Social Cues for Children With Learning Disabilities–What Can Go Wrong?

A learning difficulty can be defined as an issue with the brain’s ability to process incoming information. Children or adults with learning difficulties may not be able to understand things or learn as quickly as others. This leads to challenges in the development of basic skills such as reading social cues. 

Generally, people with learning disabilities may be considered as average or above-average intelligence. A gap between the individual’s potential and actual achievements is often noticed during the early childhood stage. A person with learning difficulties may appear to be completely “normal” and may appear to be quite bright and intellectual, yet they may be unable to complete fundamental tasks or attain the level of proficiency expected of someone their age.

Learning difficulties can highly impact one’s ability to initiate conversations or have social interactions with other people. They often fail to understand non-verbal forms of communication or understand how to react to a certain situation. Hence, it is important to understand the different types of learning difficulties and how they can affect the day-to-day life of a person. 

In this article, we’ll discuss the basics of learning difficulties and how they can have a direct impact on reading social cues. To start with, let’s understand how learning difficulties can affect an individual’s life.

Learning Disabilities: Definition, Causes & Types

About 4 million children and teenagers have learning difficulty and many of them have to cope with more than one type of difficulty. Learning difficulties can be termed as neurological challenges that affect the way the brain receives, processes, stores and analyzes information. Learning difficulties may be typically diagnosed when an individual is in school as it affects one’s ability to develop reading, writing and math skills. 

A special issue of the Australian Journal of Learning Difficulties describes the importance of early childhood education for the identification of learning difficulties at an early age. 

However, for some people learning difficulties are not identified until they have reached the college level or started their jobs. It’s even possible that some may never have their condition diagnosed and continue to experience learning difficulties throughout their lives. 

Causes 

There is no definite conclusion regarding the causes of learning challenges, however experts think that factors such brain development, genetic influences, and environmental effects are most likely to be considered as the main causes of learning difficulties:

• Learning difficulties have often appeared in families but researchers are sceptical if this is due to genetic causes or influence from parents as children mostly learn from and model them at an early stage of their lives. 
• Children who were born prematurely, suffered a head injury, or had a low birth rate may be more prone to develop a learning difficulty since brain development before and after birth can also be viewed as a cause of learning difficulties.
• Environmental effects such as poor nutrition and intake of toxins in early childhood can also be considered as potential factors that may lead to learning difficulty later. 

Types 

The following specific conditions can be considered as types of learning difficulties:

• Dyslexia: Dyslexia, also referred to as a language-based learning disability, can impair memory, speech, fluency in reading, writing, spelling, and comprehension.
• Dysgraphia: In this condition, an individual might find it difficult to write legibly, spell, compose, think and write simultaneously or space words consistently. Dysgraphia specifically affects handwriting and other fine motor skills. 
• Dyscalculia: This condition has an impact on one’s ability to develop math skills such as understanding numbers and learning math-related facts. People with dyscalculia can find it difficult to organise or memorise numbers, comprehend math symbols, tell time, and count. 
• Auditory processing disorder (central auditory processing disorder): This disorder makes it difficult to distinguish between various sound patterns and forms, understand them, or identify their source. People might have trouble distinguishing sounds from background noise.
• Language processing disorder: This disorder, a type of APD, makes it challenging for people to comprehend the sound groups that constitute words and phrases. This disorder affects how both expressive and receptive language are processed. 
• Nonverbal learning difficulties: People have trouble reading body language and facial expressions. This disorder affects physical, social, and visual-spatial abilities.
• Visual perceptual/visual motor deficit: A visual motor deficiency, which can impact how a person receives visual information, their ability to draw or copy, their hand-eye coordination, and their ability to read text, may also be present in people who have dysgraphia or a nonverbal learning difficulty.

Social Cues 

Social cues can be defined as the ways in which people communicate without making use of words. These cues generally involve aspects including facial How can learning difficulties affect the ability to read social cues?

People with learning difficulties are unable to read and understand social cues accurately. In general words, the information received through social cues is not ideally processed in the brain of an individual having one or more learning difficulties. The inability to read social cues may lead to interruptions in communication. 

Here’s a list of some of the most common challenges faced by people with learning difficulties: 

• Lack of effective communication: For individuals with learning difficulties, everyday interactions can prove to be challenging. Children with this condition may find it difficult to initiate conversations. 

Furthermore, they may have difficulty understanding body language or interpreting facial expressions due to their inability to read social cues. As a result, they may come out as rude or insensitive even if their actions are unintentional. 

• Difficulty in making friends: Effective communication is one of the key aspects that decide whether one can make friends. 

Socially adept children can easily interact with others, making them more popular amongst classmates. As they can read social cues, it’s easier to adjust their own behaviour based on a situation. 

However, for children or teenagers having learning difficulties, it gets challenging to make new friends. This is because they find it difficult to start conversations or understand non-verbal actions. 

Lack of problem-solving abilities: Except for struggling with communication, people with learning difficulties may also struggle with solving problems. This is because they find it tough to handle conflicts or difficult situations due to the inability to understand another person’s point of view. expressions, body movements, voice tone, our physical proximity to others, and other ways we express ourselves excluding verbal communication. 

Learning Difficulties: Benefits of The Tomatis® Method 

As we’ve discussed the various challenges faced by people with learning difficulties, it is extremely important to find effective solutions that can boost their learning abilities and improve their social skills. 

Every year, over 200,000 individuals benefit from The Tomatis® Method. As an ear-brain training program, this method facilitates communication, learning and overall social development!

The Tomatis® Method retrains your or your child’s ear and its connections to the brain and body to primarily restore listening. As an emotionally acceptable way, listening can be termed as an attentive mode of the ear for learning and communication. It’s important to note that any change in listening patterns leads to an immediate change in the learning abilities of an individual. 

How does it work?

The Tomatis® Method is an ear fitness programme that strengthens the neurological connections that allow you or your child to perceive, act, and think. It sparks attention and improves the desire and motivation to learn and explore. The Tomatis® Method is an effective way to overcome your or your child’s learning difficulties. 

Get Started With The Tomatis® Method, Today!

Is your child struggling to achieve in school? Are you worried if he/she lacks in initiating conversations or reading social cues? They may be going through learning difficulties! The Tomatis® Method is the best gift for you and your loved ones. Visit Tomatis® Australia’s website and get in touch with the Tomatis® professionals, to know more!