that entails unorthodox and potentially harmful therapies.
“A child that isn't accepted is more likely to be hidden from public view or sent away to live with the extended family members in villages because of the stigma and the stress of parenting. The very thought of these challenges frequently compels some families to consider disability as worse than death, and view infanticide (killing a child in the first year of life) as an escape route to freedom.”
The most common forms of learning disabilities include - dyslexia, ADHD, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, and processing deficits.
Learning disabilities are also connected to processing deficits. When students have a processing deficit, they have trouble making sense of sensory data. This issue makes it hard for students to perform in a traditional classroom without instructional supports. These deficits are most often auditory or visual, and they can make it hard for students to distinguish and remember important information that is needed to succeed.
The five learning disabilities can manifest with varying degrees of severity, and some students may struggle with more than one. By understanding these disabilities, it is possible to find workable solutions so that every child can succeed.
In the early '90s, an expecting couple went into the labor room. The doctor asked that a Caesarean section be performed on the woman as the unborn child was too big. The father adamantly refuted this - he was scared to lose his wife. Labor was long and tedious, and alas, she was delivered of a baby girl, but she wouldn't move or cry. The doctor's prognosis was - she'd be deaf, dumb, blind and cripple. A miracle happened; the nurse in charge of the baby kept tapping her bum until she began to cry.
Two years passed, she could see and talk. And even though she was a big child, she could walk. She was enrolled in school with children her age, but she did very poorly. The couple had another child by then - a boy, without all the complications of the first. He was a healthy boy. They were well to do and soon enough threatened to remove their daughter from the school. It was a young school that just begun, and they were one of the parents that paid promptly, so her report card changed. She began to make the first five. When asked, the teacher said she was giving her tutorial classes, her parents were elated.
Two years passed, and her brother began school as well, he was brilliant. When he brought home his assignments, he needed little or no help doing them. It wasn't long until they noticed she could barely write, and she rarely brought home assignments. So they gave her books at home to draw or scribble, but she could hardly hold a pen. Eventually, they changed her school. They put her in the same institution as her brother. She had to start from kindergarten with him because she didn't fit into her former class. Yet he excelled, and she failed. Her parents became weary as promotion came; he was due for one, and she wasn't.
Not long after, they had had another child - another healthy boy. They asked the school authority to promote her with her brother. She'd do better if she got acquainted with the school's method of teaching. She needed special assistance, so a minder was assigned to her. Her speech wasn't impaired, but she seemed to see things under the lines or above them. She never saw them in a straight line. Her brothers excelled. She got glasses to correct her sight. Surely it had to be what was wrong with her.
Soon enough, she became rebellious as her brothers were often referred to as better than her. It was what parents did in a weak attempt to motivate a child to perform better. She learnt the act of cramming, so as stories were read to them, she crammed it word for word until she could feign reading. Meanwhile, her brothers had learnt to read. During spelling drills, her brothers could spell the familiar words from the storybooks they read, but she couldn't.
Soon enough, they wanted to play with the kids who understood as much as they could, and she was relegated to staying indoors because they didn't want her to say something the other kids would use to mock her. It wasn't that they were ashamed of her; they just wanted to protect her from the harsh realities of the world. They felt she just couldn't learn.
Her parents tried to enroll her in special schools for special needs kids, but every time they saw the other children's appalling states, they knew their daughter wasn't half as bad. They got lesson teachers to tutor her and her brothers, but time after time, they focused more on the ones who could comprehend. Soon enough, she no longer wanted to learn. She felt they understood, so they should learn, and since she didn't, she became uninterested.
Soon pastors, relatives, and seeming well-wishers asked them to pray, seek spiritual help, and whatnot. They visited tons of pastors and were told to pray and fast. After countless visits, they accepted felt she was a lost cause and admitted defeat. To date, they still find new teachers and pastors, hoping they'd perform some miracle on their daughter.
Research by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation published in September 2018 showed a significant rise in the number of children with developmental disabilities. It showed that from 1990 to 2016, it had risen by 66.7% (1.5million - 2.5million). The study noted that more than 53 million children under the age of five years worldwide had developmental disabilities in 2016.
The top three leading contributors to the global prevalence of development disabilities in 2016.
The top three leading contributors to the global prevalence of developmental disabilities were India, China, and Nigeria. According to a world-renowned expert in global health and leader of GRDDC, Dr. Bolajoko Olusanya, this data is troubling when viewed within the context of the challenges typically encountered by children with disabilities and their families in a developing country like Nigeria.
In his words, “These children often require more help to communicate, play, learn, understand or use information than others every day. They require a great deal of support to be as independent and successful compared to children without disabilities.”
Failure to provide necessary assistance to these children in the first five years of life, especially when the brain is most amenable to stimulation, has a lot of adverse consequences on educational and vocational attainment. He explained that it is not uncommon for disability to be attributed to an ‘evil force,’ supernatural causes, or linked to some superstitious beliefs. He also added that on such occasions, often out of ignorance or frustration with available (or lack of) services, mothers resort to either ‘spiritual healing or appeasement’ or traditional medicine that entails unorthodox and potentially harmful therapies.
“A child that isn't accepted is more likely to be hidden from public view or sent away to live with the extended family members in villages because of the stigma and the stress of parenting. The very thought of these challenges frequently compels some families to consider disability as worse than death, and view infanticide (killing a child in the first year of life) as an escape route to freedom.”
The most common forms of learning disabilities include - dyslexia, ADHD, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, and processing deficits.
Dyslexia is perhaps the best-known learning disability. It is a learning disorder that impedes the student's ability to read and comprehend a text. There are a variety of ways in which this disability can manifest. Some people struggle with phonemic awareness, which means they fail to recognize the way words break down according to sound.
Similar problems can occur with phonological processing, wherein students cannot distinguish between identical word sounds. Other issues generally relate to fluency, spelling, comprehension, and more. Students may experience one reading issue or multiple issues when struggling with dyslexia.
While reading disabilities receive the most attention, writing disabilities can be equally challenging to overcome. These disabilities are known as dysgraphia.
Similar problems can occur with phonological processing, wherein students cannot distinguish between identical word sounds. Other issues generally relate to fluency, spelling, comprehension, and more. Students may experience one reading issue or multiple issues when struggling with dyslexia.
While reading disabilities receive the most attention, writing disabilities can be equally challenging to overcome. These disabilities are known as dysgraphia.
Dysgraphia can be related to the physical act of writing. These students often cannot hold a pencil correctly, and their posture may be tense while trying to write. This situation often leads them to tire quickly, causing discouragement that further inhibits progress. Dysgraphia can also refer to difficulty with written expression. With this type of disability, students have trouble organizing their thoughts coherently. Their writing may be redundant or have glaring omissions that affect the quality and readability of the text. Dysgraphia may also cause students to struggle with basic sentence structure and grammatical awareness.
Ordinarily, learning to write words and sentences clearly and correctly is a crucial focus of a child's elementary school years. All young kids have some difficulty when it comes to writing or perfecting penmanship. But if your child's handwriting is consistently distorted or unclear, that may be caused by dysgraphia. It is a nervous system problem that affects the fine motor skills needed to write. It makes it hard for a child to do handwriting tasks and assignments.
Learning disabilities are also connected to processing deficits. When students have a processing deficit, they have trouble making sense of sensory data. This issue makes it hard for students to perform in a traditional classroom without instructional supports. These deficits are most often auditory or visual, and they can make it hard for students to distinguish and remember important information that is needed to succeed.
The five learning disabilities can manifest with varying degrees of severity, and some students may struggle with more than one. By understanding these disabilities, it is possible to find workable solutions so that every child can succeed.
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