TRGS 16-04-003-0003: Developing the socio-psychological profile and a typology of the latent attributes of high functioning children with learning disabilities.

SUB-PROJECT OF THE RESEARCH GROUP “PROFILING OF HIGH-FUNCTIONING CHILDREN WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES USING THE NEURO-PSYCHOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK FOR DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION”

It is the policy of the Malaysian education not to leave any child behind, including those with special needs. Much has been said about providing good environmental support such as a suitable education environment for children with learning disabilities. Currently, the existing government schools do not adequately accommodate these children in terms of providing them with good syllabuses as well as interventions. Instead, various forms of pervasive developmental disorders, including learning disabilities, are lumped into one category, ignoring the need for subsets. Children with learning disabilities, especially those who are high functioning might have different needs and might require specific way of learning. It is believed that they are capable of succeeding and can benefit the most from their education if their latent attributes as well as different learning styles are made explicit.

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With the aim to contribute to the development of effective policy and programme implementation on educating children with learning disabilities, we have proposed a research to uncover the physical, cognitive, socio-emotional, personality characteristics as well as any other latent attributes of  children with learning disabilities in Malaysia. The findings on those various aspects of their behaviours and mental abilities will become the basis for the development of a socio-psychological profile of high functioning children with learning disabilities. It is through this profiling that we may be able to understand their strengths as well as limitations related to their learning abilities. Based on the strengths and limitations found, differentiated learning framework will be developed to suit the learning needs of the high functioning children with learning disabilities. It is hoped that the framework may enhance the strengths of the children and assist them as well as carers, parents and teachers to improve their limitations. There is indeed an urgent need to develop a socio-psychological profile for Malaysian children with learning disabilities, to allow for every child to have a program tailored to his unique profile.

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