I would just like to know what role does heredity play in LD. My student comes from a small village in the mountains. Neither of her parents are educated, especially her mother. Her older sister , who is also my student, doesn’t do too well either. She failed 7th grade, and is repeating it. I sometimes think that some where in their family tree is a relative that had a learning disability that went unnoticed, since at that time nothing was known about it. They just would say that the child doesn’t do well in school, and either take them out or they would drop out themselves. My student is struggling and sometimes she seems to be giving up. I’m afraid that she’ll drop out soon, too. Also, I was told that when she was little, she used her left hand, but her teachers forced her to use her right hand. Her handwriting isn’t as good as it should be at her age, though we have made some improvement. Whenever she has to write, she panics, I can see her whole body tense up. She doesn’t read well, either. Neither of the girls do, and they can’t understand what they read.[/i] Sincerely, Estelle Angelinas
Re: Heriditary factors
Heredity can certainly play a role. There’s research being done looking for the precise spot on the chromosome associated with some kinds of LDs.
However, sounds like the family does not expect success in school and education isn’t a big part of their daily life. This has at least as much impact on a child’s likelihood of succeeding acacemically.
enviroment also
I have had many children whose parents or siblings had learning disabilities. But overall, I feel it can have as much to do with enviroment, parenting, jealth, nutrition, and family attitude towards education as heridity.
Re: enviroment also
>I have had many children whose parents or siblings had learning disabilities. But overall, I feel it can have as much to do with enviroment, parenting, jealth, nutrition, and family attitude towards education as heridity.[/quote]
Wait a sec!? Parenting and family attitudes are NOT do not have anything to do with ld. We have here lots of great parents who any kid would be lucky to have as parents and some of their kids are severely ld. Most ld prolly occurs in the developmental stages (otherwise it is brain damage), so only nutrition, environmental factors (such as lead, etc) and health in utero would be a factor (and it might be). In fact, alcohol and smoking
*can* cause ld. I imagine some ADD is effected, made worse by diet, but not really caused by it.
Environment, as in psychological, doesn’t cause ld. That would be something else. Emotional disturbance perhaps.
Heredity is definitely a factor. Lots of dyslexia runs in families.
—des
helping children who've inherited a learning difference
Learning differences run in families as do many other things. That’s been well established.
If your student and her sister have learning differences, likely they inherited them - perhaps from one or both of their parents. That changes little, however. These two girls are still struggling in school.
If you believe them to truly have learning differences, act on that. What can you as a teacher do for this student? I’d suggest getting hold of Dr. Mel Levine’s book called Educational Care as it will have some strategies for you to help this child. For example, if she panics when she has to write, could she dictate some of her work to someone else? Is there a computer she could type out her answers on?
Whether she got these learning differences from her family or not, she can still get help from you. Good luck.
Re: Heriditary factors
My best friend from college has two LD kids. Looking back, her brother is LD, although it wasn’t diagnosed. Clear heritary pattern here—both kids even have same pattern of weaknesses.
My son, however, is an anomoly. No LD on either side of family. We think it was auditory deprivation caused by undiagnosed ear infection laid on top of genetic weaknesses.
But as others have said, it really doesn’t matter, although I must admit I still puzzle over it. It is only academic. What matters is what you do about it.
Beth
Heredity can certainly play a role. There’s research being done looking for the precise spot on the chromosome associated with some kinds of LDs.
However, sounds like the family does not expect success in school and education isn’t a big part of their daily life. This has at least as much impact on a child’s likelihood of succeeding acacemically.