El impacto de los problemas de aprendizaje en la autoimagen de los niños de educación primaria

Abstract

Children with learning disabilities face academic challenges, and their difficulty to learn can be accompanied by rejection from their peers, and social isolation. Learning disabilities in children are a group of disorders, affecting the learning abilities of the children to acquire some or all of the capabilities needed for reading, writing, speaking, listening, reasoning or mathematics. Limited research has been conducted about the impact of learning disability on the self-image of children as they struggle to learn. Self-image is a subjective perception of oneself. This personal view consists of impressions built up over time of the image one has of oneself. Among the methods used in research to examine the self-image of children with learning disabilities are self-image questionnaires and personal construct elicitation methods. Research conducted examining the self-image of children, from the perspective of parents and teachers and that of the children themselves, using these methods, is described in this theory review. The findings from research have shown that many different factors may affect the self-image of children with learning disabilities. One of the factors is the influence of different methods of placing children with learning disabilities into an educational framework in various countries across the world. The benefits of including children with learning disabilities into regular schooling are explained and comparisons between the self-image of children with learning disabilities in special education frameworks and regular education are provided. The teaching methods used in the classroom was another factor that was found to affect the self-image of children with learning disabilities. A deeper understanding of the factors that impact the self-image of these children can facilitate the efforts to fulfill the special needs of children with learning disabilities and may lead to the development of a more positive self-image, despite the learning challenges that the children face.