Disability Awareness: Exploring Learning and Physical Disabilities

This essay explores the multifaceted nature of disabilities, focusing on learning and physical disabilities and their profound impact on individuals' lives. It begins by defining disability and then delves into the specifics of learning disabilities, including conditions like Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) ...Read More

Running head: DISABILITY AWARENESS
LEARNING DISABILITY ASSIGNMENT
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

2DISABILITY AWARENESS
Disability is termed as impairments that could affect any individual’s cognitive
mental and physical wellness and abilities. This condition might present at birth or acquired
in the lifetime, due to which individual and their cognitive ability, physical strength and
mental peace are affected1. This paper would focus on two disabilities such as Learning
disability and physical disability.
Learning disability:
Learning disability is a health condition which includes mental illness and affect the
learning ability of the affected individual due to which, they suffer from critical mental health
conditions2. Several learning disability are progressive health condition, in which the affected
individual suffers from impaired social skills, speech issues, repetitive behaviour and non-
verbal communication3. One example of learning disability is Autism Spectrum disease, and
as the disease is based on its spectrum, for each affected individual, it exerts different
strengths and weaknesses4. The physical, social, intellectual, lingual and emotional aspects of
these conditions are as follows.
Physical effect
Physical effects of learning disability could range from developmental disorder,
mental effect of specific physical disability. Majority of the children affected with learning
disability has been found affected with anxiety, stress and due to such conditions, they
developed attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or other developmental disorders5.
1 Oliver, Mike. "Defining impairment and disability: Issues at stake." In Disability and Equality Law,
pp. 3-18. Routledge, 2017.
2 Torgesen, Joseph K. "Phonologically based reading disabilities: Toward a coherent theory of one kind
of learning disability." In Perspectives on learning disabilities, pp. 106-135. Routledge, 2018.
3 Alfonso, Vincent C., and Dawn P. Flanagan. Essentials of specific learning disability identification.
John Wiley & Sons, 2018.
4 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC. "Prevalence and characteristics of autism spectrum
disorder among children aged 8 years--Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 11 sites,
United States, 2012." Morbidity and mortality weekly report. Surveillance summaries (Washington, DC: 2002)
65, no. 3 (2016): 1-23.
5 Espelage, Dorothy L., Chad A. Rose, and Joshua R. Polanin. "Social-emotional learning program to
reduce bullying, fighting, and victimization among middle school students with disabilities." Remedial and
special education 36, no. 5 (2015): 299-311.

3DISABILITY AWARENESS
Further, affected hand and leg movements, affected coordination, affected fine motor skills
are observed in patients affected with learning disability.
Emotional effects
Due to the learning disability, affected individuals vary depending on their learning,
thinking, problem solving and other abilities. It was also seen that learning disability not only
affects the social connection but also hampers the emotional wellbeing of the person. Due to
social stigma and discrimination, they become unable to share their thoughts and ideations
within the society and hence, isolation prevails in their life. Hence, extreme high and extreme
low emotions are observed in affect children with tendency of withdrawal and anger6.
Intellectual effects
Due to affected learning and understanding abilities, affected children are unable to
understand the learnings and unable to apply their critical thinking hence their intellectual
quotient are low. Further, they are unable to understand the number and mathematical factors
and hence, they suffer from impaired learning abilities. Several researchers has identified to
the fact that children with learning disabilities are affected with impaired IQ and their
readings are less than 207. Therefore, they are unable to learn at the equal pace if compared to
a non- learning disability affected child. Hence, this is how the intellectual disability would
affect the child.
Language effects
Majority of children affected with learning disability are unable to understand the
speech and are unable to use speech to convey their thoughts. Their spoken and writing
language skills are affected due to the occurrence of learning disability. It has been observed
6 Van der Kolk, Bessel A. "Developmental Trauma Disorder: Toward a rational diagnosis for children
with complex trauma histories." Psychiatric annals 35, no. 5 (2017): 401-408.
7 Johnson, Samantha, Victoria Strauss, Camilla Gilmore, Julia Jaekel, Neil Marlow, and Dieter Wolke.
"Learning disabilities among extremely preterm children without neurosensory impairment: Comorbidity,
neuropsychological profiles and scholastic outcomes." Early human development 103 (2016): 69-75.

4DISABILITY AWARENESS
that due to learning disability, children become affected with listening, writing, reading and
specking concerns and hence, complication arises.
Social effects
As learning disability is a progressive health condition, in which the affected
individual suffers from impaired social skills, speech issues, repetitive behaviour and non-
verbal communication. As the disorder associated to learning disability such as autism
syndrome is originates in the early childhood, affected children are unable to develop social
communication and development8. As per researchers people affected with autism perceive
things differently and hence manifestation of any event on their personality differs from any
other individual with proper communication skills. Further, due to these differences, learning
disability affected individuals vary depending on their learning, thinking, problem solving
and other abilities. It was also mentioned that the condition not only affects the social
connection but also hampers the emotional wellbeing of the person9. Due to social stigma and
discrimination, they become unable to share their thoughts and ideations within the society
and hence, isolation prevails in their life.
Physical disability
Physical disability is a specific limitation for any patient and affects them by limiting
their movement. On the other hand, it could also lead to impairments that could affect people
and their activities of daily life. This section would discuss the physical, social, intellectual,
lingual and emotional aspects of physical disability10.
8 Ciullo, Stephen, Terry Falcomata, and Sharon Vaughn. "Teaching social studies to upper elementary
students with learning disabilities: Graphic organizers and explicit instruction." Learning Disability Quarterly
38, no. 1 (2015): 15-26
9 Kennedy, Michael J., Donald D. Deshler, and John Wills Lloyd. "Effects of multimedia vocabulary
instruction on adolescents with learning disabilities." Journal of Learning Disabilities 48, no. 1 (2015): 22-38.
10 Bickenbach, Jerome E. "Disability and life-ending decisions." In Physician Assisted Suicide, pp.
123-132. Routledge, 2015.

