ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER: IS IT A LEARNING DISABILITY?

When we talk of the term “learning disability” then what we generally mean is that it is a perceptual disability like other disabilities such as autism or visual processing disorder, or dyslexia auditory disability. It should not be treated as a learning disability. Anyone who has ADD is perfectly capable of understanding and using the available information. Hence it cannot be considered as a learning disability.

ADD doesn’t really obstruct the learning process although it is combined with all other disabilities most of the time. A small child who is suffering from ADD can take in the information he sees and then he can process it and even keep it in his memory just like normal human beings. The only problem is attracting his attention for long enough so that he may take in the information to begin with.

He has problems in school and also in general but this can’t be treated as a disability of any kind. Once the treatment for his ADD problem starts, his performance in school shoots up. But sometimes, a person who has ADD problem might not be having any difficulty in his education at all. It is different from person to person.

But we must remember that there are other disabilities, especially, in very small pre school children, They might have problems in understanding sounds and words and may have some speech problems too. Those kids who are of reading writing age may experience reading, writings and mathematical and spelling problems. Similarly Dyslexia, which is reading disorder, is very common among children having ADD. But it must be kept in mind that it is not necessary that all the children may have these problems.

Some difficulties may arise in ADD affected children but here there are various ways of improving the situation. Most of them are benefited by a fixed schedule, by having the same time for all the activities. They are weak in remembering things, so routine work helps them. The habit developed by repetition of activity helps them.

Similarly, if you keep things in a fixed place then they find it easier to remember it. They can even be helped by binders and planners for the activities they have to undertake. It helps them in being organized.

In class, if the teacher has an interactive attitude instead of giving a lecture then the child manages to give more attention to the work in hand and his frequency of distractions may go down.
Thus, you must remember that a child, inspire of having this disorder can grow into a successful person.