Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Learning Disabilities

Due dates noted below

What are your experiences with LD either personally or in your placements?
What are some salient points and key strategies that you took away from the FAT City video & additional reading on the LD page, that you can use to better serve the needs of students with LD?

Due no later than Friday Oct 5th
Please create a Comment to this posting to share your response to these questions.
Due Wednesday Oct 10th
Please read and comment at least TWO of your peers' postings





28 comments:

  1. I have experienced LD growing up alongside my brothers and observed their struggles in school. One of them especially had trouble with reading comprehension and writing, yet vocalized well-constructed thoughts and was in fact, an eloquent speaker. I quickly learned by helping him with his homework that in reading, he spent most of his effort trying to get through the passage, that comprehension seemed like a severely demanding task. Similarly, I have come across a great variety of learners in math. I found with all my encounters, intelligence was not the issue.

    I appreciated how this site clearly defined a learning disability and dispelled misconceptions of relatedness to other disabilities such as mental retardation and impairments or environmental, cultural, economic or ELL disadvantages. It set the foundation that students with learning disabilities are students who have the natural intelligence, but are differentiated by their every day hardships, which can be addressed by teachers who have a more wholesome understanding of what this particular disability entails. Most of all, I love reading about what I can do. After learning about things, I like to become aware of my active role, and the site clearly identifies symptoms and lists helpful intervention and treatment methods.

    Personally, I have found through my past experiences with tutoring and my current experiences in the classroom that providing multiple paths and choices help ease these problems. The site informs that one suggestion is to incorporate the use of other senses in instruction rather than relying on one. This can help enhance perception, as well as appeal to multiple intelligences. Of course, this strategy does not serve to completely remedy the problem, but it is one that can be helpful to start.

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    1. Kellie-I agree and aspire to your ending comments!
      So I have recently stumbled upon this new theory that emphasizes the idea of internal motivation verses external forms of motivation and one of the strategies is to really give the students opportunities of freedom and choice through providing multiple paths of assessments. This not only appeals multiple intelligences but also your LD students and multicultural context.

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    2. Wow, I like that. Do you think you can link me to this article or source?

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    3. Kellie,
      Thank you for your posting. I especially enjoyed your last paragraph here. Allowing for multiple opportunities and choices is a must within our classrooms. It feels like it could be a ton of work however doing so is important not only for LD students but all students.

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  2. Alright, so you’re a teacher or a parent and you recognize that your student/son/daughter is struggling. Every year the problems seem to progress with the building of more and more information in each grade level. You know the issue is not related to emotional disturbance, visual, hearing, emotional, or intellectual disabilities, but the student is struggling to stay afloat. What do you do?

    The child should be evaluated. An evaluation can be requested by the teacher or parent. The student is then given tests to try and recognize why and where a child struggles. A child that has been evaluated and identified as having a learning disability is then eligible to receive special learning accommodations. The earlier a child is identified as having a learning disability the better, simply because it prevents them from falling too far behind and building negative emotional responses to education.


    While tests to evaluate if a student has a learning disability are a very important aspect, sometimes what children need to learn is not reflected in these assessments. A functional assessment then studies factors that could be coming from home, school, or in the neighborhood; primarily how the student actually functions in these environments. Questioning/observing if the student can ride the city bus, dress without help, or handle money sometimes act as more effective form of assessment to identify the learning disability.

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    1. I wonder the same thing too. Assessments can be informative, but I don't think their an entirely effective source. I agree that assessments need to be extended further beyond testing. Maybe this kind of information should be more accessible and exposed to parents. I think if parents are more informed and aware of what to look for, they can be an integral part of the identification process and working with schools and teachers to accommodate their child in the classroom.

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    2. I agree that the assessments are very limited in what they can actually tell us about how students function. The only thing that these tests really tell us is how students don't function and that really makes helping them in ways that are meaningful difficult if we don't receive any other information.

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  3. I have experienced LD with two of my closest cousins. One who had Dyslexia and another who had Dyscalculia. Before, I had no idea what they were doing because they were all older than me. As a young child, I thought they were very weird because I was able to read a children's book faster and I was able to do basic math at a faster rate. I had no remorse of feelings towards them because I didn't know better. But, as I grew I started to feel a little more concern of what I said as a child and I didn't really have those same feelings. It was much more sympathetic because I didn't know if I could help them at an older age. I rarely see my cousins now, but the last time I saw them they still had the same problems and I felt bad that I personally couldn't do anything. Now in college, I thought I could get away from this so called "horror" as I called it back in the day, but it is quite informative to know what these disabilities are now today. As I become a student teacher, there is one girl that exemplifies a LD in one of my placements. Her name is Brittney and she is very enthusiastic, energetic, happy, and has that spunk that you see in students. However, she has a difficult time understanding basic mathematics. I mean basic mathematics. She is only able to do single digit addition that is at a 3rd-4th grade level. She has been on this for quite some time now and she isn't on an IEP. I think it is called an IA. She usually has her own agenda and homework from a thick binder that a specialist has put together to help Brittney. My mentor teacher, however, isn't involved at all with the process. When I see Brittney, I intend to help her with whatever I can because I want to understand more of the LD realm. She is usually just doodling on paper and not really following the lessons within the classroom. We need to fix this! But, how?

