What You Should Know about Self-Esteem

• Self-esteem can be described as how we view ourselves in the context of our relationships with peers and family members, and by how we judge ourselves in comparison to those around us.
• Positive self-esteem is as important to success in school and on the job as the mastery of individual skills.
• Learning disabilities often pose formidable hurdles to positive self-esteem, and in turn contribute to a hard-to-break cycle of self-doubt, frustration and failure.
• Not all people with LD have problems with social competence and self-esteem.
• Research has shown that being classified as having specific LD does not, in and of itself, negatively impact self-esteem.

Characteristics in Individuals with LD that May Contribute to Feelings of Low Self-Worth

• Communication style and social awareness: in conversation, they may have difficulty judging when or how it is appropriate to participate, or be unaware that their behaviors are annoying to others.
• Self-knowledge: they may have trouble understanding their strengths and weaknesses, or reflecting on and evaluating their behavior in social interactions.
• Language: they may have trouble expressing their thoughts verbally.
• Self-perceived social status: if they have trouble figuring out how they fit into their peer group, they may withdraw from social situations, become passive, or "stick out" in a crowd for trying too hard to fit in.
• Self-perceived ability to effect change: they may be prone to believing that they are not capable of controlling their own successes - that luck or fate is responsible for the outcome of a situation, not their own efforts.