Running Head: Learning needs of Children - Assignment Example

The Developmental delays impact on the learning needs of children in various ways. For instance a child with Down’s syndrome, an autosomal abnormality can have features such as mental retardation, sloppy forehead, speech problems, large tongue, and heart defects. This child is likely to go through a not so normal learning procedure. First because of the physical appearance, other children may discriminate against them. This will pause as a challenge to the child’s learning needs because socialization is viewed by psychologists as a very important aspect of child learning as seen in the case of Albert Bandura.

Albert believed that direct reinforcement cannot account for all types of learning therefore learning can occur by watching other people. This type of social learning works best when there is direct contact with the model being emulated. A child who has Down's syndrome does not have the advantage of freely enjoying this type of learning which encompasses a very large part of young or in this case preschool life. Down syndrome babies have to be in a special learning environment preferably under the keen eye of a specialist and on special technology to stimulate their minds to enable them learn and grasp the things being taught.

These special instances will include physical and speech therapy. Unlike the other children they also have to be treated with more care and both they and their family or caregiver should be subjected to regular counseling. When it comes to playing and games, which are also a very important part of learning, children with developmental delays are also subjected to special circumstances. For instance a child with cerebral palsy cannot comfortably play with the other children. They will need proper supervision which will only be possible after they have gone through sessions that involve medication, psychological counseling.

As for the case of fragile X syndrome, these individuals have serious emotional disorders and some of them display mild learning disabilities. Given this, such a child cannot be left alone to interact with other children because their apparent lack of social skills is likely to cause a scuffle sooner or later. The environment on the other hand is an interaction of various aspects. These includes the economic status or the social class of the child, the child’s family including parents and siblings the immediate surroundings of the child this includes the culture of the immediate community they live in.

The social status influences a child’s learning needs because they a re by default subjected to higher and better modes of education. This impacts on them because as compared to other children who are less privileged they will get exposed to “high class” education with better facilities and a better one on one with the teacher hence their likelihood to learn quicker. Compare this to non-economically privileged kids, they are likely to be in a class with more children and are not likely to get a one on one with the teacher, the school they will attend will not have sufficient facilities.

These factors however all boil down to the influence the family has on the child, if in the family there are scholars or people who place