Essay on Learning Disabilities: A Risk for Bullying and Challenges for Identification

Introduction

Learning disabilities are mostly associated with neurobiological or genetic mutations that alter how the brain functions. Consequently, the cognitive processes linked to learning are interacted, leading to the interference of the child's primary learning skills, which includes writing, reading, and solving mathematical problems. However, children with learning disabilities are vulnerable to bullying by their peers. Nonetheless, the disability of the child renders it challenging to determine the type of bullying he or she is going through. A clear explanation of bullying concept to children is crucial in enlightening them on how to spot such behavior and report them to adults.

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Bullying and Children with Learning Disabilities: An Overview

In most cases, the aggressive bullying behavior is undertaken intentionally, striking an imbalance of both strength and power between the bully and the person being bullied. Moreover, the act of bullying can cause numerous adverse effects to the affected individual; the consequences may range from mild to most severe. The feeling of loneliness and exclusion created by bullying may result in the child or individual being bullied committing grievous acts such as suicide or even murder. Bullying can take either direct or indirect forms; the direct types involve actions like kicking, hitting, shoving, teasing, spitting, and obscene gestures.

The research conducted over the previous years on bullying of children with learning disabilities; substantially suggests that the children are at high risk of bullying by the peers both at school and at home. For instance, children who have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are highly susceptible to bullying from other children. Similarly, they bear a significantly high probability of bullying their peers.

Toseeb, U., McChesney, G., & Wolke, D. (2018). The prevalence and psychopathological correlates of sibling bullying in children with and without autism spectrum disorder. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 48(7), 2308-2318. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3484-2

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is often related to difficulties, particularly in communication, and increased sensory stimulus sensitivity. Furthermore, autism spectrum disorder entails several psychopathological correlates, capable of negatively interfering with life's quality of the affected person. Consequently, children with autism spectrum disorder are faced with numerous social interaction problems, like proper turn-taking during conversations and the inability to participate in non-verbal discussions. The difficulties translate to dire implications on the children's relationship with their peers.

A supportive sibling relationship is crucial in developing and shaping the social skills of the children, and equally providing the needed emotional support. However, sibling relationships may be filled with constant aggression and conflicts. Thus a good number of children end up as victims of bullying by their siblings.

Moreover, sibling bullying results in depression and loneliness, frequent problems related to the mode of behavior, and elevated mental distress levels. Also, siblings assume varied roles while involving in the bullying process. The roles vary depending on who the victim is and the ability to seek vengeance.

This article is useful in assisting me in accomplishing my research, which is based on the bullying of children with a learning disorder. Through this article, the vital learning process of children is keenly examined, particularly those with an autism spectrum disorder. The article is also valid since it is thoroughly cited based on previous studies.

Kevorkian, M. M., Rodriguez, A., Earnhardt, M. P., Kennedy, T. D., D'Antona, R., Russom, A. G., & Borror, J. (2016). Bullying in elementary schools. Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma, 9(4), 267-276. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-016-0085-0

Bullying influences an overwhelming one-third of the children in either middle or elementary schools, rendering it a critical issue worth addressing. Moreover, bullying of students with learning disorders has majorly been discussed extensively in the intermediate and higher institutions of learning and overlooked in the elementary learning facilities.

The purpose of this research was to scrutinize the numerous components of bullying within the elementary schools' environment. This is mainly due to a lack of adequate knowledge concerning the particular nature of the issue within such levels of learning. The sample for this research included 1,588 participants from several elementary schools within Massachusetts.

The study equally successfully applies the enhanced version of Olweus Bullying Victim Questionnaires (OBVQ). It contains 45 questions that effectively examined six factors to determine to bully students with learning disabilities. Also, to gain more insight into the bullying of the learners, the researchers applied designed their survey to be crossectional.

The article is also useful in describing where and how the bullying of children with learning disorders occurs. For instance, the study found out that the bullying process mainly happened on the playing field and in the lunchrooms. It equally determined that the schools took less or no actions to curb the bullying.

This article is highly authentic and will aid in my research on assessing the bullying of children with learning disabilities. Moreover, the authors are knowledgeable and applied numerous statistical approaches in determining their conclusions. The work also uses several references, thus making it valid.

References

Kevorkian, M. M., Rodriguez, A., Earnhardt, M. P., Kennedy, T. D., D'Antona, R., Russom, A. G., & Borror, J. (2016). Bullying in elementary schools. Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma, 9(4), 267-276. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-016-0085-0

Toseeb, U., McChesney, G., & Wolke, D. (2018). The prevalence and psychopathological correlates of sibling bullying in children with and without autism spectrum disorder. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 48(7), 2308-2318. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3484-2