Professionals involved in learning disability

Special Educator
Special Education describes an educational alternative that focuses on the teaching of students with academic, behavioral, health, or physical needs that cannot sufficiently be met using traditional educational programs or techniques. Children who have special learning needs which arise out of sensory, intellectual, psychological or socio-cultural deficits often face difficulty in facing the challenges of mainstream education. They might need special inputs to perceive and comprehend the vast information presented to them using special instructional methodology and instructional material, learning aids and equipment specific to each individual's learning needs. This puts an additional demand on the teaching competencies of the otherwise mainstream teacher. These needs have given rise to the component of education known as Special Education (including Remedial Education).

Linguistic Therapist
A Linguistic Therapist performs a comprehensive evaluation of language-base learning skills that helps identify strengths and weaknesses in the following skills:
Auditory comprehension
Expressive language ability
Phonemic awareness (ability to process speech sounds)
Current reading level (decoding and comprehension)
Processing of higher-level language (inferences, idioms, etc.)
Language formulation in writing
Spelling
Auditory and visual memory
Vocabulary level
Word-finding abilities


A typical linguistic program will involve:

Phonemic awareness is the ability to separate words into individual sounds, and blend individual sounds into words. Targeted listening activities give a boost to the development of the area of the brain responsible for this skill.
Phonics is the ability to associate a letter with its given sound(s). Activities at this level focus on decoding nonsense syllables and words in order to learn how to break the reading code.
Fluency involves reading quickly and accurately. Increasing speed involves repeated oral reading with feedback, sight word instruction, and increasing speed with specific listening activities.
Vocabulary development is crucial for progressing in reading at an age-appropriate level. Word-finding skills are targeted in activities designed to develop rapid sound and meaning associations between words, such as plant, planting, plantation, planter, and power plant.
Comprehension focuses on strategies for chunking information, visualizing the picture being painted by the words, and formulating inferences and conclusions. At this level, work focuses on the whole text.

Many children with Central Auditory Processing Disorder will benefit from auditory training procedures and phonological awareness training. Intervention may also involve the identification of (and training in the use of) strategies that can be used to overcome specific auditory, speech and language, or academic difficulties. A number of actions can be taken to improve the quality of the signal reaching the child. Children can be provided personal assistive-listening devices that should serve to enhance the teacher's voice and reduce the competition of other noises and sounds in the classroom. Acoustic modifications can be made to the classroom (e.g., carpeting, acoustic ceiling tiles, window treatments) which should help to minimize the detrimental effects of noise on the child's ability to process language in the educational setting.

Finally, teachers and parents can assist the child in overcoming his or her auditory deficits by speaking clearly, rephrasing information, providing preferential seating, using visual aids to supplement auditory information, and so forth. The program should be tailored to the child's individual needs, and it should represent an interdisciplinary approach. Parents, teachers, educational specialists, and other professionals, as appropriate, should be involved in the development and implementation of the child's management program.