    We already have evaluated that this girl has a problem with mathematics. What I found interesting in trying to deal with LD students is the fact they NEED, I want to emphasize need, to have a teacher in their life. They need to have that direct instruction, or direct contact, to cue these individuals to answer. There isn't enough positive reinforcement in the world that these students won't have. To clarify, we need knowledgeable teachers who are good at teaching to be able to do the job. Not only that, we are looking for teachers who aren't afraid to be able to give the LD much more support than the rest of the class. It is because this particular student needs it than anyone else in the classroom. As a student teacher, I am not sure what the best method to help Brittney with if she isn't with her other classmates doing the same thing.

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    1. Given my horrific experiences with math during my k-12 years - I still see myself as very weak in math - I think a number of things might have helped that were not available then but are now. In addition to the direct instruction that you mention [and that is very important], getting the materials in multiple ways might have helped me get those abstract concepts. So, for instance, manipulatives like the ones used in Montessori, or the games and apps that are everywhere now and basically just help to reinforce through practice...things like that. Using as many different ways as you can to teach concepts

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  4. After viewing the F.A.T. City video and reviewing the webpage I couldn't help but think of one of the students in my placement. He seems to be a very bright student, though is often disconnected. He never turns in his homework, nor takes notes, or even attempts to complete in class assignments. Yet when you speak with him, and ask him questions, there is no doubt he comprehends. In fact when questions are opened to the whole class he is often the first to raise his hand and always has the correct answer at hand. When presented with a writing task he breaks down. I can't help but think that there is an issue of dysgraphia at hand. The next step? Evaluation is needed, why this is just a hunch on my part with a proper evaluation and possible implementation of an I.E.P I think progress could be made to make sure that this student becomes successful. As the video and website pointed out being able to incorporate other styles of learning and the other senses will be key to getting this student moving on the "right track."
    While I hope to help lead this specific student towards a successful academic career I think the most important lesson I learned while reviewing the resources on LD students is that awareness and time are crucial. I WILL have many students during my student teaching and also throughout my career with differing LD's. To be aware of this and aware of the signs that go along with students struggling with an LD is the first step in handling the issue. Secondly giving students the time they need to comprehend, and achieve is essential. With those two tools in hand hopefully I will allow all my students to work towards academic achievement at the highest level. I will at least be better equipped to handle LD students as they enter my classroom.

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    1. I think one of the most important things I took away from this lesson too Dylan was that time and awareness are crucial aspects to the LD students' academic success. Especially from my own experience with not having been identified early on, which had significant effects to my academic progress as far as learning strategies, techniques, length of time to get through school, and achievement level.

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    2. Yep, I agree with the both of you. There's a greater sense of urgency and makes our role as teachers, a little more influential (if possible) than we had already comprehended.

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    3. Among all of us time and awareness is very important in regards to our students academic success. We as teachers are so eager to help these students with LD's to learn the given material. But, as teachers, we can't press too hard on those who can't read, who can't do math, and can't do a lot of things that an average student can do. Of course, we need to have urgency, but we need to have a steady head to deal with these kinds of problems.

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    4. I couldn't agree more that time and awareness are crucial to helping LD students succeed. We as teachers do have a responsibility to help students with LD's learn the material. And Tony brings a great point we can't push too hard to get the students to where mandates say they should be, because that pushing could easily be misinterpreted and the students could tune out.

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  5. Growing up my personal connections with learning disabilities were few. Neither myself nor my siblings were part of this group but my best friend from third grade through high school had severe learning disabilities that she struggled with continuously. There was always a thought somewhere in the back of mind that this was just her and nobody else had these same problems. I almost never had a problem with helping her and we were commonly grouped together for this reason: purposfully kept in the same integrated classrooms when applicable so I could help her.

