Deficits in learning basic information is one of the hallmarks of children with mild disabilities. These children generally demonstrate low overall achievement across two or more academic areas. Reading and written language present particular problems for many students with learning disabilities and mild mental retardation. Difficulties are frequently noted in mathematics and oral expression. Often, students with these types of disabilities will have deficits of 1-3 years below their chronological grade placement.
Many children with mild disabilities have particular difficulty remembering information. Teachers will report that these student will learn a skill one day and not be able to remember that same skill hours or days later. Memory difficulties disrupt academic learning, particulary in spelling, written language, and mathematics.
Many students with mild disabilities have difficulties with social skills. These types of children may have trouble accepting criticism, making and maintaining friendships, engaging in social interactions, receiving positive feedback, and avioding potentially damaging or dangerous peer groups. Their limited social skills may be due to poor langage abilities or an inability to percieve and interpret social cues. The poor social skills demonstrated by children with mild disabilities may contribute to later difficulties in securing and maintaining employment.
It is not unusual for students with mild disabilities to engage in problem behaviors. These behaviors may include disruption (calling out in class, talking to other students, playing when they should be working, humming loudly during quiet work time, tapping their pencil loudly on the desk), non-compliance (refusing to do work, not completing work in a timely manner, arguing when assigned to complete a task), hyperactivity (running around the room, short attention to tasks), withdrawal, and aggression (verbal or physical). Problem behaviors may be a result of academic deficits, frustration, or attention deficits. Students with problem behaviors pose significant challenges in regular classroom settings. Frequently, despite the fact that their disability could be accomodated in the regular classroom, these students remain in more restrictive settings because their behavior is inappropriate or dangerous to other children.
Students with mild disabilities lack basic organizational skills. Teachers report that their desks and work areas are messy, cluttered, and quite disorganized. When asked to find materials or supplies, the child may spend many minutes or hours attempting to find the requested material. Organization deficits can also be noted in academic work. Students with mild disabilities frequently lack the necessary skills to organize information for written essays, homework, and tests. As a result, their academic learning is significantly disrupted.
Children with mild disabilities often have problems attending. This child may not be able to sustain their attention when working on tasks or listening to presentations or they may have difficulty selectively attending to important information. Teachers report that this type of child is easily distracted, "flighty," does not listen, cannot concentrate, skips from one task to another without finishing any task, or may miss importanat directions. Attention deficits are another potential explanation for a student's poor academic achievement.
Language, particulary written language, is difficult for many students with mild disabilities. Through longitudial studies of children involved in early childhood classrooms, researchers have found a strong, positive relationship between early language difficulties and later learning disabilities and mental retardation.
Many children with mild disabilities experience difficulties with academic work. As a result, school becomes a source of frustration and anxiety. Students will develop a negative attitude towards self as they experience a repeating cycle of attempting-failing-attempting-failing. Study after study has documented lack of self-worth, attributions of failure, and a decreased self-concept for children with mild disabilities.
Repeated failure in academic and social tasks may result not only in academic deficits but also in learned helplessness. Learned helplessness is a condition where the person no longer believes that they are capable of success and, therefore, does not attempt the task. As a result, the child becomes dependent on others to provide them with information, a condition we refer to as being outer directed.