Thanks to the research that has been done over the last decades a lot of light has been shed on the problems that pupils with specific learning disabilities have been facing. Fortunately nowadays experts are able to determine the cause of students’ underachievement in contrast to the time we were students.
Then all pupils exhibiting SpLDs’ characteristics were considered to be careless, lazy or just silly. Their inability to cope with the classroom demands was attributed by all of us to their lack of effort or indifference. Had I known about these difficulties, I would have certainly appreciated their effort.
As they were restless or inattentive, they were looked down upon by their peers and they were reproached by their teachers. They were suffering from anguish and frustration, as they were made to feel inadequate and inferior. Their low self-esteem resulted in a sense of failure and their withdrawal.
As a teacher now, I feel that I need to have an understanding of the problems that the students with specific learning disabilities may have within the classroom situation. Hopefully, with this insight, a great deal of misunderstanding of their behavior can be prevented. Moreover, this knowledge will enable me to adopt certain teaching strategies in order to successfully integrate them into the class environment.