With the change of the spectrum of human diseases, the incidence of psychological and behavioral diseases in children is gradually increasing.
Learning difficulties refer to the child's obvious difficulties in learning knowledge, which is manifested by straining, poor academic performance, emotional and behavioral problems, and more maladjustment to school life.
What are the causes of children's learning difficulties? What are the "obstacles" on the way to learning?
1. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), abbreviated as ADHD, is one of the most common neurodevelopmental or developmental behavioral disorders in children.
If you don't listen to the lecture in class, or just listen to a little, the learning knowledge is not or partially obtained, and the child will naturally not be able to complete the exam papers due to hyperactivity and inattention, which leads to poor academic performance and learning difficulties. There are also many children who are not obvious in grades 1-2, and the gap is evident in the upper grades, which is related to the higher and higher knowledge and skills required in the upper grades.
In view of the learning difficulties caused by ADHD, some children can also become "school masters" through scientific intervention and treatment. In addition to medication, the Department of Child Psychology and Behavior has also carried out a series of behavioral interventions for ADHD, such as sensory integration training, biofeedback therapy, executive function and cognitive function training, and comprehensive measures to promote the improvement of children's symptoms and alleviate children's learning difficulties.
2. Tic disorders
Tic disorders often coexist with ADHD.
Tic disorder is a disorder in which involuntary, repetitive, rapid, and aimless muscle movements or vocal tics of one or more parts are the main manifestations.
The child is shown to blink his eyes, shrug his nose, crook his mouth, clear his throat and other actions, because of these actions, the child is often branded as deliberately strange and ridiculed. Because these movements are involuntary, especially vocal movements will interfere with classroom discipline, many children choose not to go to school because of this, and some children want to control this symptom when they are in class, but many times they can't control it, and they are distracted in class, which also causes a decrease in the amount of knowledge acquisition, resulting in learning difficulties.
In addition to medication, the Department of Child Psychology and Behavior also provides behavioral therapy, biofeedback relaxation therapy, and CBIT behavioral therapy to alleviate and treat tic disorders and help children achieve academic performance.
3. Speech and language development disorders (language problems)
Speech is the communication of spoken language, and language includes comprehension, expression, and communication.
Language impairment refers to a language ability that is significantly and quantifiably lower than that of peers, i.e., people who do not speak and speak less often.
Speech disorders include dysarthria (slurred speech) and fluency disorders (stuttering).
Some children show poor understanding of language, low vocabulary, poor language logic, and often feel difficult to communicate, such children begin to show great difficulties in the Chinese subject, and then affect the understanding of math problems in the upper grades, resulting in unsatisfactory grades.
The Department of Child Psychology and Behavior has introduced children's language development screening, as well as voice tests to evaluate children's functional dysarthria, carried out speech therapy techniques (such as articulation training), and also carried out infant language communication assessment (DREAM-IT) and Putonghua Hearing Comprehension and Expression Ability Standardized Assessment (DREAM-C), using these technologies to diagnose and intervene early, better promote children's language development, help children with speech and language development disorders, and reduce later damage. So that children do not become an obstacle to academic performance because of language problems.
4. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
Autism spectrum disorder is a complex group of neurodevelopmental or developmental behavioral disorders characterized by social communication and communication disorders, narrow interests, and repetitive stereotyped behaviors.
ASD affects children's life, learning, and social skills, and a large number of children have normal intelligence or even excellent intelligence, but it is very difficult to learn, and their academic performance is always unsatisfactory, which causes great trouble to both parents and teachers. In fact, children with ASD have difficulty learning, and many times the child's thinking interest is not in learning, and they do not know how to abide by exams and study rules.
In 2009, the Department of Child Psychology and Behavior took the lead in carrying out autism rehabilitation treatment in public hospitals in Jiangxi Province, introduced autism early intervention technology (Denver early intervention model) in 2016, and carried out the application of the Autism Diagnostic Observation Scale (ADOS) (gold standard) in 2020.
Early diagnosis and scientific intervention can improve the functional impairment of most ASDs and promote the learning of children with ASD.
5. Developmental delay/intellectual disability
Developmental delay/intellectual disability is a cognitive and social adjustment disorder that occurs during development, with a prevalence of 1% to 3% of the population.
Learning difficulties caused by developmental delay/intellectual disability are manifested in the fact that they do not understand the content of the teacher's lectures, like listening to a book from heaven, and the test results are not satisfactory, and the child does not do it, but really does not know how to do it.
For such children, patient and repeated education and active rehabilitation are required.
6. Specific learning disabilities
Specific learning disability is when a child has normal intelligence but has significant difficulties in acquiring and using listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning, and math skills.
Some children show dyslexia, children feel that words are dancing when they read words, and it is particularly difficult to recognize words; Some children have dysgraphia; There are also calculations that are difficult.
The main cause of this situation is the dysfunction of the central nervous system, which is not intentional by the child and requires a special educational approach.
7. Emotional problems
Children will have emotional experiences such as worry, anxiety, fear, and shyness during normal growth, and some children may turn into extreme emotional experiences for some reasons, i.e., emotional problems.
Children's emotional problems mainly involve a group of disorders characterized by symptoms such as anxiety, fear and obsessive-compulsiveness, when the child is in emotional problems, the child is struggling with emotions, has no energy to care about learning, does not want to learn, and thus causes learning difficulties.
Jiangxi Provincial Children's Hospital warmly reminds:
There are many reasons for children's learning difficulties, and the above seven "roadblocks" are intricate, and many times children encounter not just one, but many.
The Learning Difficulties Clinic or Psychological and Behavioral Clinic of Jiangxi Provincial Children's Hospital mainly helps children find the cause by understanding the child's family nurturing environment, investigating the underlying disease status and environmental risk factors that affect the learning performance, and comprehensively solves the problem with diagnostic assessment, drug treatment, parent education and behavioral intervention guidance.
Child Mental Health Unit
Zou Shipu: Director of the Department of Child Mental Health, Chief Physician, specializing in nutritional feeding and nutritional disorders, child developmental behavior assessment and developmental behavior disorders, growth and development, early intervention and early development of infants and young children.
Zhong Xia: Deputy Director of the Department of Child Mental Health, Deputy Chief Physician, specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of common diseases in children's health care, comprehensive guidance on children's psychology, developmental behavior, growth and development, nutritional feeding and early development.
Li Weijun: Deputy Director of the Department of Clinical Nutrition, Chief Physician, specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of common diseases in children's health care, diagnosis and treatment of common psychological and behavioral diseases in children, guidance on nutritional feeding and nutrition-related diseases in children, and guidance on enteral and parenteral nutrition in children with diseases.
Zhong Yunying: Chief Physician, good at the prevention and treatment of common and frequent diseases in children's health care; counseling and guidance on children's psychological and behavioral problems; In particular, he has extensive experience in the diagnosis and treatment of language disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder and other diseases.
Gong Jun: Deputy Chief Physician, specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, tic disorder, autism spectrum disorder, anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and other psychological and behavioral diseases, as well as common and frequent diseases in children's health care.
Qin Jie: Deputy Chief Physician, engaged in child development and behavior, specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of children's psychological and behavioral development problems, and comprehensive guidance for adolescent emotional disorders.
Note: The visiting time is for reference only, please refer to the registration schedule on the hospital's WeChat platform for details.
Source: Jiangxi Provincial Children's Hospital
Correspondents: Hong Yan, Luo Ying, Wei Meijuan
Editor: Huang Menglin
Reviewer: Chen Shirui
Issued: Daley Red
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