The Influence of Learning Disability Disorder on the Social Behavior of Students - Research Proposal Example

College Introduction More than 5% of all nationally are identified as having a learning disability. LD (learning disability) can be described as the possession of certain learning drawback by an individual. This situation remains one of the countless conditions affecting school going children. However there are occasional disagreements and pervasive about the real definition of this disorder. Most scholars argue that a learning disability, as it may seem is not categorised as a single disorder. But is a composition of several conditions that are considered to be abnormal to the age and learning environment of a particular person. This however has to be compared with the condition of the other members of the same learning environment. The areas that may be affected include reading, mathematics and listening. In most cases, these learning disorders are accompanied with antisocial characteristics that make the student stay in absolute solitude. This paper is a critical review of literature and research that is aimed at finding the relationship between the learning disability disorder and the social behaviour of the same students considered to have the disorder. By the end of this research, one should be able to identify a child with a learning disability at their earlier stages, and know how to relate and help them out. The strengths and weaknesses of such persons should also be identified, as well as the tools that can be used to maximise their potentials and talents. This paper also aims at researching and identifying the various ways those persons with learning disabilities especially children can be influenced to relate positively with others and to learn how to educate other students to be able to understand and help these students (Knox, 1989). Is there a relationship between learning disability and the overall social relationship between students with learning disability and the public? Literature review Several literatures are available on the internet discussing this controversial topic. These literatures are very useful for the identification of the problem area and how to handle the problem. With the use of articles, one is able to understand the real definition of the problem statement, scrutinize it and come to a finale based on the research that others had prepared on this area. Since learning disorders pose as one of the major challengers that educators face, several education specialists have come up with several literature that confer various ways that can be used to help these kind of children. After a methodical search in the internet using Google search engine, a number of articles written by diverse scholars emerged. Choosing the right literature to review posed a challenge, due to the large number available in the interne. However, five articles were chosen based on their relevance to the topic of discussion as well as their date of publication. Articles that were more than ten years of age were ignored as well as those that were not relevant to the thesis of this paper. The review of literature was an important part of this research as it enabled the identification of the current situation in the field of learning disability. This includes the technology that is currently available in the market to help students with this condition as well as the tools that have been used over the years to help such students. The national centre for family literacy has identified various characteristics of children with a learning disability. These however do not include all the characteristics rather the general signs that are observed in most people with this condition. One of the major signs that show that one has disability in learning is slow reading. By the time students are through with their elementary schooling, students are expected to know how to read and write. If by this time a child still shows difficulties in reading, then they are considered to have a learning disability. These children are also known to confuse similar looking letters and numbers at an age where they should be able to effectively separate them without trouble. If a child has trouble remembering words and letters that at his age he/she should not have trouble remembering then they are considered to have a learning disability. Frequent memory loss is also one of the characteristics that classify a child as having a learning disability. If a guardian, a teacher or any care giver identifies these characteristics in a child, them they should take this child as a special case and identify various ways that can be used to help them since they are not like the other children. James ET all agrees that understanding a child with a learning disability can be quite challenging and requires a lot of dedication especially to the care givers. For successful understanding of the child, all stakeholders need to do their duties responsibly without failure. The first thing that is necessary for the understanding of the child is the identification of the problem that mainly affects the child. This may include difficulty in reading or speaking. After the identification of the problems that the child has, one has to identify the things that the child loves most. This is because, every child has a part of life that they love most and this may include sports, arts or any other field. This should be used to nature the child to achieve their aims and goals (Beger, 2000). It is however important to note that there are students with minor learning disabilities and this requires a lot of observations on the child character as well as their class reactions to identify that they have the condition. At the same time, there are children who may exhibit these conditions yet they are normal and after a certain period of time they are able to perform as required. These children should not be included in the list of children with learning disability. The department of children, schools and families, have presented a list of technological advances that have come up to enable students with various disabilities to be able to overcome their problems. The use of assistive technology is available for use in both cognitive as well as physical disability. The article notes that children that are exposed to assistive technologies to assist them in learning are more likely to perform better than those without access to these technologies. The financial factor is therefore a major determinant in this area. However, it is important for both parents and teachers to realise that AT does not eliminate to cure learning disabilities rather it only assists the students to learn be able to overcome the challenges that they find in learning. This therefore gives them similar opportunities that normal children have over them. However it only reduces their case and does not put them at the same level as normal students (McCathy, 1969). Child trends databank in their article gives hope for research in the field to yield results that would be beneficial to the children affected by this condition in the future. There are several research and technology that is currently coming up that will be effective in ensuring that future children with this kind of situations are able to be given equal opportunities to learn just like normal children. This would mean that the children will have trained teachers and at the same time have a decent technology that would enable them to effectively learn without any problems just like their counterparts who are normal. The government and other stakeholders are doing a lot to ensure that these children are given enough support to equip them with life skills that will help them in their entire life. This literature review was very important in helping the research identify areas that needed to be worked on. This was used to come up with the research hypothesis as well as the research methodology. As a result of this, the entire research