    In my placement I have gone through the "purple folder" and made an easy to access spread sheet that lists where specific students struggle, how they struggle and most importantly where they need the extra help or scaffolding. Before I made that spreadsheet, I had no idea who was defined as learning disabled in the classroom or how to help them. After looking through this I feel a lot stronger in terms or how to help them in addition to the help they receive from pull out programs. Most of the ones who struggle in my Humanities class are those who struggle most with writing. When it comes time to write these are the students who don't start immediately and instead begin to talk or focus on other things. They need a teacher to come over and help them get started or walk them through a good portion. Generally, because there are so many who need help, my mentor teacher and I both walk around and help and have adopted a similar strategy of helping them get started and then walking away for a little while to help another expecting them to continue on their own for a little while. When we check back, mostly just walking past, if we don't see progress we stop again to help them. Sometimes we involve another classmate in the discussion and the two can begin to help eachother understand or brainstorm which also seems to help. As long as they have a structured way to get help and work through ideas, these particular students seem to struggle through to understanding. This is similar to using direct instruction but given the individuality of writing it requires more pulling ideas from the student and questioning is how I have come to spend much of my day at the middle school.

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    1. Krystal we also did this in my middle school classroom, walking around and checking in with students. But what my mentor teacher has started having me do is for some labs or assignments that we have in class, I will take a group of kids who might need extra help or just cant work in the classroom because of distractions, and we will go to the library and do the assignment there. That way they have individual attention and I'm constantly there to remind them to stay on task. I can also help them for longer periods of time with their spelling or understanding of concepts.

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    2. At my high school placement, we don't do much group activities, but I wish I did so I am able to walk around if people needed help. The only time that I know students need help is when we do re-qualification tests. Then I am stumped in why my mentor teacher doesn't incorporate group activities to help students better understand the material. As students do their tests, my mentor teacher is amazed in what the students give as an answer to the questions given. As I go through my placement, it is the same people on Thursday after school that asks for help.

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  6. Growing up I have had a little experience with learning disabilities. In elementary school I had a friend who was dyslexic, and since I was usually ahead of the rest the class I would help them with reading and writing. The way that I would most often help them was to read aloud to them, in some cases multiple times, because they could more easily make sense of language when they heard it. I would also transcribe small assignments for them because they had many problems with handwriting. As I progressed through school I would occasionally volunteer my time to help IEP students. I continued to work with students who were struggling with school because of a LD, or ADHD, throughout high school.
    In my placements I have noticed that some students have been struggling with reading and writing assignment, but I am not sure if it is because of a LD or poor instruction. What I have noticed is that the students who are struggling with getting the information from reading seem to understand, or pretend to understand when I try to explain the content verbally.
    Above all what I took from the FAT City video was that LD students need time and consideration in school. I think time is the simple one to give them, because often is a matter of extending a homework assignment, or allowing a few extra seconds to process information in class. Consideration I feel is more difficult, because it cannot be broken down into a couple of neat solutions. Sometimes students need to be allowed to pursue things for whatever POV they are interested in and sometimes they need to be spoon-fed the information in a general way. The problem is you don't always know which way to go, and often LD students don't say, because they don't what to stand out as having special needs.

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    1. So many students, at the middle school level in particular, pretend that they know what is going on when they don't understand. One of my students told me yesterday that she hadn't understood a word of the book we have spent most of the year working on, although I think this is language barrier not a learning disability. She had faked her entire way through the smaller assignments, turning in completed or mostly completed assignments that weren't great but were fine overall. Students learn how to blend it when they have trouble, which makes it really hard to figure out how to help them when they don't appear to need it when looking at their work.

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  7. Personally, I guess you can say that I have experience with a LD but in my opinion not really and here is why. As some of you already know or have been able to guess I have ADHD. When I was younger I was not exactly treated for this as I grew up very poor-I was labeled the “out of control tomboy” right?! My parents were very young, did not have a lot of help and chalked it up to my “special qualities.” I grew up not knowing or understanding my LD and learned many coping mechanisms on my own to get through school and social situations. Even though I started treatment in late in high school, I still catch myself defaulting back to old habits and behaviors when overwhelmed and stressed. I never really felt like I was LD or identified as such until I started learning more about it in college because it was just the way I was.

    I thought the FAT video had a very interesting perspective to offer. I liked how we could see the effect of having a LD on “normal” individuals had and how they were coping with the difficulties. The videos perspective was also good in that it offered a way better and more REAL interpretation of what it is like to have a LD verses reading about, writing about, researching, etc. I like the impromptu forced-role play if you will, makes you remember, thus more impactful for future practices. What stood out to me the most from the video was the difference between how “normal” individuals and LD individuals process the two types of reading and decoding tasks differently. This made things much clearer for me as far as why cognitive tasks may take more time to process for some yet they are very good at multiple associative tasks. This is why most LD students are better auditory and visual learners.

