Factors and disabilities

Factors that help learning:

• Continuous vs partial reinforcement: continuous reinforcement helps a response to be learnt quickly; partial reinforcement makes it last, with high resistance to extinction (the partial reinforcement effect).
• Motivation is a prerequisite for learning. Intrinsic motivation means learning because the activity is enjoyable in itself (a child who reads about stars just because space fascinates them). Extrinsic motivation means learning for an outside reward or to avoid an unpleasant outcome (studying for a prize). A learner who wants to learn learns faster than one forced to sit and listen.
• Preparedness for learning: each species is biologically prepared to learn some things easily, some with difficulty and some not at all. A parrot can be taught to copy words, but no amount of training will teach a cat to fly. Animals, for example, readily learn to avoid a food that once made them ill.

Learning disabilities are a heterogeneous group of difficulties in acquiring and using skills of listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning or mathematics. They are believed to arise from differences in how the central nervous system works, and they are not caused by low intelligence: a child of average or above-average intelligence can have one.

Signs of a learning disability:

• Difficulty writing letters, words and phrases, reading, or speaking; for example, reversing digits (writing 21 for 12) or letters.
• Attention problems: easily distracted, short attention span.
• Poor sense of space and time: confusing left and right, getting lost in familiar places, struggling with days and dates.
• Poor motor coordination and hand skills, such as untidy handwriting or difficulty buttoning a shirt.
• Difficulty understanding and following spoken (oral) directions.
• Difficulty with mathematical reasoning and calculation.
• Dyslexia, a specific difficulty with reading and spelling, is the commonest form.

Learning disabilities can be helped. With early identification and remedial teaching, using methods suited to how the child learns, children can improve a great deal. They need patience and support, never labels such as 'lazy' or 'careless'.