Learning difficulties and ESL
Thursday 23 July 2015, by
Students with learning difficulties are at a greater risk for ESL than their peers since they are disproportionately more likely to experience other risk factors for ESL at the individual, family, school, community and/or system levels. Multiple and individualised approaches should be used by the system and educators to reduce the influence of these factors.
All across Europe, young people who leave school early are more likely to come from disadvantaged groups. These include young people with a disability, special needs or physical and mental health problems (NESSE, 2010). Students with learning difficulties are considered one of the disadvantaged groups even though there is no single interpretation or agreed definition of the term ’learning difficulty’. To better understand the background of learning difficulties and its relationship with ESL, a basic overview of the terminology is introduced in the paper. Regardless of the particular definition, students with learning difficulties are affected by several factors that influence their tendency for ESL even more than their peers, such as personal attitudes, family and community, and especially the teachers, the education system and also others. Students with learning difficulties indicate they do not feel engaged and connected to the school since the traditional programmes and teachers fail to meet their needs (Palladino, Poli, Masi, & Marcheschi, 2000).
Interventions to combat ESL therefore need to be based on an understanding of its complex determinants and the factors that operate in individual cases. The goal should be to promote a whole-school approach including teachers’ professional development since teachers’ improved social and emotional competencies and didactical approaches would offer a great supportive factor for students with learning difficulties in the ESL prevention context.
Some programmes have already proven to be successful for preventing ESL for students with learning difficulties, such as Cognitive Behavioural Interventions, the Check and Connect programme, and Shema Broadening Instruction. Therefore, further development of prevention programmes could be based on experiences with them.
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