Hanoi – A 14-year-old boy who has been slow to read and write since childhood, and now struggles to concentrate when reading, has been diagnosed with a learning disorder by doctors.
Family members say that from a young age, the child struggled with Vietnamese, failing to understand the meaning of words and making spelling mistakes. The child also often couldn't think of words to form a coherent sentence. As she grew older, she performed poorly in subjects requiring dexterity, such as crafts like paper cutting and model building, and became less talkative, speaking slowly and frequently pausing to think of words.
For the past six months, the child, who recently transferred to a new school, has shown signs of sadness, fatigue, and poor concentration. She is often irritable, grumpy, and pulls the hair of her classmates. Doctors at the National Institute of Mental Health diagnosed her with adolescent-onset emotional and behavioral disorder and learning disability.
On November 20th, Dr. Nguyen Hoang Yen, from the Pediatric and Adolescent Psychiatry Department at the Institute of Mental Health, stated that learning disabilities are developmental disorders that begin during normal educational periods. Learning disabilities in children are described as failing to achieve good results in academic areas such as reading, written language, or mathematics, when compared to the child's overall intellectual ability. Approximately 3-12% of the world's population suffers from this disorder.
There are three types of learning disabilities: reading disorders, writing disorders, and numeracy disorders. Of these, reading disorders are the most common (affecting 10-36% of school-aged children). Numeracy disorders are less studied, estimated to occur in 5-8% of children.
A patient receiving treatment at the Institute of Mental Health. Photo: Le Nga
Dr. Le Cong Thien, Head of the Pediatric Psychiatry Clinic at the Institute of Mental Health, stated that learning disabilities have not received adequate attention to date. Many people believe that slow reading or writing in children is normal and will resolve itself at a certain age. Recently, among the many patients who come to the pediatric psychiatry clinic due to skill-related problems, doctors have noted several cases of learning disabilities.
Signs of learning disorders include delayed speech, difficulty speaking, and slow learning of colors and letters.
"At the primary school level, children have difficulty recognizing letters and putting words together. At the secondary school level, patients have difficulties with expressive language, poor communication skills, and impaired verbal working memory," Dr. Thien said.
Doctors advise that when these unusual signs appear, families should take their children to a medical facility for examination and treatment. Treatment plans vary depending on the type of disorder. Currently, there are no approved medications to treat this disorder. Treatment methods include cognitive-behavioral therapy; psychodynamic therapy; cognitive analysis; art; drama; music ; and family/systemic therapy.
Le Nga
Source link
Comment (0)