Question:

order details:

The course readings from the topic (self-esteem in children with learning difficulties), which I sent to you via email, can be used as a starting point for understanding the topic and clarifying your focus and the key issues for the review, but the articles provided should be used as a starting point only and should not be the most frequently cited in your review.

The purpose of the essay is first of all, in finding appropriate literature, and secondly in judiciously selecting and then coherently discussing the literature by identifying common themes, discussing common problems or evaluating different aspects of practice. You should include an introductory paragraph describing the focus of your review and a concluding paragraph summing up the main points you have discussed. You may like to use headings and sub-headings to provide a framework for your review.

You are expected to demonstrate that you have read beyond the articles provided to you. Use recent (post-2000) references and include a significant proportion of references from academic journals.

Approximately 2000 words

Answer:

Title: Self esteem in children with learning difficulties

Introduction

In common parlance, self-esteem is defined as the confidence in one’s own merit as an individual.  Self-esteem is very important in enabling an individual realize his or her personality since it makes people appreciate their competence, worth and abilities to treat themselves well. This makes them feel a sense of self respect and the attitude to contribute positively towards ones life.  Every normal individual is expected to continue gaining self-esteem in his or her growth and not to lose it. Education attainment is one way of acquiring self-esteem particularly to children. Learning and self-esteem affect each other in the sense that high self-esteem facilitates easy learning, while on the other hand efficient learning boosts child’s self-esteem. (Robinson & Dally, 2008).

This paper will focus on various aspects of self-esteem in children with learning difficulties. It will include forms of learning difficulties that result to low self-esteem, the effects of low self-esteem in children’s learning, the effects of learning difficulties on self-esteem in children and how to build self-esteem in children with learning difficulties.

Forms of learning difficulties and how they affect self-esteem in children

Learning difficulties are also known as learning disability or learning disorder (Lindsay, 2001). Learning difficulties is a condition that hinders one from acquiring basic skills and information like other children of the same level. Learning disability is not a problem with intelligence. Rather, it is a disorder caused the divergence or conflict in the brain that results in interference in the process by which information is received, interpreted and how the process of communication entirely takes place.

Although it is sometimes difficult to identify learning disability in a child, it is necessary so as to give early attention and to minimize the effect on the child’s self-esteem. It is also time consuming to identify the type of disorder a child has and on how to give the best form of care to the child.

The National Center for Learning Disabilities has contributed much in categorically classifying the learning difficulties in children. Motor difficulty, for instance, is the problem of coordination and movement which may involve activities that need fine motor skills like cutting and writing or that need general motor skills like running. Memory disorder refers to the difficulty in accommodating new information in their short term memory. This becomes stressful when a child is not able to remember an idea or a formula learnt shortly in the class which leads to frustrations and self denial. Sequencing difficulties are characterized by confusion in following a sequence or a pattern definite order. Higher order thinking deficiency, on the other hand, refers to difficulties in understanding concepts. A child gets confused whenever many symbols are provided and this is due to weakness of highest capability of mind. A language difficulty is a problem that involves inability to comprehend or poor pronunciation of words. In other words it entails the lack of coordination in the brain for proper verbal communication. Reading difficulty, which is very common among children, can occur in two ways.  One of them is the failure of a child to understand the relationship between sounds. Another one is problems arising from reading comprehension whereby the child is not able to understand the structure of its part. Visual and auditory difficulties are also common forms of learning difficulties and which affect learning among children.

Parenting children with learning difficulties

Parents should not get intimidated due to the fact that their children have learning difficulties. They should instead understand that all children do not learn at the same pace. The greatest task of a parent is making the child feel a sense of worth. Parents should also keenly observe the development occurring to the child with learning disabilities. Parents should always be aware that their influences outdo all others in boosting self-esteem among children with learning difficulties. If the parent approaches the child with optimism and with a sense of humor, it becomes easer to promote the child’s self-esteem.

Importance of self-esteem to children with learning difficulties

Throughout the life of an individual, self-esteem is a very important, though elusive ingredient for success and happiness. Taking the experiences at home and in school, children are often susceptible to attacks involving the feelings of self confidence. Some experiences remain memorable for many years. If such experiences have negative effect on the child’s confidence they become threats to his/her self-esteem. Self-esteem in children with learning difficulties is usually vulnerable to the threats due to the fact that they have learning disabilities (Levine, 2001). Levine (2001) is of view that with the required care and support, it is always easy to build self esteem and success among such children.

Signs of low Self-esteem and how to identify them

Due to many failure experiences, children with learning difficulties face the challenge of a sense of low self-esteem and low self confidence in their activities. As greater awareness is given to an individual, one gets to realize the learning differences and the best way to assist children with such difficulties to become more self-assured and confident (Brooks, 2003).

