Language learning disabilities are complex in nature, and an integrated team of families, teachers, special education teachers and specialists, psychologists, and speech and language therapists come together to diagnose and treat them. When diagnosing current learning disabilities, the team undertakes the following responsibilities:
1- Interviewing the family and teachers to identify their concerns, and their observations about the academic responsibilities and children’s births in the classroom. Here, the team studies or researches the linguistic literary experiences available to children in the family environment through the availability of books, references, and reading materials, and the frequency of family occasions or situations in which children are observed as family members, writing, reading, preparing lists, notes, reports, and the requirements of daily practical life – the family.. and the degree of family interaction and conversation with children and their intentional and regular reading or according to daily circumstances, of children’s bedtime stories.
The diagnostic and therapeutic hypothesis here states: Children in families who are literate, linguistically interactive, and who are fully or partially occupied in their daily lives with linguistic responsibilities and activities are less likely to have current language learning disabilities.
2- Observing children during their classroom activities. The team in general, and the language therapist in particular, evaluates: the children’s ability to understand oral and written instructions, pay attention and participate in classroom activities and information displayed on the board, distinguish linguistic signs and symbols, touch the notebook correctly, write letters and numbers, and read and understand the study material in books, notes, and brochures.
3- Evaluation of phonemic awareness skills, i.e. the children’s ability to hear, play or vocalize the syllables and letters of words and the phonetic (verbal) repetition of letters, numbers and words.
4- Evaluation of spelling, writing and reading skills by conducting tests and tests that reveal the children’s ability to phonetically spell words, read correctly, and comprehend various educational materials in terms of their length, difficulty or linguistic level.
As for writing, the language therapy specialist focuses on examining the spelling abilities and writing relatively long expressive materials, their correct phonetic spelling of different letters, the extent of organization, sequence and coherence of written materials, and the correctness of vocabulary, grammar and spelling rules used in them.
5- Evaluation of language and speech skills in terms of pronunciation and correctness of speech, comprehension and use of grammar rules, vocabulary, relatively long speech, and remembering ideas and incidents in the story or speech.
6- Evaluation of procedural language abilities in terms of planning, organizing and implementing details of materials and written assignments, and following up on assignments School materials, and children’s ability to complete the deficiencies at the beginning, middle and end of the story or incident presented to them with appropriate ideas, words or situations.
Family guidance to overcome the problem of language learning disabilities in children
The family, through its active membership in the team for diagnosing and treating the problem of language learning disabilities in children, develops appropriate plans and solutions – through the team members, for the current problem.. Family guidance here can be of two types: preventive and therapeutic, which we require as follows:
* Preventive family guidance to overcome the problem of language learning disabilities.
The family and the specialized treatment team take the following preventive educational and behavioral measures (to prevent the occurrence of language learning disabilities or to mitigate their negative effects on children’s learning and achievement):
1- Exposing and training teachers and other concerned school cadres, for example: Student counselors or/and psychologists, social supervisors, and behavioral adjustment specialists or their like, on methods and procedures for identifying students whose behaviors indicate the risk of developing language disabilities, before they actually fall into their problems and fail in school as a result.
2- Working with specialists to prevent language disability problems before they occur, and providing Various opportunities for developing and improving spoken and written language skills at home and school.
3- Conducting appropriate language tests in speaking, listening, reading and writing for children who are observed by their families and teachers to have specific language difficulties.
4- Explaining the importance of shared reading (family with children, teachers with students) and children with peers (peers with peers) of books and written materials in developing language skills and achievement. Providing exemplary lessons and practical exercises in this framework and how to improve vocabulary and verbal expression skills through activities such as: naming the components of a situation or picture and describing the incidents or behaviors that occur in them.
5- Applying exemplary lessons to illustrate methods of developing comprehension skills among students through activities in which they mention or describe what the situations or pictures of the story embody, and predict what might happen in the future.
6- Asking students to recite the story they heard in their own language or to act out some of the situations in it.
7- Educating the family, teachers and other school cadres about methods that can be used to increase their awareness of the printed materials circulating in the environment and how to use them.
8- Explaining and clarifying strategies for the family and teachers to teach the letters and the sounds associated with each of them.
9- Exposing the family and teachers to the methods and ways in which they can practice various linguistic activities, with a model application to clarify how to perform them. Reading magazines, newspapers, writing letters, memos, and materials available to family members, children and peers in general.
* Therapeutic family guidance for the problem of language learning disabilities in children.
The family, along with the specialized treatment team, takes the following measures to overcome the problem of language learning disabilities in children:
1- Designing and developing an individual therapeutic program for children, based on the curricula and educational materials prescribed for their normal peers in their classes, and their activities in reading, writing and speaking, with the language therapy specialist implementing these therapeutic programs, and matching the son or daughter side by side in their regular classes or in other special educational facilities or facilities.
2- Organized and continuous follow-up by the family, the language therapy specialist and the children’s teachers in their therapeutic journey, with each party carrying out the educational activities expected of it, and coordinating the results together through specific therapeutic stages to improve and develop language skills and learning.