A Guide to Learning Disabilities for the ESL Classroom Practitioner

learning disabilities are not recognized or, in some cases, they are recognized but not dealt
with.
we do not have ready access to consultation, guidance or referral advice and special needs
professionals.
Learning Disability is the term currently used to describe a handicap that interferes with
someones ability to store, process or produce information. Such disabilities affect both
children and adults. The impairment can be quite subtle and go [-1-] undetected throughout
life.
The most straightforward indication is academic failure or underachievement by someone
who seems capable of more (Levine 1984, p.1).
Learning disabilities are probably inherited; it is thought that they are caused by a neurological
malfunction or processing glitch which renders written text-deciphering, sound-symbol
connections and/or the sequencing of information very difficult (Saltus 1992 p. 29,31).
While they cannot be cured, they can be taught compensatory strategies. We, as mainstream
classroom teachers, can help in this process.
Many experts feel that language deficits begin early in life and eventually disappear, only to
re-emerge later in life when there is a new circumstance to be dealt with that places different
and/or unexpected demands on language and its use (Wallach and Butler 1984, p. 15).
who have a learning disability but ultimately did well in school because they were able to
devise their own compensatory strategies as no diagnostic or remedial intervention had been
available. These students may have since forgotten (it happens that people who overcome first
language learning difficulties often do forget) about the problems that they had learning to
read and write. Then, they have difficulties again when they arrive in a new circumstance (such as
studying language in a foreign country) which places new, language-related demands on
them. Poor learner = LD child
DYSLEXIA-language deficit
1) attention, the most common kind of learning disability;
2) language, difficulty in interpreting and/or remembering verbal messages and instructions;
3) spatial orientation, poor reading and spelling skills because of difficulty with processing
information visually and distinguishing similar-looking letters;
4) memory, difficulties with retrieval of presumably stored information because it is misstored and cant be found spontaneously;

5) fine motor control issues, which cause ideas to break down [-2-] between the head and the
paper; and
6) sequencing or difficulty organizing information and instructions into an appropriate order
so that tasks can be successfully completed (Levine 1984, pp.1-2).
; we need to look at the profile of strengths and weaknesses (Levine, personal
communication).
Table 1. Categories of Difficulty

1. Classroom behaviors associated with word-retrieval difficulties:

c. a tendency to raise ones hand presumably with the correct answer, but ending up not
knowing when actually called upon
f. a tendency to appear forgetful as the consequence of inadequate access to actually
well-stored information
g. an increase in difficulty in getting started, both verbally and graphically (in terms of
expressions and organization)
2. Classroom behaviors associated with selective attention immaturities:
a. inconsistent levels of task-attentiveness
b. diminishing levels of concentration vigilance and maintenance
c. variable levels of performance accuracy (with diminishing qualities occurring with
increased group size and increased ambient noise levels)
d. inconsistent levels of task-completeness
e. an appearance of being forgetful, when in fact the information was never really received
or processed
f. an appearance of disorientation or confusion due to misperception of the linguistic
signal (speech) presented under adverse listening conditions
g. response delays as the student attempts to sort out verbal confusions
3. Classroom behaviors associated with visual, association confusions:
a. higher-level difficulties with if-then and causal relationships
b. higher-level difficulties with inferential reasoning and reading between the lines
c. excessive struggling to perform higher-level mathematic tasks (problem solving exercises)
which require increased visuo-spatial organization
4. Classroom behaviors associated with limited concept manipulation, inner language skills:
c. compromised memory styles
f. restricted inferential reasoning skills
i. restricted competencies for reading between the lines
j. limited appreciation of if-then relationships
o. compromised competencies re: predicting consequences
p. impaired reading comprehension skills re: appreciating context and recognizing
main themes, discriminating main ideas from lesser important items, recognizing and
anticipating sequences of events, understanding the co-relation between paragraphs,
remembering the story line, etc.

it is not a matter of having students with learning difficulties do a class or activity over again;
it is a matter of having them do it differently.
Vulnerabilities in language skills are exacerbated for ESL students, especially those with
learning disabilities, because those students are trying to learn not only language, but a new
language. The burden is on us as teachers to ensure that the classroom environment does not
perpetuate learning failure.
Howard Gardners work on multiple intelligences and the different ways that we each learn,
remember, perform, and understand may be helpful in this regard.
1. Give the gift of time whenever it is at all possible. Students with learning disabilities may require extra
time to complete in-class and homework assignments as well as tests;
2. Consider administering tests in alternative formats such as orally or on computer;
3. Whenever appropriate, present material using graphic and/or sensory media;
4. Combine both auditory and visual stimulisay it and write it on the board whenever possible;
5. Have students use a word processor to whatever extent is possible. Because word processing makes
rewriting and revising so much less laborious, its value is immeasurable for those students with finemotor, sequencing, spelling and other language manipulation problems;
6. Make it easy for students to ask for repetition; bear in mind that it is important to use the same language
when you do repeat so that you do not change the construct and defeat the purpose of the repetition;
7. Dont issue too many instructions at the same time. Break tasks down into their component parts and
issue the instructions for each part one at a time;
8. Allow time in advance for students to think about items to be covered in class. Provide plenty of prediscussion, pre-writing, pre-reading lead time and other pre-teaching activities;
9. Reduce the level of distraction in the room;
10. Explicitly state the topic at hand and proceed in a structured, concrete manner; progress from the
obvious to the concrete to the abstract; dont jump without warning from one topic to another;
11. Frame material by relating it to past classroom or personal experience and highlighting new material;
12. Whenever possible, cluster material so that it is organized by category; [-6-]
13. Conduct frequent notebook checks of students work;
14. Look for students intraindividual balancing strengths (Levine, personal communication); recognize,
praise and reinforce students islands of competence (Brooks, personal communication);
15. Take an inventory of how students think they learn best.
Strengths
Challenges
Comments
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Reading
Writing
Memory
Listening
Speaking
Attention
Getting Ideas Out

In most countries, however, learning disabilities are not recognized or are recognized but not
dealt with. When we see a student floundering, a student who, in Levines words, seems capable of
more (Levine 1984, p. 2), we have the best indication that the problem may be an L. D. problem.