any significant benefits from these remedial approaches (for example, Hammill & Larsen, 1974). Deficits in visual perception and in perceptual-motor control are no longer considered major causes in most cases of general learning difficulty, and very few teachers use such approaches today (Hallahan & Kauffman, 2003). However, visual perceptual and perceptual-motor difficulties can be significant in individuals with traumatic brain injury and in those with disabilities such as cerebral palsy, where there is impairment to localised areas of the brain (Tyler & Mira, 1999; Vaughn, Bos & Schumm, 2003).
Auditory perception While interest in visual perceptual difficulties has waned somewhat, interest in auditory perceptual weakness (specifically, phonological awareness) has become a major focus of attention. It is now believed, based on reputable research studies, that phonological awareness has a definite causal association with reading and spelling difficulties. The ability to hear speech sounds accurately and identify sounds within words is basic to acquiring an understanding of the alphabetic code on which written English language is based (Torgesen, 1999). Students with literacy problems usually require remedial intervention that is designed to improve their phonemic awareness (Reid, 2003). This issue will be explored fully in chapter 6.
Attentional difficulties Another serious potential cause of learning problems is poor attention to task. The first step in learning anything is, in layman’s terms, ‘paying attention’. Without adequate cognitive focus on the task at hand it is impossible for information to register in working memory and to be actively processed. Eric Jensen (1998) suggests that the average person makes the decision of where to focus attention about 100,000 times a day. Attention is either attracted by some external stimulus or is guided by personal goals. Factors influencing a learner’s attention include the novelty, intensity, interest and importance of the stimulus or task, the perceived value and difficulty level of the task, the learner’s physical and emotional state, and the learner’s ability to ignore distractions. Swanson and Saez (2003) refer to the capacity to maintain attention in the face of interference or distraction as ‘controlled attention’. Controlled attention is governed by executive cognitive processes and requires some degree of metacognition and self-regulation. Students with learning difficulties are found frequently to be weak in controlled attention. Even in normal learners the brain is poorly equipped for maintaining continuous high-intensity attention to a single task for more than ten minutes (E. Jensen, 1998). Some students with poor attending behaviour have a specific ‘attention deficit disorder’, with or without hyperactivity (ADD and ADHD). In recent years great interest has been shown in this extreme form of attentional deficit and the number of children diagnosed with the syndrome has greatly increased. Typically, 68
Learning and Learning Difficulties: A handbook for teachers