Attention Deficit Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Dyslexia are all forms of learning disabilities that a number of children are coping with each and every day. If you come from a family that has any of these difficulties you will be aware of how much it can affect a childs development and that young persons outlook on life.
These disabilities are frequently hereditary and it must be accentuated that it is absolutely no fault or in any way caused by the individual child. Who would want to be mocked by teachers, laughed at by their peers and bullied in the playground simply because of a problem nobody can see and few people seem to be able to undestand. These children although frequently unable to read or count until much later than is considered the normal are actually well above the average student when it comes to IQ. It is only this one thing that helps them cope with the difficulties they find themselves facing once their schooling begins.
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| ADHD |
What few people recognise is that the child with any of these problems rapidly learns to think outside the square so to speak. To cover up what must be an enormous burden they find ways to deflect the spotlight away from themselves. Some children become difficult in the classroom by always running around, this by the way is very much a part of ADHD, other kids might become silent and dreamy and fail to communicate, this can happen with ADD. With Dyslexia they will endeavour at all costs to neither read or write in front of anyone especially the teacher; this clearly can rapidly become a battle of wills. The teacher gets cross because the pupil refuses to do what is asked and the pupil prefers to act like a clown and have classmates on his side than prove to one and all that he has neither the skill or ability to do what has been asked, simple as it may appear.
One of the major problems is that many teachers are really not equipped to handle a child with any type of disability especially one that is invisible. If a child is crippled and needs the use of a wheelchair that is considered socially acceptable but for a child not to be able to pick up basic reading and writing it becomes very much harder for a teacher to handle unless they have received specific training in this area themselves.
The one thing that has been proved beyond doubt about these children though is that generally they will go far in life. Much of this has to do with the tenacity they learn at such a young age and while many people virtually have tunnel vision as to where their life will lead, the child who has grown up with ADD, ADHD or Dyslexia will always manage to find an alternative route to success. Think of Einstein, Edison and Winston Churchill all these men suffered through life with these very same disabilities. Maybe having one of these problems really turns out to be an advantage so who would have labelled these alternative ways of thinking and doing as disabilities? When I look at all the famous people supposedly suffering with these problems I would definitely say that they have gone far.
