| SolveYourProblem
eLearning Series: Learning Disabilities
The Bottom Line On Learning Disabilities
( 50 articles in this series )
Can
Assistive Technology (AT)
Help People with Learning Disabilities?
A
learning disability is a type of neurological disorder
where a person’s brain is structured differently than
most other people. These slight differences can affect how
a person talks, listens, reads, writes, and many other processes.
Some disorders are physically seen and can explain why and
person has LD, while others are microscopic and cannot be detected.
It has been shown that one in seven children have a learning
disability. The most common type (80%) have to do with language,
reading, writing, and spelling issues. These children are just
as intelligent as all other children in their age group. They
just require assistive tools and some extra time to help them
accomplish the work. Children with learning disabilities have
a harder time processing and retaining information. The early
a learning disability is detected the quicker it can be intervened
and helped. This will enable school age children to be closer
to the same goals as their peers and not have to struggle to
keep up.
There are several
tools that can help people with learning
disabilities work around their weaknesses. Even though the
disability will never be cured with help from assistive tools
a person can learn to better. These enable LD children to work
around their disabilities with numbers, letters, organization,
and other school age tasks. Assistive tools are made to use
for everyday activities including school, work, balancing money,
or any other type of task they might need help in. Instead
of trying to fix a problem in the brain that cannot be fixed,
assistive technology helps the learning disabled to work around
these deficits. No matter what the age of the person is these
tools can help an LD person reach their full potential. This
will give them independence, self-esteem, and freedom to live
up to their full potential. The tools that a learning disabled
person uses can be highly advanced or just a simple device.
It all depends on the person’s individual needs.
This is an important piece of the support system that allows
the LD person achieve the success they deserve. Assistive
technology opens a wide door of opportunity for learning and daily living
that has proven to be a major success for those who have worn
the benefits. AT is simply any piece of equipment, item, or
product that can be used to increase or maintain the person
with the disabilities ability to be independent. This can range
from a simple calculator to a computer with specialized software.
Depending on what type of item is required there may be little
or major training required teaching the individual how to use
the equipment. These types of devices are meant to help the
person’s overall life whether it is through school, work, home,
or any other setting. Even a simple highlighter can be used
as an assistive tool. It can be used to distinguish between
similar words that cause confusion. Teachers can highlight
specific words in different colors and help point out their
differences. This will help the LD student become more aware
of his or her disability and know what they need to work on
most.
On the other end of the tool perspective there are high-tech
tools. The optical character recognition system (OCR) allows
you to enter text to a computer through a scanner and have
it read back to the LD person using a speech synthesizer. The
opposite of this is the speech recognition system that allows
the user to speak into a microphone and have the sound converted
into words in a document. One must be able to read well and
go over the document in full to make sure the computer heard
all the words right. These types of technologies are evolving
rapidly and there are so many out there to fit all needs. It
is important to not buy a device just because it looks or sounds
like it can help. Get a recommendation to a specific tool that
will help the individual. One may find that they won’t benefit
from the expensive technology while another person might. Make
sure what ever you try is taught to you or your child thoroughly
before attempting to use it. The device needs to fit to the
individual not the other way around.
# # # # #
SolveYourProblem.com
: 2006
> Home > Learning
Disability
Articles : Main Page
|
