LEARNING DIFFICULTY IDENTIFICATION AND INTERVENTION

Running head: LEARNING DIFFICULTY: IDENTIFICATION AND INTERVENTION
Learning Difficulty: Identification and Intervention
Student’s name
University
Author’s note

LEARNING DIFFICULTY: IDENTIFICATION AND INTERVENTION
1
Introduction
Literacy is a socially invented skill that is imparted to children through their immediate
intimate groups and both formal and informal modes of education. It is a process through which
society prepares a child to meet the cultural demands, to which end it is essential to have a set of
culturally institutionalized signs and symbols to support the process of reading, writing and
making meaning. In general, literacy is defined as the ability to speak, read, write and listen,
enabling an individual to comprehend and communicate with people around (Roser & Ortiz-
Ospina, 2016).
Literacy is deemed as primarily important for every human being, as it is regarded as the
cornerstone of development. In the light of the importance of literacy, it has been recognized as a
fundamental right to every human being. The United Nations has adopted literacy as an integral
part of their sustainable development goal 4, declaring completion of primary and secondary for
every children as a necessity, ensuring equal access to economic and educational opportunities.
Without literacy, a child cannot move further in the higher educational levels (Nazar et al, 2016).
Learning Difficulty
Despite the emphasis on literacy and numeracy skills, not every child can achieve
adequate level of literacy and numeracy during their early developmental phase. There are
several obstacles that restrict the children from mastering communication and numerical ability.
Learning disabilities, as these obstacles are commonly known, are defined as reduced ability to
learn necessary life skills such as reading, writing, processing new information and make
meaning, counting or performing simple calculations. Some people face these difficulties due to
serious physical disabilities or illness, whereas some experience them as the result of lack of

LEARNING DIFFICULTY: IDENTIFICATION AND INTERVENTION
2
appropriate cognitive development. The most common forms of learning disabilities include
dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia. Also, attention deficit disorders, including both ADD and
ADHD are both serious issues that may cause learning disabilities. However, these difficulties
could be addressed and mitigated by timely identification and intervention (Ware, 2018).
Student Profile
In this regard, the present paper attempts to present a case study of a child with moderate
ADHD, and was failing to acquire literacy and numeracy skills appropriate of his age as
compared to his peers. Aaron, a 7 year old boy going in grade 2, was having a hard time to keep
with his class. His parents were both working, leaving them little time to spend with their kid.
Aaron used to spend the day at a local day care after school, to be picked by his mother in the
afternoon. As a 7 year-old child, Aaron was apparently an agile, active child, taking part in every
group activities and class works. He also had his own group of friends, with whom he played
during the recess hours and play time. Although he participated proactively in all of the class
activities and assignments, he never completed his homework. He also had difficulties in
finishing class works, especially mathematics. Despite my repeated attempts to teach him count,
identify bigger or smaller numbers or perform simple calculations, he never succeeded. For a
while, I could not grasp whether he understood what I taught him. When reported to his parents,
they opined Aaron may not be trying enough, and should be given a tutor, to which I resisted and
offered a psychological screening. Once tested, the counsellor suggested that Aaron had
inattentive type ADHD, due to which his limitation span did not allow him to pursue a task for
long. He lacked focus to fully comprehend instructions. Also, for his mathematics tasks, he kept
repeating same mistakes due to lack of planning and execution. After a while, noticing his