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Learning disabilities

Learning disabilities combated in the workplace

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 08:54

Bryanston-based Siyakha Consulting recently highlighted learning disabilities in the workplace, in an attempt to educate its clients and community about how they can create jobs for disabled individuals.

“Learning disabilities are often unaccounted for, either due to a misunderstanding as to what constitutes a disability or from a disclosure standpoint. The employee with the learning disability often will not disclose that to the employer,” explains Siyakha Consulting’s chief executive officer Dionne Kerr.

Learning disabilities are neurologically-based and may interfere with the acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning or mathematical skills. They affect the manner in which individuals with average or above-average intellectual abilities process and/or express information.

A learning disability may be characterised by a marked discrepancy between intellectual potential and academic achievement resulting from difficulties with processing information. The effects may change depending on learning demands and environments and may manifest in a single academic area or impact performance across a variety of subject areas and disciplines.

Difficulties may be seen in oral and/or written expression; reading comprehension and basic reading skills; problem solving; the ability to listen selectively during lectures, resulting in problems with note taking; mathematical calculation and reasoning; interpreting social cues; time management; the organisation of tasks, such as in written work and/or essay questions; following directions and concentrating, and short-term memory.

“A multi-sensory approach to managing and achieving workplace tasks will increase the ability of employees with different functioning learning channels namely auditory, visual and/or hands-on, to benefit from instruction,” adds Kerr.

For more information on learning difficulties in the workplace or disclosure management, please contact Cathy van der Zwan on 011 706 9006 or cathy@siyakha.co.za