During the 20th century, the rise of social awareness and subsequent reform movements in the United States enabled education policies for learning disabled students to become more prominent. Since then, the U.S. has been a leader in education for the disabled through well developed IEPs, offered to students with greater need. In recent decades, nations such as Canada, Namibia and China have been seeking to advance their systems to the same level of fairness and effectiveness. Canada's greatest struggle has been guaranteeing that their provinces have a standard to follow that is the same for the entire country which requires enacting certain national regulations, rather than simply suggesting them. Educators in Namibia, on the other hand, have faced difficulty convincing the African nation's government to allow for inclusive, mainstreamed education of learning disabled students. Policies on special education in China are the least developed of those listed prior. For the most part they have failed to pursue inclusion policies and have done little to guarantee that the same regulations are implemented throughout the largely rural-populated nation.
(University of Delaware, 2013)
What is Considered a Learning Disability?
Often people have a very limited understanding of what constitutes a learning disability, however all of the following are forms of disability:
(Kenya Society for the Mentally Handicapped, 2014)
- Dyslexia
- Dysgraphia
- Dyscalculia
- ADHD
- Blindness
- Deafness
- ADD
- Autism
- Asperger's
- Dyspraxia
- Dysphasia
- Down's Syndrome
- Tourette's Syndrome
- Pervasive Developmental Disorder
- Many Others
(Kenya Society for the Mentally Handicapped, 2014)
By TJ Ball, 2014