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1 in 4 kids in Ireland have learning difficulty RTE news

  • 17-05-2013 06:25PM
    #1
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,586 ✭✭✭


    Just saw this just now on the Six One news

    That's seems to be a huge number thought it wold have improved in the last 20 years


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Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,789 ✭✭✭grizzly


    I've seen the big eared boys on farms.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,133 ✭✭✭FloatingVoter


    Don't worry, half of them will wind up working for RTE News.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 240 ✭✭The Barefoot Pizza Thief


    It's because Sharon Ni Bheolain's tits are so distracting I'd say.

    This post has been replied to by a dyslexic.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 10,076 ✭✭✭✭Czarcasm


    sasta le wrote: »
    Just saw this just now on the Six One news

    That's seems to be a huge number thought it wold have improved in the last 20 years


    "Learning difficulties" though is a very broad catch-all term for people with... well, learning difficulties!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,227 ✭✭✭Solair


    Sounds more like 1/4 of kids have a teacher / school environment difficulty.

    1/4 of the population couldn't possibly have a learning difficulty. There's something seriously wrong if that's what the system is picking up.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,204 ✭✭✭dodderangler


    Don't worry, half of them will wind up working for RTE News.

    Or the government


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 13,029 ✭✭✭✭Chuck Stone


    We should give them medicine. We should medicate them all. Blue pills. I heard that blue pills were very good for that.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,972 ✭✭✭orestes


    sasta le wrote: »
    That's seems to be a huge number thought it wold have improved in the last 20 years

    Why would you think the number would have improved over the last twenty years? If anything, it's bound to go up as the standard of education and the ability to recognise disabilities improves. It's not like they have just the disabilites just showed up, they have probably always been around that number but just weren't known about or properly recognised because our education system was darconian to the point of being either abusive or dismissive of kids who couldn't grasp the fundamentals (corporal punishment, special/remedial classes, etc). The other side of it is that kids aren't getting taught in the same way as they used to so standards are slipping (bigger classes, too much technology, etc) and that the poor level in schools is being reflected in the kids.

    The problem will come when these kind of things get over-diagnosed like ADD/ADHD and every kid who isn't perfectly meeting the standard is assumed to have a learning disability.

    This stuff will all become irrelevant as soon as we figure out how to clone kids anyway, so no need to worry.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,133 ✭✭✭FloatingVoter


    orestes wrote: »

    This stuff will all become irrelevant as soon as we figure out how to clone kids anyway, so no need to worry.

    But then the cloned kids will wind up in the horseburgers and it'll all be a nightmare.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,179 ✭✭✭hfallada


    Well levels of allergies and disorders like ADD and ADHD have also sky rocketed. Anything that can be cures with a pill has risen.

    The pharmaceutical companies are keeping the share holders happy


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,329 ✭✭✭Gran Hermano


    What are the criteria used to define a learning difficulty?
    Does this mean that two out of four children are below average?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,238 ✭✭✭humbert


    Does learning difficulty mean little Jimmy isn't doing as well as little Jimmy's parents think he should be?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,113 ✭✭✭shruikan2553


    What exactly are they classing as a learning difficulty? If a child doesn't pick up on a subject as quickly as others it could just mean that the child needs a few minutes to have it explained, or the school can claim its ADD. Probably easier that way for them.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,330 ✭✭✭N64


    What exactly are they classing as a learning difficulty? If a child doesn't pick up on a subject as quickly as others it could just mean that the child needs a few minutes to have it explained, or the school can claim its ADD. Probably easier that way for them.

    My guess is that its when a educational psychologist diagnoses a learning difficulty in the child?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,124 ✭✭✭wolfpawnat


    Lets also take into account there are larger classes these days so if you can't keep up, your left behind! The teacher needs to get the curriculum done, if they have to help 30 odd kids with different things, it doesn't get done.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,113 ✭✭✭shruikan2553


    N64 wrote: »
    My guess is that its when a educational psychologist a learning difficulty in the child?

    I'm going to guess the missing verb as diagnoses.
    We cant tell whether or not they were diagnosed with the current info, are teachers sending a lot of children to psychologists these day?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,920 ✭✭✭mel.b


    Solair wrote: »
    Sounds more like 1/4 of kids have a teacher / school environment difficulty.

    1/4 of the population couldn't possibly have a learning difficulty. There's something seriously wrong if that's what the system is picking up.

    As someone else mentioned, learning difficulty covers a huge spectrum of actual difficulties / disabilities from Autism, Down Syndrome, other genetic and metabolic syndromes, hearing impairment, speech and language difficulties and things like dyslexia as well.

    Its really not that surprising considering:

    Autism prevalence rates are now 1 in 88 children.

    Estimates of the prevalence of language difficulty in preschool children are between 2% and 19%

    Specific Language Impairement (severe language impairement that children receive resource teaching hours) has a prevalence of approximately 7% in children entering school and is associated with later difficulties in learning to read.

    In America The National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities (LD) defines LD as a "general term to refer to a heterogeneous group of disorders manifested by significant difficulties in the acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning, or mathematical skills" (33). Almost 3 million school children (43.8%) ages 3 to 21 have some form of learning disability and receive special education in school.

