Learning Difficulty

Teaching Children with Dyslexia

March 24, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Dyslexia is a learning disability and, while it cannot be cured, early diagnosis and treatment can be integral in helping children become successful in school and in life. Most dyslexics benefit from help from a teacher, therapist or tutor specially trained to teach using methods that utilize multi-sensory techniques.

Modifications to a student’s academic program can help dyslexics succeed. Using teaching methods that involve different senses such as hearing, touch and sight simultaneously help children with dyslexia to better understand and recall the material they learn. At school, allowing students with dyslexia additional time to complete assignments, providing help with note taking and even giving taped tests can provide students the help they need in order to succeed.

Dyslexic children often have difficulty with auditory processing, visual processing, or both. They might also have difficulty understanding how sound functions in the way words are put together. Rhyming, blending sounds and segmenting words can be difficult. Dyslexic children often have problems learning the sight words taught in early elementary grades.

Effective Instruction for Children with Dyslexia

Dyslexia cannot be cured, but proper teaching methods can improve a student’s success and minimizes many of the problems associated with dyslexia. For example:

Teaching skills explicitly using techniques that might be considered “old school” but directly instruct students on reading, writing and spelling.

Using logical systems for introducing new concepts so that information builds on what is learned before.

Following step-by-step methods for introducing, reviewing and practicing concepts.

Simultaneously engaging visual, kinesthetic and auditory channels when teaching concepts. This kind of teaching links these pathways enhancing memory and learning.

Filed Under: Children With Learning Disabilities Tagged With: Dyslexia, Education, Learning disability

Students With Disabilities

March 22, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Students with disabilities provide a challenge to not just their teachers, but their parents, and also themselves. Many of these students strive to be the best they can while they know they are limited in some capacity of their learning. This can be overwhelmingly frustrating for all the parties involved that are helping the student through their schooling. For teachers this is a basic quest of presenting the material in just the right way for a student to understand. This is not as easy as it sounds, because there are many different way to present material, and sometimes nothing works. For parents it is difficult because every parent wants to see their children succeed, and when their is a learning disability present, they know that success will come with a painful process. For the student, however, this is the most frustrating place to be.

Students with disabilities, that range from mild to moderate, are fully aware that they are in Special Education classes, that they need assistance, and that they are not like everyone else in school. College might not be a possibility for them, and they simply are not able to learn the way they know they should. They are aware that there is a disparity in the learning. This is the biggest challenge. For students to understand that their issues have no bearing on their capabilities is a major success. Many of these students deal with depression, anger issues, and self-esteem and confidence issues. They know they are not like the other students. This is a hard thing to watch as a parent or teacher.

As a parent the best thing that you can do is to reassure your child that they have qualities and talents that are in demand, then expand on those qualities. Work with the teachers and the IEP, or Individual Education Plan coordinators to have a plan of attack that allows consistent education, reassurance, and development both at home and at school. This will help you child develop and become a confident learner.

Filed Under: Children With Learning Disabilities Tagged With: Disability, Special education, Student

Assistive Technology for Students with Learning Disabilities

March 20, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Children with learning disabilities often have difficulty functioning in a traditional classroom. Given a reading assignment when it is a struggle to read or writing a report when your hand doesn’t do what you want it to do can make a ten-minute assignment take hours. By using assistive technology, students can work around these difficulties and become a successful learner.

Assistive technology, which can be learning tools both high- and low-tech, enable people with learning disabilities to reach their potential by working around their deficit. These tools can be as simple as books on tape, calculators and color coding files. More high-tech devices include computers with speech-recognition or print-recognition software that turn oral language into written text or written text into oral language, respectively, and talking calculators.

Through the use of assistive technology, students with learning disabilities can improve their speed and accuracy, thereby cutting hours offer of laborious assignments. Students also may require less help and be able to fit in better with the rest of the classroom’s learning and routines. A student’s success will also help to motivate him to set higher goals for himself and to stick with his work.

It is important to note that assistive technology isn’t the end all, be all for learning disabilities. It does not make learning disabilities suddenly disappear and it will not make up for poor teaching. Assistive technology also will not instantly make a student become a motivated learner or benefit each user in the same way.

