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Assistive Technology (AT): Can It Help People with Learning Disabilities?

A learning disability is a type of neurological disorder where a person’s brain is structured differently than most other people. These slight differences can affect how a person talks, listens, reads, writes, and many other processes. Some disorders are physically seen and can explain why and person has LD, while others are microscopic and cannot be detected. It has been shown that one in seven children have a learning disability.

The most common type (80%) have to do with language, reading, writing, and spelling issues. These children are just as intelligent as all other children in their age group. They just require assistive tools and some extra time to help them accomplish the work. Children with learning disabilities have a harder time processing and retaining information. The early a learning disability is detected the quicker it can be intervened and helped. This will enable school age children to be closer to the same goals as their peers and not have to struggle to keep up.

There are several tools that can help people with learning disabilities work around their weaknesses. Even though the disability will never be cured with help from assistive tools a person can learn to better. These enable LD children to work around their disabilities with numbers, letters, organization, and other school age tasks. Assistive tools are made to use for everyday activities including school, work, balancing money, or any other type of task they might need help in.

Instead of trying to fix a problem in the brain that cannot be fixed, assistive technology helps the learning disabled to work around these deficits. No matter what the age of the person is these tools can help an LD person reach their full potential. This will give them independence, self-esteem, and freedom to live up to their full potential. The tools that a learning disabled person uses can be highly advanced or just a simple device. It all depends on the person’s individual needs.

This is an important piece of the support system that allows the LD person achieve the success they deserve. Assistive technology opens a wide door of opportunity for learning and daily living that has proven to be a major success for those who have worn the benefits. AT is simply any piece of equipment, item, or product that can be used to increase or maintain the person with the disabilities ability to be independent. This can range from a simple calculator to a computer with specialized software.

Depending on what type of item is required there may be little or major training required teaching the individual how to use the equipment. These types of devices are meant to help the person’s overall life whether it is through school, work, home, or any other setting. Even a simple highlighter can be used as an assistive tool. It can be used to distinguish between similar words that cause confusion. Teachers can highlight specific words in different colors and help point out their differences. This will help the LD student become more aware of his or her disability and know what they need to work on most.

On the other end of the tool perspective there are high-tech tools. The optical character recognition system (OCR) allows you to enter text to a computer through a scanner and have it read back to the LD person using a speech synthesizer. The opposite of this is the speech recognition system that allows the user to speak into a microphone and have the sound converted into words in a document. One must be able to read well and go over the document in full to make sure the computer heard all the words right. These types of technologies are evolving rapidly and there are so many out there to fit all needs.

It is important to not buy a device just because it looks or sounds like it can help. Get a recommendation to a specific tool that will help the individual. One may find that they won’t benefit from the expensive technology while another person might. Make sure what ever you try is taught to you or your child thoroughly before attempting to use it. The device needs to fit to the individual not the other way around.