How to Talk to Kids about Learning Disabilities with Karen I. Wilson, PhD- ReRelease

Special Guest: Karen I. Wilson, PhD Approximately 5% of school aged children have a learning disability and 13% of all public school students receive special education services. Another 15% are struggling due to an unidentified learning or attention issue. Struggles can look different in different children at different times of their childhood. Their struggles may be an issue with listening, concentrating, motivation, focus or other under-developed executive functioning skills. Children with learning disabilities not only cope with the disability itself but often misunderstanding of the disability. People may think that their lack of concentration is due to laziness, for example. They may believe that their impulsivity is linked to rudeness or feelings that their needs and wants are more important than other people’s needs and wants. So it’s not surprising that sometimes, with misunderstanding comes mislabeling. “That child is rude.” “So and so is a lazy child.” Mislabeling can linked to behavioral problems and can cause a lot of anxiety in children as they struggle to either prove someone wrong—or, prove others right as a self-fulfilling prophesy. Children with learning disabilities also must cope with teachers, administrators and parents jumping to an intervention that may not address the actual problem. How do we talk to kids and help kids who are struggling with learning disabilities so that they can reach tier potential and achieve their goals? For this, we turn to our guest, Dr. Karen Wilson.