The two words ‘slow learners’ and ‘kids with learning difficulties’ are often interchangeably used which is wrong. It is very important to understand the difference between the two types and know how to treat each type.
Understanding slow learners
- The average IQ of a child should be between 85 to 110. So, if a child’s IQ is less than 85, then he/she is regarded as a slow learner. This means that there is a general slowness in the system. On an IQ continuum, some of these kids are educable, some are trainable and some are less intelligent.
- A child with low intelligence does not behave or study age-appropriate, and so we cannot work on their intelligence, but there are other creative ways to work on improving them. One of the ways is engaging these kids with dance and music therapies as it makes them feel good and they try to perform at their level and capacity. They can be involved in more skill-based jobs, for example, girls can go to beauty cultural therapist and boys can go to the bakery.
Understanding kids with learning difficulties
- Kids with learning difficulties have an IQ above 85 and are actually very intelligent. Their IQ is in the place but are not performing well academically. Kids with learning difficulties are actually intelligent but yet do not perform well in areas like reading, writing, spelling, maths, etc. Even kids with Autism Spectrum Disorder are also very intelligent, they learn very fast but each type is a unique combination and they have their own weakness and strengths.
- These kids consistently keep failing in various subjects in class. The issue is, their difficulties are not being addressed by parents and teachers. Here, psychometric assessments play a big role. There are various types of assessments example verbal and non-verbal combinations, assessments that identify the reading, writing, spelling and then understand where the difficulty is.
Dr. Alka Kalra, the renowned educational psychologist, and director of Eduscan Group believes that kids do not have learning disabilities, but they have different learning abilities or learning difficulties. If we call it a disability, then we won’t ever be able to find a cure for it. Whereas, if we call it difficulty, we will be determined to look for a solution to overcome it. The various measures mentioned above are performed at Eduscan in their Institute of determination. They work towards pinpointing the factor that is causing learning difficulties in kids and then works towards helping the child to overcome them. They have helped various such kids who are now performing well academically and are in fact working at manager level posts. They believe that it is very important to know your child better and identify their difficulties and support them because early intervention makes a big difference!