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    1. I also liked how the instructor on the video gave examples and showed us what it feels like to have a LD. I think being empathetic and going through the same feelings can help change our perspectives on students who might need extra help. Too often LD students are overlooked and told to just "catch up". By just watching in the video what they are experiencing everyday, I hope I can better understand students with LDs and use the strategies that work best so that they can benefit in the classroom.

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  8. When I was in high school I dated a guy who could not read. His parents didn’t seem to care and the school just stuck him in regular classes since we didn’t have a SPED program (it was a private school). So, for the next three years I helped him everyday with his homework. Also, two other teachers and I worked with him to do exercises to help him learn words. Finally, a teacher we had been working with did some research and we came to the conclusion that he had some type of dyslexia and therefore had difficulties reading. I still can’t believe that his parents never did anything to help him and that it took someone about 16 years to discover he had dyslexia and do something about it. In my placement now there are a lot of students who are distracted very easily and need extra prodding to complete their work. Others have a hard time spelling and structuring their sentences, but I think that it might be because they are ESL students. I have also noticed a couple of students who are very smart but just need someone to talk them through the steps of an assignment in order to understand it.

    I agree with the video that Time is a huge factor that LD students need, but are often denied. Giving them enough wait time and an opportunity to think about an answer so that they can also share are good strategies that I hope to use. I also liked the idea from the video about the “secret cues”; telling the student you understand they have a LD and creating a cue with them so they can still participate. The site also offered some helpful strategies to accommodate for children with LDs, such as larger print, extra time on a test, and taking tests verbally instead of written. It also says that these students benefit a lot from clear and focused instruction, and that helping students manage their assignments with graphic organizers is really helpful.

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    1. Nicole, that's a crazy a story about your friend not being identified as having dyslexia until the age of 16. What's crazier is that apparently this isn't uncommon! All the more reason why one on one attention is so vital to education and in this case LD identification.

      I think the idea of using verbal language practices in the classroom is a really intriguing concept. So many skills and patterns are developed in our speech that are not always transferred into writing. Many cultures practice and value oral storytelling, and I am curious to know how many studies have examined the use of this in relation to improving literacy.

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    2. At OCTE I attended a panel where a teacher used podcasts for some of her struggling writers to get assessments. Most of her students would write the stories or answers out but if her objective had nothing to do with writing, podcasts became an option. One student, an English language learner, had so much to say but struggled to write it down. When given the chance to tell his story, he was fluent, eloquent and engaging. She then had something to assess that was reflective of the work she knew he could do but hadn't been getting. I think this could work so well for many students who struggle with words and it can be done with an iPod or digitial voice recorder (I got one for less than $50 last year that has excellent sound and plugs right into a USB port). For students struggling with dyslexia, this could be a good assessment that lets them show their best work.

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  9. I personally have dealt with LD's. When I was younger I had a strong speech impediment which through the years has gone away for the most part. I also was diagnosed with ADHD at a young age and was medicated through high school. I decided in college that I wanted to try being "normal" a.k.a. off medication. My grades were stable and I seemed to have more free, higher-level thinking abilities. Sure I wasn't looking at the board the whole time and often drifted into my own little dream world, but I was able to soak up more and process it better. One of my problems/gifts has always been hyper focus.

    I think the key point that I took away from the FAT city video was the lack of awareness on the part of adults as to how they are conducive towards continuing and furthering the impediments and low academic self-esteem and self-confidence of LD students. To them they see them as Lazy and Dumb and don't really understand the cognitive processes of their LD students. They don't understand how their minds work and how their thought process functions. Lastly, they don't realize what they're doing to them by being unaware of LD symptoms and causes and they are the single reason why many LD students have trouble with school.

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    1. Ben, and isn't this little dream world better than the real? In all seriousness, how much of the education system is squandering creative thinking and the progressive imagination?....("Ted Talk" we watched early in the year)...? Chances are with any student, LD's or not, a boring lesson, or a lesson that says this is the only way to do it (lecture and memorization), students are going to be disengaged. What becomes more valuable in the "real world," following directions or free thinking?

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  10. Ben,
    Thank you for your response, I think your second paragraph got to the root of the problem very nicely. Teachers, parents, and other adults within the school system as well as society fail to see and understand the LD students. I think the first step in changing this is through awareness. I have mentioned this awareness several times throughout our program so far and it is starting to feel like there are so many things we as educators must be "aware" of. Yet I think a simple awareness goes a long ways, it allows one to better understand and be ready for the many obstacles we will face within the classroom.

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