The signs of low self-esteem may vary from one child to another as well as from one situation to the other. A child with learning difficulties may feel stupid in class due to inability to grasp a concept, although he may feel self assured in another area outside the class work. Sometimes the signs of low self-esteem are direct while others are inferred from how the children behave (Lyons, 2010).

Low self-esteem may manifest itself during communication. In this case a child may tend to use words like, ’I am stupid’, ‘no matter how I try this I cannot succeed’, ‘I will never understand this’. Such messages portray despair and loss of confidence and hope. Other children with learning difficulties hold in mind that their failures and mistakes are as a result of factors that cannot be changed such as inadequate or total lack of ability or knowledge. Once such children perceive that, irrespective of what they do, they will never succeed. They develop what Martin Seligman, a psychologist, terms as learned helplessness. They do not perceive any hope to get out of their problem; their visions are full of failures despite their much effort to avoid embarrassment. They also feel that coming out of such a situation is beyond their capacity. The way the child responds to failures and mistake can give much information on the self-esteem of that child. The level of willingness and hope to do the required thing is an indicator of the level of the self-esteem in children learning difficulties (Ryan, 2004).

Everybody uses certain coping strategies in managing stress and challenges. Children with high self-worth use adaptive behaviors, which eventually lead to growth and mastery while those with low self-esteem rarely succeed due to coping behaviors that are self defeating. This only adds to the child’s plight. Examples of commonly used but ineffective coping strategies include quitting, avoidance, clowning, being aggressive, and impulsiveness. Other children portray their low self-esteem by being aggressive and being bullish as a way of minimizing their vulnerability and inadequacy (Gorman, 2010).

The effects of learning difficulties to self-esteem in children

Literacy skills which are emphasized strongly during the process of schooling give the dyslexic children hard moments due to great experience of failure. These experiences make the m feel much stupid. This is why it is important give credit and praise to children with learning difficulties since for them to compete they need to work harder compared to the other children in the same level.

It is very important for dyslexic children to engage in physical education, sports, and art during their learning in school since these are common areas which they can do well and experiencing a sense of satisfaction in their learning. Some subjects like foreign languages are the hardest tasks for dyslexic children to grasp in school; such subjects should not be forced to such children since they can result to great loss of self-esteem. Remediation in early stages contributes to great reduction in number of children with low self-esteem. The focus of dyslexia is usually not correctly acknowledged by the learning institutions due to failure to consider that children have wide range of strengths and weaknesses.  Instead, they unnecessarily emphasize more on academic success rather than music or sports (Long, MacBlain & MacBlain, 2007).

Conclusion

In summary, it is clear that children with learning difficulties are vulnerable to low self-esteem. This low self esteem, which is identified through various signs, greatly affects children negatively in their learning efforts, both socially and emotionally. Family members, specifically parents, and teachers, are the main promoters of self esteem among children with learning difficulties. Self-defeating coping strategies deteriorate child’s self esteem instead of building it. Appropriate means should be used depending on the learning difficulty of the child.

The effects of low self esteem can be drastically reduced through proper attendance by the caretaker. Low self esteem in children with learning difficulties often manifests itself through quitting, avoidance, clowning, being aggressive, and impulsiveness and bullying. Early intervention by taking appropriate care of such signs at an early stage goes a long way in ensuring future success of the child. In a nutshell, self-esteem is very important to children with learning difficulties. Without self-esteem, such children’s lives become very problematic.

 

References

Brooks, R. (2003) The Power of Resilience: Achieving Balance, Confidence and Personal Strength in Your Life, New York: Contemporary Books/McGraw Hill.

Gorman, D. (2010) Maslow’s hierarchy and social and emotional wellbeing, Aboriginal and Islander Health Worker Journal, 33(5), 27-29.

Levine, M. (2001) Jarvis Clutch -Social Spy. Cambridge: Educators Publishing Service.

Lindsay, G. (2001) The behavior and self-esteem of children with specific speech and language difficulties, British Journal of Educational Psychology, 70(4), 583–601.

Long, L., MacBlain, S. & MacBlain, M. (2007) Supporting Students with Dyslexia at the Secondary Level: An Emotional Model of Literacy, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 51(2), 124-134.

Lyons, A. (2010) Self-esteem and Learning Difficulties, New York: Foundation Press.

Robinson, G. (2005) “Understanding literacy and numeracy”, in Foreman, P. (ed), Inclusion in Action, Sydney: Thomson Learning.

Ryan, M. (2004) Social and Emotional Problems Related to Dyslexia, New York: Guildford Press.