Parental Attitude

Parental Attitude of Children with Learning Disabilities'Learning disabilities or learning disorders are not easy to diagnose. Learning disabilities are disorders that affect the ability to understand or use spoken or written language, do mathematical calculations, co-ordinate movements, or direct attention. Almost 6 to 10 percentage of children at school suffer from Learning Disabilities.Research indicates that parental reaction to the diagnosis of learning disability (LD) is more pronounced than in any other area of exceptionality. Any other form of disability, say if a child is severely retarded or physically handicapped, the parent becomes aware of the problem in the first few weeks of the child's life. Although learning disabilities occur in very young children, the disorders are usually not recognized until the child reaches school age, and hence the parent does not suspect that a problem exists. When informed of the problem by elementary school personnel, a parent's first reaction is generally to deny the existence of the disability. This denial is, of course, unproductive. The father tends to remain calm in this stage than the mother because; for he is less exposed to the child's day-to-day frustrations and failures.It is a proven fact that the parents of an LD child face a series of emotion before being able to accept the child and his problem. These emotions are unpredictable and come in at random. These emotions ranges form denial of the problem to blame on the partner and fear that the problem could be much worse than what has been revealed to them. These parents go from comparing with the siblings to mourning for the Childs problem. In their desperation they often take irrational decisions and take their child from doctor to doctor hoping that there had been some mistake at the initial diagnosis. They start believing that they are alone against the entire world and try blaming the teachers, their neighbors and the neighborhood for their Childs problem. Guilt for the Childs condition is a very predominant factor which leads them to act in desperation. Some parents even believe that they could make it go away by ignoring it. The only way in which this emotional turbulence of the parents can be dealt with is through assurance and proper awareness. It is important that they understand that with proper help, most LD children can make excellent progress. The best way to provide these assurances is by providing them examples of successful adults such as attorneys, business executives, physicians, teachers, etc. who had learning disabilities but overcame them. The parents find relief and are assured of overcoming this trauma by letting themselves know that by special education and special care their children can overcome this disability.