Behavioral Issues and Learning Difficulties in Education
Behavior and Learning Problems
Clinical and educational experience, along with systematic research, reveals an intimate relationship between learning difficulties and a lack of personal or social adjustment. However, it is not easy to determine the nature and meaning of this relationship. A large number of people with educational problems suffer from personal and social conflicts, but views on the extent of these relationships, and which variable is the cause and which is the effect, are far from unanimous.
In some cases, personal maladjustments are often associated, for various reasons, with a particular area of the curriculum. Meanwhile, the rest of the school where the child’s psychological needs are met is developing normally. When comparing data collected by questionnaires and the results of personality tests with reading performance, Sornson found that learning failures affect the emotional life of children and make them lose confidence in themselves. Certain emotional disorders of gravity can be the cause, or at least contribute to, the emergence of learning disabilities. School failures, especially in core subjects, constitute a serious setback for children and often cause them emotional imbalances.
Failures in reading, and their impact on the rest of learning, are often the cause of most emotional problems at home and school. Inadequate knowledge of the forms of emotional reaction with which children try to cope with their learning difficulties is of great interest to educators.
Behaviors and Learning Difficulties in the Classroom
Behaviors are learned. This learning also involves the emergence of difficulties. In the classroom, there are problematic behaviors, and associated with them, learning difficulties. Although not necessarily always the case, many students have both behavioral problems and learning difficulties. It is common to find children with conflicting behaviors who have difficulties in learning curriculum areas, especially the so-called instrumental areas of the Primary Stage: Languages and Mathematics.
Research by Vidal-Abarca, Gilabert, Dolz, and Alcantud (1982) highlights the clear link between the presence or absence of problem behaviors in the classroom and the school performance of students. Students with disruptive behavior problems (assaults, annoying others, getting up frequently, losing attention) fail to implement the skills that are necessary for school learning. These skills include:
- Focused attention
- Following instructions
- Persistence in the task
- Staying in the workplace
Impact of Motor, Perceptual, Linguistic, and Cognitive Skills
Desirable school behavior requires standardized motor, perceptual, linguistic, and cognitive skills. A pupil or student who presents difficulties in some of these aspects will be potentially predisposed to express some sort of problem behavior, necessitating educational intervention for modification. For example:
- Lack of language skills (stuttering, dyslalias, low fluency) may lead to difficulties in relating to peers, resulting in isolation (avoidance behavior).
- Lack of voluntary control of the body (motor skills) may induce systematic movement, poor posture, impulsive responses, and discomfort to others.
- Lack of information processing skills may lead to reckless, impetuous, or precipitate behavior that alters the order of the class.