Healthy kids' learning problems hard to spot, harder to surmount

By Rita A. Widiadana

JAKARTA (JP): For many children, growing up is tough. For some, the process is even more difficult than normal because of problems not visible to other people.

At school, they fight to acquire basic academic skills without success, they disrupt classes and frustrate their teachers. At home, they drive their parents mad.

Parents of these children often sense problems with their offspring at a very young age, but they can't quite put their finger on what is wrong.

Atie W. Soekandar, chairwoman of Pantara Foundation, which runs a school for children with learning difficulties, explained that many of today's children are struggling through school with problems that cause pain, yet still pass unrecognized.

Many people are unable to empathize with their difficulties because they are physically normal, active and healthy, she said.

"These children suffer from cognitive developmental problems, currently known as learning difficulties (LDs), which are hard to detect without integrated medical, psychological and academic examination," she said.

Their problems may hamper basic learning, including reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic and language (both comprehension and expression).

Other problems may also affect areas of learning that are vitally important but far less well-understood, such as social competence, emotional control and motoric coordination, she said.

"It is important to address these problems immediately because academic skills are such an important factor in this highly competitive world," she added,

Atie also added that these emotional and learning difficulties, if not properly managed during childhood, could impair sufferers' self-esteem and ability to cope in later life.

The number of children suffering from learning disorders is alarming. In the United States, Europe, New Zealand and Australia and other developed countries, approximately 10 percent to 20 percent of children are reported to have learning difficulties.

"In Indonesia, we don't know the exact number of children facing these learning problems," she said, adding that if 10 percent of the elementary school age population in Indonesia are affected, that would translate to approximately 2 million children.

"To make matter worse, most teachers, parents and even health care professionals in Indonesia are ill-informed about the issue," Atie added, pointing out that the term learning difficulty is relatively new in Indonesia, even in medical circles.

In developed countries, children with learning difficulties are now getting the attention they require because of active campaigning by their parents, teachers, doctors and other related parties.

In countries such as the United States, Britain and Germany, governments have already passed laws to guarantee these children access to a good education.

A large amount of research into learning disorders is currently being carried out by medical and education experts in order to discover more about these enigmatic afflictions.

One such study is being conducted by Dr. Gordon Serfontein, a pediatric neurologist at the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children in Sydney, Australia.

His study, compiled in his best selling book The Hidden Handicap, gives a better insight into the difficulties that these children encounter throughout the greater part of their lives.

According to Dr. Serfontein, who has taken care of more than 8,000 children with learning difficulties in South Africa, Canada and Australia, a learning difficulty is an unexpected and unexplained condition occurring in a child of average or above average intelligence, characterized by a significant delay in one or more areas of learning.

The medical term used over the last 10 years to describe the general condition is Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). Beneath this broad term are a host of specific conditions, all of which can impair a child's ability to learn, including dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia and dysphasia.

The majority of sufferers are boys, with between 5 percent and 20 percent of the population affected.

"Approximately 90 percent of all children with these problems are boys. This is thought to be due to certain genes on their X- chromosome," the book reveals.

The book also states that the all new born babies carry a 1 in 10 chance of developing a significant and specific learning difficulty.

Other studies confirm that the condition is essentially genetic in nature. It would appear that it is almost certainly inherited by the child, frequently through the male line of the family, Dr. Serfontein writes.

Children who experience difficulties in learning or developing the appropriate behavior at school may therefore have two major reasons for their problems.

Environmental difficulties may lead to distorted learning and behavior problems, and this can be compounded by developmental immaturity in parts of the brain critical to the learning process.

Early detection relies upon suspicions that a child is not developing as expected.

In the early years, alarm bells are usually set off by hyperactivity, impulsiveness or delayed speech development.

Coordination problems in the form of poor pencil grip and an inability to join in group games are often symptomatic once a child reaches school age.

There are early intervention centers in Jakarta and other big cities in Indonesia. For example, the Special Child Clinic at Harapan Kita Hospital in West Jakarta, and a clinic at Husada Hospital in Central Jakarta are now able to carry out assessments of children thought to be suffering from these difficulties.

The assessment includes clinical and psycho-educational examinations by a neurologist, psychiatrist, psychologist, and occupational and speech therapists, all of whom are qualified in pediatric medicine.

If the condition is diagnosed after comprehensive assessment, a course of therapy begins. Treatments include remedial teaching, behavioral therapy, speech, occupational and drug therapies.

Although modern medicine provides a wealth of treatments, the fact remains that helping a child come to terms and then overcome a learning difficulty is not always easy.

"Assessment programs for children with learning difficulties are expensive and not within the financial means of all parents," Atie said.

Education facilities for affected children are also limited and quite expensive. Schools like Pantara School are only able to accommodate very small numbers of children.

"What about the other children with learning difficulties throughout the country? They really can't wait," she said.