Inconsistent Performance
Unpredictability is the order of the day. Human beings have the ability to adapt to their circumstances better when they know what to expect. But with children and learning disabilities, irregularity prevails. They perform exceptionally in one area but are clueless in another. Memory is a good example. A learning disabled child retains certain information better than others. Of particular importance is how that information is acquired and stored. Once entered into their memory banks, a child with a learning disability may recall the data as well as any one else. But it is not unusual for a kid to spend all day working on a book report and then forget to turn it in the next day when it’s due. This inconsistency is only one example. Discrepancies abound and get these children into a lot of trouble with parents and teachers. Heaps of shame and blame are piled on kids who are already struggling to overcome deficits that they find troubling enough to begin with.
A child may draw well but not be able to write his name legibly. She may be an excellent public speaker in front of the class but not be able to write one sentence on the page that makes any sense. A kid may demonstrate superb agility on the track field but get on the basketball court and not be able to even bounce the ball. These contradictory patterns of competency cause kids great distress and confound teachers and parents and yet they are typical of uneven brain development. Many children are better at math than English or better at English than math. In contrast, children with learning disabilities are better at math today and horrible at math tomorrow because perhaps geometric concepts were introduced or maybe word problems came into play and this child has a language processing handicap. The point is that learning disabled children continue through school as they do through their preschool years demonstrating a baffling pattern of erratic performance that taxes parents and teachers and aggravates the child’s already pressured-filled existence.
Contact The Learning Center to Determine if Your Child Has Learning Disabilities