People with learning disabilities have long had to put up with the stigma of being ‘slow’ or ‘stupid’. Now that the rest of us have finally become educated into understanding what learning disabilities actually are, those who are afflicted with them have heaved a sigh of relief and have been able to get on with things.

Dyslexia

Let’s take dyslexia as an example. As well as struggling to read and write letters and words in the correct way and order, listening and speaking are also common issues with sufferers and this is not as widely known. Dyslexics can often struggle with the ability to distinguish between vowels and isolate the sounds of words, meaning that they may mispronounce similar sounding words. For those who lack phonemic awareness, this will be even more highlighted when they try to learn a foreign language.

A different approach to learning

But all is not lost! Now, thanks to considerable research into learning disabilities and improved teaching techniques, dyslexics no longer need to feel left out of the language loop and can look forward to being fluent in their chosen foreign language. Using a multisensory structure of learning, with an emphasis on vocal training instead of traditional reading and writing lessons, dyslexics will easily learn how to identify the different sounds and be able to form the correct sentence structures.

Do you suffer from a learning disorder and were ever made to feel that you couldn’t achieve your goals? What steps did you take to overcome your learning issues? Everyone has the ability to learn languages; it’s just a matter of finding the method of learning that suits you best.