was completed. Despite the advantages that the literature review brought, it was a challenge selecting the best articles to use based on the number that was found from the search engine. Methodology The use of survey proved to be important in the research methodology. In this section of the research, the actual research was done and included the survey of a given population of children who were considered to have problems with learning. The survey was done at a nearby school for the disabled and the main idea behind the research was to find out if there was any relationship between learning disability and the social interaction skills of the students. The experiment was to be done randomly chosen students among the entire student population (Kim, 2004). The idea was to select 100 students from the entire population and give them social questions to answer. These questions included the number of friends they had, their relationship with their friends, as well as their relationship with parents and teachers. After this, the result was taken and using chi square test of independence, the result were used to analyse the null hypothesis Ho: There is a relationship between the learning condition of a student and their social interaction with people around them (Smith, 1997). After randomly selecting 100 individuals; without considering their age or gender, the individuals was given separate questioners that would be used to collect data from them. However, this proved a difficult situation since most of them had difficulties reading and even writing down the answers that they knew. As a result of this, the data collection method was switched to the use of interviews. Each student was then asked to name their friends as they did this, the total number of friends was noted down after this, they were asked to list down the names of their favourite teachers as well as the teachers that they dint like. This too was noted down and included in the points. Other relevant questions that could provide quantitative data that was relevant to the topic was also asked and this include the number of times that the students had been able to lend out some of the basic materials to the other students and if the other students did lend them their things in case they lacked them. This was an analysis of not only the relationship between the 100 students but with their entire school situations (Swanson, 2003). These students were then classified as being either social or antisocial based on the number of friends they had and how well they passed the interview. The result of the research is listed below in a 3 by 2 contingency table Level of disability Social antisocial Total Mild 2 8 10 Moderate 5 17 22 Extreme 10 58 68 Total 17 83 100 The below table represents the same table but this time with both the observed frequencies and the expected frequencies Level of disability Social antisocial Total Mild 2(1.7) 8(8.3) 10 Moderate 5(3.74) 17(18.26) 22 Extreme 10(11.56) 58(56.44) 68 Total 17 83 100 Ho: There is a relationship between the learning condition of a student and their social interaction with people around them H1: There is no relationship between the learning condition of a student and their social interaction with people around them After the data analysis using ANOVA and chi square test for independence, the results showed that Ho was to be accepted due to the difference with the chi square. However, this was prevented the use of qualitative data which was vital to the conclusion of this experiment and instead, quantitative data was used. This was one of the major challenges since social matters are considered to be more qualitative and hence qualitative data would have been more convenient. This test is therefore limited to the use of quantitative data. After this, the data was graphed to show how the learning capability of the students related to their social interactions with others. Ho was accepted and the conclusion was that there is a relationship between the learning capabilities of a student and their social interaction. This showed that children with difficulties in learning also approved to have a lot of difficulties in socialising with other the people around them. Some of the conclusions that also came from the experiment is that the students tend to like social teachers and fear antisocial teachers. They are fond of social teacher who talk to them and socialise with them. This observation made it clear that to help improve the social skills of children in similar situations, guardians and care givers need to be social with the students and provide them with a social environment that would allow them to socialise with others as well positively. Being friendly has a lot of positive influence on the children therefore the care givers need to minimise being unfriendly at all costs. Implications and limitations The use of survey to collect data has a major limitation of assuming that what is observed in a minority represents the majority. This is therefore an assumption and does not represent the whole population. Though the selection process was random and there was no bias in selecting a participant, this does not mean that the observations made are the actual occurrence of the entire population. However, since this group is part of the population, the conclusion arrived can be applicable to the other group at a certain degree level of significance. Since surveys mainly collect data at a given point of time, one survey like the one in this research is not efficient in following trend. This would mean that several surveys would need to be conducted over a long period of time to endure that there is a followed trend (Johnson, 1977). The other major limitation is that since most students had reading disabilities, issuance of questioners was a hard task and so interviews were used. This is an ineffective way of data collection since the students sometimes shy from certain questions and may give wrong or contradicting information. The memory of the students was also a limitation as some of them had difficulties even remembering their own names let alone the name of fellow students and teachers. As a result of this, information from teachers regarding the student greatly helped us come to the conclusion of the research. Conclusions The research concluded that there was a positive relationship between the social relationship of any person and their learning ability. This however does not mean that all antisocial people have learning disabilities or that all persons with learning disabilities are antisocial. However, the research brings a general trend followed by most persons with learning disabilities. To help these people, one should be friendly, understand them and try to create a conversation with them. References Association for Children and Adults with Learning Disabilities., & Learning Disabilities Association of America. (1989). Learning disabilities. Pittsburgh, PA: ACLD. Johnson, S. W., & Morasky, R. L. (1977). Learning disabilities. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Swanson, H. L., Harris, K. R., & Graham, S. (2003). Handbook of learning disabilities. New York: Guilford Press. Smith, C. R., & Strick, L. W. (1997). Learning disabilities-- A to Z: A parent's complete guide to learning disabilities from preschool to adulthood. New York: Free Press. Kim, H. H. (2004). Learning disabilities. San Diego: Greenhaven Press. Knox, J. M. B. (1989). Learning disabilities. New York: Chelsea House. McCarthy, J. J., & McCarthy, J. F. (1969). Learning disabilities. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Child Trends Databank. (n.d.). Click here to access data from site. Berger, E. H. (2000). Parents as partners in education: Families and schools working together. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Merrill. National Center for Family Literacy (U.S.). (2001). Outcomes and measures for family literacy programs. Louisville, KY: National Center for Family Literacy. Read More