Social and emotional learning for children with Learning Disability: Implications for inclusion

Headnote

This paper discusses the key role of social and emotional learning programmes for children with Learning Disability (LD). The first part of the paper discusses the difficulties students with learning disability may encounter in their education, such as issues related to peer group acceptance, friendship and social isolation, low self-efficacy and self-esteem, and externalized and internalized behavior problems. The relationship between social and emotional learning programmes and learning disability is then discussed, underlining the benefits of social and emotional learning for students with LD. The paper concludes by highlighting the need for universal social and emotional learning as a vehicle for the academic and social inclusion of students with LD.

Keywords: Social and emotional learning, learning disability, inclusion, universal intervention

First submission 11th September 2017; Accepted for publication 26th October 2017.

Introduction

Students with Learning Disability (LD) are identified through difficulties in academic work, mainly reading, writing, and/or calculation difficulties (also called Specific Learning Difficulties or Specific Learning Disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Consequently, the usual emphasis of intervention for these students has mainly focused on the development of effective programmes to support learning processes, targeting the areas of reading, writing or counting, with little attention to the emotional and social aspects. However, school problems encountered by students with LD are not limited to areas that only related to learning processes, such as attention and memory. Various studies have highlighted a number of issues related to the emotional and social aspects of education of children with LD (Butler & Silliman, 2008; Elias, 2004; Schiff & Joshi, 2016). According to the DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) "Specific learning disorders can have negative functional consequences across the lifespan, including [...] high levels of psychological distress and poorer overall mental health. School dropout and co-occurring depressive symptoms increase the risk for poor mental health outcomes, including suicidality" (p. 73). This paper discusses the influence of LD on the emotional and social development of children at school and argues on the importance of increasing school-based SEL programmes to promote the social and emotional development of such students

Social, emotional and behavior challenges for students with LD

Rejection, isolation, and peer pressure

Bryan's first studies (Bryan, 1974a; 1974b; 1976) and following research described the sociometric status of children with...