Learning Disabilities and Disorders: Recognition & Support are Keys to Ensuring Young Athletes Use Sport To Help Develop Their Potential.
Considerations in using academic performance as a pre-requisite for sports participation are explored this week in The Physical Movement.
Over the years coaches have encountered young people with all kinds of backgrounds, strengths’ and weaknesses.
As coaches we have all experienced the young athletes:
Who have trouble sitting still during instructions.
Who have trouble remembering those instructions right after they were explained.
Who have physical coordination challenges and/or
Who exhibit disruptive behavior
Who lack self confidence in his/her abilities and
Who have problems with team concepts or
Who have trouble in execution of practiced plays.
While sport can help with all of the above, what happens if the athlete as wiring that makes some of the above a challenge?
What if this weakness was tied to how their brain processed information?
Learning disability is a term used to describe a range of learning and thinking differences that can affect the way the brain takes in, uses, stores, and sends out information. Some children have specific learning disabilities (also known as LDs), such as reading (dyslexia) or math disabilities. Others may have conditions that affect learning like attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or hearing loss. Many children with learning differences and difficulties can have more than one learning disability or condition that affects learning.
Experts think that some children have learning disabilities because their brains use and process information in a different way than other children's do. A learning disability doesn't mean that your child is less intelligent than other children or has "lazy" school habits.
In the field of Learning Disabilities (LDs), statistics on incidence rates can be particularly vulnerable to distortion or bias for a number of reasons. For example, there is no precise operational definition of learning disabilities that is widely accepted, with the result that studies are inconsistent in how they define what they are measuring. Similarly, studies vary in how they treat the disorder known as ADD/ADHD. Some include this as a specific type of LD involving attention, memory and concentration, others partial it out a separate but related and often co-existing disorder, while still others don’t mention it at all. Many incidence surveys are based on self-reporting, so their results depend on what the respondents understand about LDs, and also whether they are comfortable with disclosing. Then there is the impact of poor nutrition, sleep and inactivity. All these factors may help explain why estimates of the incidence rate of LDs range from as low as 2% of the population to as high as 10% or more.
For a child to get extra assistance and support in school, they must have a diagnosed LD. The diagnosis comes from a psychologist assessment. They can be expensive while much of it can be covered from family workplace benefits program, if available. With the diagnosis, the family can then work with the school to develop individual accommodations to address the LD, known as an IEP (Individual Education Program). An IEP may also be called an Individualized Program Plan (IPP). An IEP details your child's disability, appropriate teaching methods, and goals for the school year. The IEP changes, based on how well your child is doing. You have the right to ask for a change in the IEP if you don't agree with it.
With an IEP, accommodations are made on everything from the environment tests are taken to the time allocated or even course load that is considered full time. Without an IEP, the challenges can be overwhelming.
This background information lays the groundwork for understanding that:
1. 10% of more of your athletes can have some form of diagnosed LD.
2. That number maybe significantly higher in undiagnosed LD.
3. The ability to process information and execute is affected by LD.
4. In general terms, those with an LD are average or above average intelligence.
5. Accommodations and considerations can “level the playing field” for those with LD.
With the above in mind, does this impact the policy that academic performance must be of a certain level in order to participate?
If we look at the evolution of the student athlete into high schools and college years, we know that a certain GPA must be maintained to participate.
Are restricting participation opportunities due to poor academic performance considering factors other than effort that could lead missing eligibility requirements?
Are we doing a disservice in removing participation opportunities due to academic performance when these very same opportunities can assist in addressing the negative consequences of learning disabilities and disorders?
There is a long list of Hall of Fame athletes who have had some form of documented learning disability. They include Mohammed Ali, Michael Phelps and Magic Johnson. Brent Sopel is a former NHL Hockey player, Stanley Cup Winner and currently an advocate for learning difference awareness. Understanding the challenges of school with an LD highlights just how much these athletes and others have had to endure in order to get to the top of their sport.
“Struggling with something as simple as reading in kindergarten. You can see your friends and everybody reading and you’re struggling … you get called ‘dumb’ and ‘stupid’ and ‘lazy.’ And those are the three words that replay in my head every single day,” according to Sopel.
Dyslexia Canada executive director Christine Staley said there’s no training for the country’s teachers for them to learn how to identify a child with dyslexia or teach them.
“There is very little being provided in terms of resources to help those teachers attain the knowledge or provide proper support once they do. There are only a few schools in Canada that require mandatory identification. The provision of accommodations is not done in a universal or adequate manner,” Staley said.
Without accommodations, the student suffers academically, emotionally and socially and this impact can last a lifetime.
Studies show that among children whose families seek professional help for emotional or behavioral problems, 30 to 50 percent of them have learning disabilities.
Most of the time, experts don't know the reason for learning disabilities. But these disabilities tend to run in families. Medicines and formal counselling usually aren't used to treat LD.
Although building self-esteem is a lifelong process, the foundation of self-esteem or lack thereof is established in childhood. This foundation of positive self-esteem can be supported through youth sport and can do much to help a child deal with challenges.
Parents have the greatest influence on a child's belief about himself or herself. Letting your child know that he or she belongs, is doing well, and is contributing can help him or her develop healthy self-esteem.
Parents, coaches, administrators must be aware than there may be significant reasons why a child exhibits poor performance in the classroom or disruptive/negative behavior. Often, we are too quick to label someone as a bad kid or negative influence. Support starts with providing necessary testing and accommodations to learning disorders. Providing opportunities to succeed is what youth sport participation should be all about.
Youth sport is a tool that develops character. Taking it away for academic reasons maybe one of the biggest mistakes a coach or parent can make. Understanding the root cause(s) can avoid that mistake.