Learning Disability in Children | Diagnosis, Testing & Parenting

Many gifted and talented children are often misdiagnosed as having learning disabilities. Many characteristics of gifted children, both social and emotional, there are times mistaken as symptoms of specific learning disorders. For some gifted children, they have the unusual learning styles . And to some even though they are very intelligent, they may also have learning disability. They may have an issue with self-esteem, verbal acquisition and other areas of lacking as well. Look out the life of Albert Einstein and Thomas Alva Edison as they are one classic example of gifted and yet they are among people with learning disorder.



Whether or not your gifted child has a learning disability, they will still benefit from extra support, encouragement and love. It is not easy as a parent to confirm that your child is one special needs child. I was there too and so my husband. We were unsure and so to clear all doubts, we started it out by making a comparison between both our children. Then, we jogged down memory lane, recalling how was Hanafi in his toddlerhood. I owed so much on the project paper that I did exactly on learning disabiltiy topic for my early childhood education course, and some of the traits I still remembered. I went back to my notes and started out the list. From my notes, I found he was positive in few characteristics of autism when he was a toddler which eventually he dropped the habits within years. I will cover more on autism and the process we went through in another topic.

The process of diagnosis involves interviewing the parents, testing the child, history taking and observation by a trained specialist. You will need third party assessment too and you can start with your child's school, get feedback from your child's teacher, childcare and even anybody that directly associating with your child. They may even need to fill up assessment form provided by the children psychologist that you refer to. Gather all the feedback and your specialist will evaluate and come out with the result.

Worries and fears aside, do remember, special needs children somehow can shown significant abilities in other areas as they think differently. They may good in music, art, mathematics and talented in many ways. Therefore, as a parent, observe your child closely and pay attention to those shown promised talent and give your full encouragement.

Whether or not your child has a learning disability, remember that the way you behave and what you do has the most impact on your child's chances of success. Apart from your consistent love and support, it is how you deal with these obstacles. There are many things you can do to help your child such as :

• Keep things in perspective - Try not to be intimidated by the news that your child may have a learning disability. All people learn differently. Your most important job is to help them keep their self esteem in tact.

• Do your own research and become your own expert - Learn about new developments in learning disabilities, different programs and educational techniques that could make an impact. You need to be in charge on finding the tools that your child need to continue learning with much assistance from therapists, doctors and teacher's advises.

• Be an advocate for your child - You may have to speak up time and time again to get special help for your child. Embrace your role as a proactive parent and work on your communication skills. Sometimes, it can be frustrating but be reasonable firm and and let people know what you want your child achieving.

• Remember that your influence on your child outweighs all others - Your special needs child will follow your lead. Focus your energy on learning what works best for your child and implementing them in your child's life the best that you can. At times, people's opinion, judgment and ideas can sway you out of your track and you may loose your confidence. But when you really know that you know best, your child will see this in optism manner and face the challenges with positive attitude rather take them as roadblocks to success.

All in all, don't sit back and let someone else be responsible for providing your child with the tools they need to learn. You can and should take an active role in your child's education regardless your child is one special needs child or not. Your role in your child's education is more important than ever.