A major benefit of assistive technology for the learning disabled student is the reduction in stress the student experiences. These additional learning supports can empower a student and raise his self-image.

Filed Under: Teaching Tips & Tricks Tagged With: Assistive technology, Learning disability, Student

Hidden Teaching Resources

March 19, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Many parents of children, tweens, or teens with disabilities are active with schoolwork. Parental involvement throughout college can be the difference between barely passing or excelling in academics. Here are some ways to find hidden teaching resources.

Finding all of the available programs to support students may be challenging. Creating a positive learning environment involves making one or several resources readily available. Changing schools or going from middle to high school or college is often a time of great changes in the students daily routine.

Thoroughly read the school website, and look for any offered services. If there are no resources clearly listed take time to contact the school directly. Making phone calls is a great start. Ask specifically for programs that offer additional help or any ongoing support groups. Many educators love to see parental involvement and will share the information. However, many public schools may these programs but they are not always talked about. Contacting the districts main office sometime yields better results. There may be a tutoring program, computer loan program, free online access to software, and a host of other resources available. Testing for learning disabilities may be offered for free or at a discount if you go through the schools referral. Another great alternative is distance learning. Seek the help of online educational systems like earnmydegree.com and inquire on practical methods applied to make learning easier for your child.

Many districts may offer programs at different schools throughout the month. There may be programs available that simply have to be signed up for. Some of these programs may need a certain number of students who are interested for particiaption at your child’s school. Some state and government sponsored programs do not have income restrictions to qualify.

Tapping into these hidden resources is easy once you find a knowledgeable person within the schools offices. Many colleges offer a variety of resources for students. Finding the best resources for your child involves being proactive about all current avenues for additional help.

Filed Under: Teaching Tips & Tricks Tagged With: High school, Learning disability

Math Learning Disabilities

March 16, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Math learning differences are often overlooked and children with math learning disabilities frequently don’t receive the assessment or remediation they need. About 6 percent of school-aged children have serious math difficulties.

Like reading difficulties, disabilities relating to learning math range from mild or moderate to severe. In addition to different intensities, there are also different types which require different kinds of emphasis in the classroom, adaptations and methods.

Basic Math Facts

Some children have a problem memorizing their basic math facts even though they put a great deal of effort into learning them. These children continue to use their fingers or pencil marks to count because they do not readily know basic addition, subtraction, multiplication or division. For some children, this is their only difficulty and allowing them to use a calculator or facts chart will allow them to proceed to more difficult computations.

Arithmetic Weakness/Math Talent

Some children have no problem understanding math concepts but do have a problem reliably calculating in math. They tend to make mistakes when it comes to paying attention to operational signs, sequencing steps and borrowing or carrying correctly. While these difficulties might place them in remedial math classes early on, they shouldn’t be held back from higher-level math because of their inconsistent computational skills.

Informal Math Skills versus Formal Procedures

Many young children beginning elementary school actually have a strong understanding of informal math but they have trouble connecting this knowledge to the more formal procedures used in school. Learning the language, symbolic notation and system of school math collides with their informal skills. At this stage, using structured, concrete materials students can move and hold can be a much better teaching tool than pictorial representations.

Filed Under: Children With Learning Disabilities Tagged With: Child, Learning disability, Mathematics

AD/HD and Executive Skills

March 9, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

When children have Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD), they often have areas of weakness in their executive function, those brain-based skills everyone needs to understand tasks, plan how to do them and follow through. Although not all children with weaknesses in these areas have AD/HD, all children with AD/HD do have issues in at least one of these areas.

Impulse control—Children with poor impulse control say or do things without thinking first. They often focus on the pleasurable rather than the required tasks.
Emotional Control—Children with emotional control issues often have problems accepting criticism, sticking to work when they are upset about something else or overreact when they lose a game.
Flexibility—Children who are inflexible often have problems adjusting to changes in routine and have difficulty with brainstorming assignments or panic when there are many details to remember.
Working Memory—Children who have difficulty holding onto information necessary to complete a task have problems following instructions, especially when they are given orally, and have problems doing multi-step tasks like complicated math problems.
Self-Monitoring—Children often misjudge how much effort they are exerting and have a hard time realizing when they are not following directions. They may have trouble proofreading their work or they might skip test questions without realizing it.
Prioritizing—Children often become easily overwhelmed by complicated tasks when they find it hard to plan and set priorities. They often misjudge how much time a project will take and they have problems finding the main idea of something they have read or heard.
Getting Started—Children have problems starting their homework and put off tasks until the last minute. They get overwhelmed about how to plan and organize.
Organization—Children with poor organizational ability often do homework but do not turn it in, turn in assignments late, do sloppy work or arrive late.

