How do I tell if a student is just not paying attention or might have a learning disorder?
Re: Learning Disability
Is the implication “just not paying attention” meaning that basically, s/he doesn’t have a neurological or learning issue that prevents it?
If so, I’ve found that assuming that it’s a “can’t” thing — but taking the steps necessary to make the attention happen — works. You expect the child to learn the stuff and if he’s not getting it in class, you ask to keep him after so you can go over it with him — and that way you can find out just what’s misisng.
Much would depend on the setting, though — first grade vs. tenth, for starters.
So if this is your basic essay question, the answer is “it depends” — and start browsing the articles on this site. If you’re in the trenches — which trench is it :-)
Big question, and you can buy a whole library of books and take a six-year or more university career learning how to answer it in detail.
If you’re a teacher on the front lines, obviously you aren’t able to go through all that right now, you need an immediate answer.
A lot of times real learning disabilities and learned ineffective approaches and attitudes and coping behaviours (which we half-jokingly call “Dysteachia”) are almost impossible to tell apart. It takes many hours with a trained psychologist to tease out all the possible causes.
In practice this distinction is, surprisingly, less important than you might think because you need to use the same good teaching methods anyway.
Find out what he knows and doesn’t. This generally takes some time working on his assignments after class.
Rarely you get a gifted student who is inattentive because he is bored silly, and he needs more challenging work.
Most often you get a student who is several years behind and has no hope of catching up; he is inattentive because you are speaking a foreign language. You seat him nearby and call his attention back as subtly as possible, you break tasks up and teach both whole and part, you teach him the foundations needed before demanding advanced processes, and so on. There’s lots of advice on the LD In Depth page.
If a serious effort still doesn’t work, you can involve the guidance office and parents for a referral, but remember that you can only refer, not diagnose.