Counselling with special Groups: Learning disability

 Definition 

            Learning disabilities also known as specific learning disabilities are disorders that affect one's ability in the domains of spoken or written language, mathematical calculation, attention, or the coordination of movement.

Some Learning Disabilities

ü  Dyslexia – Reading below the expected level for one's age.

ü  Dyspraxia – Impaired coordination of physical movements also known as Developmental coordination disorder (DCD), also known as developmental motor coordination disorder, developmental dyspraxia.

ü  Dyscalculia – Difficulty in learning or comprehending arithmetic,

ü  Dysgraphia – Learning disability of written expression,

APA

In DSM–IV–TR, any neurologically based information-processing disorder characterized by achievement that is substantially below that expected for the age, education, and intelligence of the individual, as measured by standardized tests in reading and mathematics and written material. In standard practice, a discrepancy of 2 standard deviations must exist between general intelligence testing scores (as measured by a standard normed IQ test) and achievement scores (as measured by a standard normed achievement test). Major types of learning disorders are disorder of written expression, mathematics disorder, nonverbal learning disorder, and reading disorder. This term essentially is synonymous with learning disability and in DSM–5 is called specific learning disorder, a category that subsumes impairments of reading, mathematics, and written expression as specifiers rather than as distinct diagnostic entities themselves.

Prerequisites for the counsellor prior to initiating counselling of LD clients

1. Thorough knowledge of what LD is
2. Causes and etiology of LD
3. Different types of LD (13 types)
4. Symptoms and behavioural manifestations of LD clients
5. LD-specific counselling intervention strategies
6. Biology of LD
7. Diagnostic criteria
8. Various associations, communities and organisations working for LD individuals
9. Pedagogy of special education
10. Common strengths and weaknesses of LD individuals
11. Individuals with learning disabilities are heterogeneous in several measures, i.e. each client is unique

Counsellor Must Desist from the Following Bias Creating Behaviours

1. Sympathy
2. Pity
3. Normal expectations,
4. Repulsion to physical abnormalities,
5. Labelling
6. Misinformation
7. Client’s culture and ethnicity
8. Hesitation or reluctance in acceptance
9. Generalisation

Counselling of Learning Disabled (LD) Client

1. Post rapport, the first step is to identify the specific LD from which the client is suffering (Autism, Deaf-blindness, Developmental delay, Emotional disturbance, Hearing impairments including deafness, Intellectual disability, Multiple Disabilities, Orthopedic impairments, Other health impairments, Specific learning disabilities, Speech or language impairments, Traumatic brain injury, Visual impairments including blindness).
2. Solution-focused therapy (SFT) - Empower the client to identify his/her particular abilities in solving life's problems. Focus on goal-oriented questioning to assist the learner with a specific learning disability.
3. Cognitive behavioural therapy – Identify the distorted/defective cognition (thought, perception, obsession, a memory of a traumatic event) and use CBT paradigms such as the realignment process, realistic approach for quicker adaptation, cognitive flexibility and acceptability to modify the distorted cognition. Focused on reshaping and developing new strategies of attending, encoding, storing and applying knowledge in problem-solving.
4. Client-centred therapy – After rapport, give sufficient time (as given by Shri Krishna to Arjuna in chapter 1 of Gita) listen to the client carefully, accept in totality, make notes, assess the narrative style, minimum or almost no suggestions or advice, pick up the inconsistency in the narrative, gently raise the inconsistency, seek clarification of inconsistency and keep going till the client feels at ease. 
5. Play therapy – After rapport, Create a playful environment, assess the choice and feasibility of the game to be played by the client, engage positively, use different games (psychological and physical). For play therapy, the counsellor can appoint an assistant or family member to play enthusiastically with the client. Remember, the game should offer learning with fun.
6. Sensory integration therapy – In this therapy, expose the client, primarily children, to sensory stimulation in a structured, repetitive way with the aim that, over time, their brains will adapt and allow them to process and react to sensations more efficiently. Through repetition, the child’s nervous system will respond more “organised” to sensory stimuli.
7. Family therapy – After rapport, inquire about the role of the family in the client’s life (for assessing the client’s viewpoint in the context of family), call on family members, discuss with them the significance of the role of the family in managing the client’s life, include cultural and spiritual aspects, family values and ethos, family veterans can be essential mediators who can deliver therapeutic interventions such as sharing anecdotes, experiences, coping strategies, handling of problems, adjustment strategies with the client. The most valuable effect of family therapy is its ability to reinforce and strengthen family bonds.

 

Real-life Counselling Paradigms for LD Individuals

1.         Identify how the child learns best – By visual, auditory or kinaesthetically.

2.         Be solution centric – Look for solutions to every problem.

3.         If you are a parent of a LD child – Take responsibility and be an active educator. Seek digital and physical help frequently.

4.         Optimism, positive persistence, pro-activism, and coping with stress bear fruits.

5.         Change priorities from academic achievements to life achievements. Academic achievements are a subset of life achievements.

6.         Focus on Pragmatist empathy instead of pure empathy and add a pinch of spiritualism to your pragmatist empathetic approach.

7.         Be self-dependent, no one other than you understand you.

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