Opinion Article - (2018) Volume 4, Issue 1
Fotis Papanastasiou*
Human Sciences and Health Scientific, Aegean College, Athens, Greece
Received Date: December 15, 2017; Accepted Date: January 05, 2018; Published Date: January 12, 2018
Citation: Papanastasiou F (2017) The Psychological Implication of Learning Disabilities. Acta Psychopathol 4:1. doi: 10.4172/2469-6676.100157
Learning disabilities, as a "differentiation" that occurs during the first school year of a child, have serious psychological, educational and social implications in their life [1-3].
The myths that have prevailed over dyslexia and many other special learning disabilities, inadequate information from both parents and teachers and the refusal of many parents to accept their child's difficulty have led to a distortion of the true image which presents a child with dyslexia and have reinforced misconceptions, such as that the particular children are arctic or low intelligence [4-8].
At this point, it is important to note that dyslexia, like the other Special Learning Disabilities, has absolutely no relation to the child's intelligence, gender or ethnicity, and constitutes a lifelong situation for the individual.
Children with learning disabilities experience almost everyday situations such as shame, anxiety, frustration, social isolation, melancholy and lack of self-confidence [9,10]. Such situations have serious psychological effects on a primary child and contribute to creating a negative self-image and low self-esteem. Generally, these children are hardly motivated to learn because they do not praise very often because of their low performance, and are not internally satisfied for the same reason.
Where learning disabilities coexist with hyperactivity, pupils with learning disabilities receive unfavorable criticism of both their performance and their behavior. Of course, such a treatment has negative effects on learning and shaping the personality of the child [11-13].
A recent survey conducted by the University of Macedonia at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki on "BULLYING - SCHOOL EDUCATION: Psychosocial, Educational Consequences and their Response" showed that pupils with learning disabilities suffer school bullying at a rate double to ten times the usual (40%) due to their degrading school failure, leading to low self-esteem and isolation.
Because of all these factors, children with learning disabilities often present school denial or school phobia [14-17]. This is the fear of the children going to school and their deep dissatisfaction with separating their parents. Children show an unwavering refusal to continue to go to school and often show psychosomatic symptoms such as vomiting, chest pain, stomachache, etc. Most of these symptoms resolve when the child does not have to go to school, for example, on holidays and weekends. It should be noted that there is usually no obvious reason for this denial. However, frequent absences of children are due to a variety of psychological problems [18,19].
With early diagnosis and early intervention, dyslexia can be addressed and the difficulties faced by a dyslexic child are minimized. The assessment of co-morbidity and the psychosocial complications of dyslexia is an essential part of the evaluation and therapeutic intervention [20,21]. Proper parenting and teacher briefing and their willingness to collaborate with experts is the key to addressing learning difficulties as well as all the consequences they have on a child's life.