    From ASHA - The American Association of Speech and Hearing website.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 349 ✭✭Schnitzel Muncher


    You have to question where much of this is special needs assistants etc making work to justify their own existence.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 10,076 ✭✭✭✭Czarcasm


    You have to question where much of this is special needs assistants etc making work to justify their own existence.


    You could of course question it, question everything, because that's the only way you'd realise that what you're suggesting above is quite frankly ill informed and beyond silliness. SNA's etc do not "need" to "make" work for themselves by fabricating statistics. There is a DEMAND for SNA's and teaching assistants at the moment that far exceeds supply, and the reason that supply cannot keep up with demand is- cost.

    There simply isn't the money there to provide the amount of SNA's needed for the amount of students with learning difficulties in mainstream schools today.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,300 ✭✭✭HazDanz


    I feel it in my waters. This will be a teacher bashing thread.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,930 ✭✭✭Jimoslimos


    50% of children are below average intelligence/learning ability.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 28,788 ✭✭✭✭ScumLord


    orestes wrote: »
    The other side of it is that kids aren't getting taught in the same way as they used to so standards are slipping (bigger classes, too much technology, etc)
    I don't think technology is the problem, they need to learn about technology, it's the world they live in. It's just the teachers still think technology is learning how to type. They could be teaching kids programing and engineering from a very young age and it would actually make the rest of their classes relevant to them. Instead of telling them they'll need maths when they get older they would be using maths and wanting to learn more.

    We're still treating the general population as illiterate peasants when it comes to education.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,573 ✭✭✭pragmatic1


    I'd say it's fairly accurate. Having a learning difficulty doesn't mean someone is mentally handicapped. It's a very broad term.

    I've heard the reason we have higher levels of learning difficulties in this country ,in contrast to other European countries, is because of successive brain drains due to emigration.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,586 ✭✭✭sasta le


    Not a teacher bashing thread.Actaully I think parents should be playing major role too


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,930 ✭✭✭Jimoslimos


    ScumLord wrote: »
    I don't think technology is the problem, they need to learn about technology, it's the world they live in. It's just the teachers still think technology is learning how to type. They could be teaching kids programing and engineering from a very young age and it would actually make the rest of their classes relevant to them. Instead of telling them they'll need maths when they get older they would be using maths and wanting to learn more.

    We're still treating the general population as illiterate peasants when it comes to education.
    Third level courses in science and engineering are bemoaning the fact that maths ability is severely lacking in undergraduates.

    Maths will always be more important than programming or engineering. You can't have either of these without it.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,300 ✭✭✭HazDanz


    sasta le wrote: »
    Not a teacher bashing thread.Actaully I think parents should be playing major role too

    Parents have a major role to a child's learning or not. Accepting your child may have some learning disability is often a stumbling block and without an open communication from the parents with the school it's very hard to facilitate the child's needs.

    The primary carer ultimately has the final say for what goes or not for a child. Whether it's an ill informed stance from the carer or just a case of denial of anything being wrong with the child it often can hamper them getting the quality help they need.

    Twin that with the lack of resources in terms of SNA support for teachers and you have stats like what the OP mentioned coming out.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,300 ✭✭✭HazDanz


    ScumLord wrote: »
    I don't think technology is the problem, they need to learn about technology, it's the world they live in. It's just the teachers still think technology is learning how to type. They could be teaching kids programing and engineering from a very young age and it would actually make the rest of their classes relevant to them. Instead of telling them they'll need maths when they get older they would be using maths and wanting to learn more.

    We're still treating the general population as illiterate peasants when it comes to education.

    Tbf I think the education system is trying to move more to a social constructivism stance which will incorporate more interdisciplinary learning so maybe in the near future technology will be highlighted in a more meaningful way for kids in classrooms.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,300 ✭✭✭HazDanz


    We should give them medicine. We should medicate them all. Blue pills. I heard that blue pills were very good for that.

    In fairness the Indians swear by it.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,345 ✭✭✭doolox


    This country has huge problems in terms of its inability to look to the future and try and solve personal development problems as early as possible to avoid criminalty and basic levels of long term unemployment brought about by some individuals inability to keep up with the mainstream education system imposed on them by a government that thinks only in 5 yr periods....to the next election.

    Todays problem pupils are, by and large, tomorrows criminals, or tomorrows long term unemployed.

    It is my opinion that pennies spent today on remedial education and special coaching will save millions spent over a persons lifetime in Prison and social welfare costs.

    Several institutions exist in which a big effort in human development and training have paid off. The Royal Navy has always prided itself on only allowing fully qualified people to captain their ships, unlike the army where a commission could be bought. The US navy saved many stricken ships in WW2 by a strict adherence to damage control, team work and keeping cool heads.

    Unfortunately we in Ireland have to learn the hard way that rushed sub-standard education and one-size-fits-all approaches will lead to increasingly bad life expectations for a lot of people.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,076 ✭✭✭Reindeer


    That many kids live in Tallaght?


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