How to Identify Slow Learner Children? | Psychology

In this article we will discuss about how to identify slow learner children.

The defects of children who are blind, deaf or physically handicapped are readily apparent to the observers. The handicaps of educationally subnormal or slow learners are not always so obvious. They are less able than most children to meet the normal demands of education and life in modern community or society. Culturally it is relative. In a less advanced society, even they do not draw attention. They manage will.

The period at which their limitations arise are most obvious is that of school years. The normal living demands certain intelligence, capacity for abstract conceptual thinking, intellectual skills, minimum attainment in reading, and writing, simple calculation. A proportion of students are so limited in their capacity to learn that they are handicapped to meet the demands of the normal school learning. Other is learning difficulties and therefore is slow learners. If teaching is not suitably geared to their slow rate of progress and are not modified to use the most effective ways of earning these children fail to achieve success.

Hence, there is a need for special educational measure to ensure for these children the maximum progress of which they are capable in the traditional three R’s and in practical, social and personal life. There are quite apparent in the context of universal education in the closing educates of the present century and which started in the closing dupable of 19th century.

The application of psychology to education and to the study of child development began to have increasing influence. Binet’s contribution to mental testing contributed to a large extent to the realization of differential treatment for children as per their ability and needs. But’s forty years of research provided a foundation of knowledge about the extent of backwardness, its causes and the broad lines of treatment for the slow learning children.

Slow learning and/ or educationally subnormal children have limited intellectual development. Many of these children grow up in circumstances which limit rather than foster the development of intelligence. Very poor homes rarely provided as good opportunities for the incidental learning as average or good homes do. Skeels and Day (1939) and Skodak and Skeels (1949) studies showed that removing children from extremely unfavourable environment to one which is very much more favourable would seem to result in quicker mental development during preschool years. Nursery school experiences accelerate mental growth. Unfavourable school and home conditions and responsible for decline of intelligence.

There is every possibility that in a classroom there must be some slow learners. These children consist of a group with mild handicaps. They come to school regularly; but they are likely to become dropouts if their needs are not met. From the psychological point of view, it would be conductive for these children to be identified earlier. Then necessary steps can be taken to help them in their learning. Survey works reveal that it is somehow easier to identify more severely handicapped children than the mildly handicapped ones.

A teaching expert is easily able to identify and deviation in classroom behaviour pertaining to learning difficulties of children. He has primary knowledge about the fact which spells out clearly that the slow learners require more time and more help to acquire the skills in comparison with the average children. These children also rely more on concrete learning rather than abstract learning. Psychologists and expert use various tools and techniques to identify slow learners.

These are as follow:

(1) Observation Technique:

Observation of children’s behaviour by the teacher as well as experts may help in identifying slow learners. This observation may be done under simple as well as controllable conditions. While observing children’s behaviour, a strict watch can be kept for their reaction to various situations. A child’s behaviour is not only observed in the classroom, but also on the playground, home and in the group etc.

Observation may be done by just watching the child’s behaviour directly and by moving along with the child. It should be kept in mind that for this technique, the observer should have the capacity for analysing and interpreting the information he gets from his observation. Observation technique is conductive for ascertaining the recreational, occupation and extra-curricular interest of children.

(2) Case Study Method:

As we know by this technique, the history of the child, his family, his early life and home environment are revealed. Through this method, psychologists also try to study the learning difficulties, adjustment problems and behavioural problems of a child. By finding out the causes of such abnormalities of children, psychologists as well as teaching experts are able to suggest the best possible remedial measures. Of course, this is a long drawn process and psychologists undergo a strain in interviewing such children, their relatives and parents at short or long intervals.

(3) Medical Examination:

Before conformation, the developmental history from early childhood should be meticulously verified by a qualified medical expert or medical practitioner. Under strict physical and medical examination, the anomalies, disabilities and handicaps can be highlighted.

(4) Scholastic Tests:

Evaluation or deficiencies in school achievement can be possible through scholastic tests. These tests can throw light on areas like arithmetic, reading, spelling, composition, writing, language and comprehension. General and specific problems of children are single out by the psychologists and educationists through scholastic tests and causes of anomalies can also be evaluated properly.

(5) Personality Test:

Through personality tests, attempts can be made by psychologists to throw light on the emotional characteristics of children as well as temperamental traits. Evidence shows that there are certain personality traits which have direct relationship with specific backwardness. Persistence, sensitiveness, concentration, emotional stability, assertiveness etc., are some of these traits.

Thematic Apperception Tests (TAT), Rorschach Ink Bio Test (RIBT). Word Association Test (WAT). Free Association Test and some psycho-analytical procedures are very much helpful to the psychologists here. Research analyses by W.P. Alexander have also revealed that teacher’s assessment of children’s traits for personality can be very profitable used for diagnostic and productive purposes.

(6) Intelligence Test:

Through the use of any standardized intelligence tests the intellectual level of children can be assessed. Both verbal intelligence tests and non-verbal tests can be used for this purpose. But psychologists prefer individual verbal tests to group verbal tests. An expert can get a true picture of the mental capacities of backward children by giving many intelligent tests. A single test is not sufficient to bring out the full picture of the mental capacities of a child. Psychologists use more than one standardized test to ascertain a particular anomaly.

(7) Psychometric and Psychological Tests:

For diagnostic purposes, psychologists use psychometric tests which are of a sensory nature. For better appraisal, analysis and evaluation of specific skills of backward children, these tests are primarily used. By these theses, psychologists try to discover the exact nature of errors made by the backward children. Again some other psychological tests may also be used to assess span of attention, auditory perception, steadiness, and memory and reasoning powers.