5DISABILITY AWARENESS
Physical issue
The physical complication of this disability is associated to the type of disability the
person is suffering from. However, the general effects of physical disability is associated with
impaired physical activity, impaired vision, hearing, and affected mental abilities. Further,
due to specific disability affected children are unable to make coordination between their
movements and affects their movement11.
Emotional issue
Physical disability is associated to mental stress and depression, due to impaired
abilities, impaired ability to perform specific tasks patients lose their mental strength, their
self- confidence, self- esteem and hence, they are affected with severe mental disease such as
stress and depression syndrome. His further leads them to develop suicidal or destructing
thinking affecting their constructive thinking abilities. Hence, due to physical disability
people are affected with mental stress depressing and associated health conditions.
Intellectual issue
Physical disability not always associated with intellectual disability and such people
are able to learn with equal pace and speed compared to non- affected individual. However, if
they are affected with any accidental or acquired disability in lifetime, impaired learning
abilities could be observed. This is due to the shock that the body duffers from in the phase of
disability, due to which people are affected with slower learning and understanding speed12.
11 Iezzoni, Lisa I., Amy J. Wint, Suzanne C. Smeltzer, and Jeffrey L. Ecker. "Physical accessibility of
routine prenatal care for women with mobility disability." Journal of Women's Health24, no. 12 (2015): 1006-
1012. 12 Doherty, Alison Jayne, Richard Hastings, Christopher Hatton, Kerry Hood, Lynn James-Jenkinson,
Ralph Leavey, Elizabeth Randell et al. "Barriers and facilitators to primary health care services for physical
and/or mental health issues experienced by adolescents and adults either with intellectual disabilities (only),
with intellectual disabilities and autism, or with autism (only): an integrative review." (2018).

6DISABILITY AWARENESS
Language issues
Physical disability with impaired learning and understanding abilities could lead to
complications of language by affecting their abilities to read, write and speak languages.
Social issues
Due to physical disability, majority of the people are affected with lower self- esteem
and confidence that increases their consciousness and they hesitate to communicate within
society, therefore their ability to communicate or connect within society decreases. Therefore,
people with impaired disability are affected with impaired ability to communicate due to
social stigma and fear of discrimination13.
13 Walton-Fisette, Jennifer L., Rod Philpot, Sharon Phillips, Sara B. Flory, Joanne Hill, Sue Sutherland,
and Michelle Flemons. "Implicit and explicit pedagogical practices related to sociocultural issues and social
justice in physical education teacher education programs." Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy 23, no. 5
(2018): 497-509.

7DISABILITY AWARENESS
Bibliography
Alfonso, Vincent C., and Dawn P. Flanagan. Essentials of specific learning disability
identification. John Wiley & Sons, 2018.
Bickenbach, Jerome E. "Disability and life-ending decisions." In Physician Assisted Suicide,
pp. 123-132. Routledge, 2015.
Ciullo, Stephen, Terry Falcomata, and Sharon Vaughn. "Teaching social studies to upper
elementary students with learning disabilities: Graphic organizers and explicit instruction."
Learning Disability Quarterly 38, no. 1 (2015): 15-26.
Doherty, Alison Jayne, Richard Hastings, Christopher Hatton, Kerry Hood, Lynn James-
Jenkinson, Ralph Leavey, Elizabeth Randell et al. "Barriers and facilitators to primary health
care services for physical and/or mental health issues experienced by adolescents and adults
either with intellectual disabilities (only), with intellectual disabilities and autism, or with
autism (only): an integrative review." (2018).
Espelage, Dorothy L., Chad A. Rose, and Joshua R. Polanin. "Social-emotional learning
program to reduce bullying, fighting, and victimization among middle school students with
disabilities." Remedial and special education 36, no. 5 (2015): 299-311.
Iezzoni, Lisa I., Amy J. Wint, Suzanne C. Smeltzer, and Jeffrey L. Ecker. "Physical
accessibility of routine prenatal care for women with mobility disability." Journal of
Women's Health24, no. 12 (2015): 1006-1012.
Johnson, Samantha, Victoria Strauss, Camilla Gilmore, Julia Jaekel, Neil Marlow, and Dieter
Wolke. "Learning disabilities among extremely preterm children without neurosensory
impairment: Comorbidity, neuropsychological profiles and scholastic outcomes." Early
human development 103 (2016): 69-75.

8DISABILITY AWARENESS
Kennedy, Michael J., Donald D. Deshler, and John Wills Lloyd. "Effects of multimedia
vocabulary instruction on adolescents with learning disabilities." Journal of Learning
Disabilities 48, no. 1 (2015): 22-38.
Torgesen, Joseph K. "Phonologically based reading disabilities: Toward a coherent theory of
one kind of learning disability." In Perspectives on learning disabilities, pp. 106-135.
Routledge, 2018.
Van der Kolk, Bessel A. "Developmental Trauma Disorder: Toward a rational diagnosis for
children with complex trauma histories." Psychiatric annals 35, no. 5 (2017): 401-408.