"Being lazy and disobedient, he is bound to become a beggar when he grows up!" An old man murmured to himself on the way home after a teacher has again complained about his grandson.

"Why are you so stupid and don't understand even a bit after so much revision?" A working mother, who is used to doing revision with her child every evening, roared with mental and physical exhaustion at the child at almost midnight.

"Why am I so useless and still fail in exam after so much revision?" A primary four student talked to himself in the mirror dejectedly, after getting back his dictation book.

"Lazy", "stupid" and "don't work hard enough" are the labels people put on these children and lack of recognition, acceptance and self-confidence constitute their growth. It is not difficult to imagine how unhappy their childhood is. Who are they? What are their "problems'? They are children with "specific learning disabilities". According to statistics, these children account for about 10 to 15 per cent of the pupils in Hong Kong. The ratio is similar to that of other cities and countries around the world.

What is "Specific Learning Disabilities"?

We always hear about jargons like "learning difficulties", "learning disabilities", "specific learning difficulties", "specific learning disabilities", "learning difference", "slow learning" and so on. These terms denote different referents and have different meanings. It was only five to six years ago that "specific learning disabilities" became popular in Hong Kong and people began to show concern about it. As people only have a scanty knowledge about this issue and name it in different ways as well as giving it different definitions, it is very much confusing when they talk about this same issue. When you say 'A' and I say 'B' and we think we were talking about the same issue, but in fact they are of different categories.

Right now, different professionals still have different knowledge and understanding about this issue. But the following definitions are more widely accepted by different sectors.

"Specific learning disabilities" can be divided into five types, namely developmental dyslexia, specific language impairment, developmental coordination disorder, specific learning disabilities in mathematics and visual spatial perceptual disorder.

"Specific learning disabilities" is congenital in nature and there is abnormality in one's brain.

Children with "specific learning disabilities" may not show any distinct syndrome of disability. They are normal intellectually and some may even be more intelligent than other children, hence they are often referred to as having "hidden disability".

Some children with "specific learning disabilities" may only suffer from one type of problem while some may have a combination of several. But the way of combination and level of severity differ from one person to another.

People with "specific learning disabilities" may even suffer from other problems as well, such as attention deficit disorder, disability, autism and so on, which make their situation even more complicated.

Since "specific learning disabilities" is congenital in nature, neither can it be cured nor will it disappear, as a child grows older. However, people with such disabilities can improve after training, coordination and assistance, such as making use of computer processing instead of handwriting.

Do you know any children who have some specific difficulties in their studies? If you do, it's time to offer them assistance.

(PS & SR Branch Welfare Services Group)