Other factors that affect learning

HIV/AIDS

HIV and AIDS infections are an increasing problem all over the world with 47 million adults and children having been infected since the beginning of the epidemic in the 1980s; 18.8 million have already died. Although the highest prevalence of cases are still to be found in some of the least developed countries, it is quite possible that educators in the United Kingdom may find they have a learner with HIV or AIDS in their class, or indeed a colleague.

When considering what the issues are for people working in educational settings, the first to come to mind is not, I suspect, academic success for those infected. Indeed, the first concern for the school community is the physical safety of all adults and children and the risks that are involved in including a learner with this infection. However, many of these learners are in the classroom without the knowledge of the educators or perhaps even the parents. Also, as Naude and Pretorius (2003: 138) say: ‘Ethical considerations are also an important factor to consider within schools; even if a teacher knows that a pupil has HIV/AIDS, this information may not be made public.’ Hence it is necessary, it could be argued, to organize health and safety issues for all the community, as if there is an adult or child in the school with this infection. If this is achieved, then the physical risks to others is limited and identifying individuals to a wider public becomes unnecessary, when considering this aspect of care. Wearing clinical gloves when-ever dealing with bodily fluids is always good health and safety practice, and protects the carer at that time from risk of cross-infection. A simple practice, not always easy to fulfil in practice when adult support is short, but one which immediately protects all involved in such incidents.

Learners with HIV/AIDS undoubtedly also have many difficulties that include psychological, neglect and social interaction problems, but it is the educational impact of this infection that is to be considered in greater detail. This is fast becoming an important issue as effective anti-retroviral drugs mean that many more children with this infection are surviving through to adulthood (Safriel et al., 2000).

One of the major areas of the body that the HIV/AIDS infection affects is the central nervous system and this is important as it is clearly obvious that certain areas of the brain can affect academic performance. Related HIV/AIDS illnesses, such as meningitis, HIV encephalopathy and non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas also affect educational progress. This might mean learners have speech, motor, memory, vision and thought difficulties (Naude and Pretorius, 2002). If the individual learner’s areas of weakness are known, educational programs of support can be instigated and focus on the learner’s strengths. Research suggests (Naude and Pretorius, 2003) that expressive and non-verbal skills are affected more than receptive language in learners with HIV/AIDS. Naude and Pretorius (ibid.) suspect that despite impairments, infected learners still are able to communicate effectively, to ask sensible and appropriate questions and also to develop and express their own ideas. However, pronunciation, written language expression and the ability to make decisions might well be affected. Due to other central nervous system difficulties that can affect this group of learners, focused attention and memory can be impaired. It is therefore thought beneficial to use peripheral learning strategies to help the learners. When teaching spelling and mathematics, therefore, an educator might use rhythm or songs to help learning to take place. Many educators already recognize that if they use activities that aid peripheral learning, memory and processing are also helped. Activities that include drama, puppetry, role-playing, singing, movement games and art therefore all support learners with HIV/AIDS. Again, in many instances including this active learning is considered good practice for all learners. Other factors this research indicates for consideration when planning curriculum content and delivery include those shown in Table 1.

Close collaboration with doctors, carers, parents and other social and health representatives is therefore essential if effective educational programs are to be made for learners with this type of difficulty. Finally, it must be said that: ‘The critical need is for a holistic and individual approach to the education of children with medical conditions while, at the same time, remembering the importance of including them with their peers socially and educationally’ (Closs, 2000: 3).

Discussion

How well do you think your educational setting would cope with learners with HIV/AIDS? Would the educational or social and medical issues predominate discussions and the successful inclusion of learners with these problems?

مواضيع ذات صلة

Other factors that affect learning: epilepsy, HIV/AIDS, puberty and mental health issues Key issues

How can educators identify learners at risk of mental health problems?

So what are mental health problems and mental health disorders?

Child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS)

Educating school-age parents

Puberty

Learners unable to attend school due to medical needs Case study 1

Learners unable to attend school due to medical needs Case study 1

Learners unable to attend school due to medical needs

Treatment of epilepsy Case study 2

Treatment of epilepsy Case study 1

Treatment of epilepsy