Filed Under: Treatment Tagged With: Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, Child, Executive functions

There is More to Life: Extracurricular Activities

March 7, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Parenting children with learning disabilities can be daunting. So much of a child’s self-esteem is wrapped up in school – what kind of grades he gets and how he relates to his peers. And when school isn’t going well, no matter how hard your child works, his stress and frustration can make him feel like a failure.

To help your child see that there is more to life than school and grade points, direct him toward activities that he can excel at and help him see himself as a success. Since no one knows your child as well as you do, you know is strengths and weaknesses and understand his interests, us this information to help him choose activities. This may mean he will not be doing what everyone else in the neighborhood is doing but the point is that he is not like everyone else in the neighborhood.

When looking for activities your child can excel at, make sure they are right for his age, abilities and maturity level. It is important to keep in mind his comfort zone, whether that be with kids older or younger than he is.

Extracurricular Activities

Find clubs, sports, arts and music opportunities outside of school
Join forces with group leaders, explaining your child’s learning disabilities so that the leader can be more effective with your child
Check whether a group is based on interest or aptitude. If it is based on an ability your child doesn’t yet have, it could spell disaster for his feelings of success and enjoyment.
Explore whether the activities matches your child’s energy level. A slow-paced class could be frustrating for an active child.

Home-based Activities

Children can find success with regular chores which can give them a sense of responsibility and the knowledge that they are contributing members of their family.

Filed Under: Family Support Tagged With: Extracurricular activity, School, United States

Special Education

February 23, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Special education has gotten a face lift in the last 20 years or so through the revision of the IDEA format, Individuals with Disabilities Act. This change was prompted by parents of children with disabilities that felt that it was unfair for their children to be segregated from the rest of the school because of their disability. This was also made visible with students that had reading difficulties that were combined with severe Down Syndrome students. The problem was that the students with the mild to moderate learning disabilities were feeling severely disabled because that was the group they were placed with. According to the revisions made on IDEA one of the key revisions was that a student was going to have the least restrictive environment possible. This is where No Child Left Behind, or NCLB, was developed.

The least restrictive environment means that a child is to be with other students, and if help is needed, an inclusion teacher assigned to that student will offer help in the classroom. This also meant that the mainstream teacher, and special education teacher were to work hand in hand in developing proper workloads for particular students, based on the provisions of their IEP, Individual Education Plan. This has inclusion model is a nationwide model, and is used in every school in America. The idea behind the model is to eliminate as much one on one special education time, which in the past was making students feel defeated rather than empowered, and allow them the opportunity to learn the same information with their peers. This has been highly successful, and many are considering a new over haul of special education that would consider mainstream teacher be licenced for accommodations to help eliminate the middle man in their classrooms.

Filed Under: Teaching Tips & Tricks Tagged With: Disability, Education, Special education

IEP Writing

February 16, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

IEP, or Individual Education Plan, is a process that allows educators, parents, and the student come together to discuss the plan on how to handle the disability that is presented. Their is a stringent process on this plan, and its contents, progress, and reports are all protected by law. The first step to getting to the IEP stage is for the teacher to recognize that a student may have some challenges. The teacher will notify the Principal, who then meets with the teacher to organize some observations. After observations are concluded, and the staff agrees that there might be a disability present, they approach the parents with the idea to test the child for a disability. The testing is not intended to hurt the child or concrete a disability, but rather find what the disability is. If a parent feels that their child is suffering from a learning disability he or she can also request testing; this does not have to be a school directed step. Once the testing is complete, and they get the results, the staff meets to review the results. Further testing may be needed in order to see the severity of the disability, but the initial testing will at least identify the initial problem.

The parents will be notified after the testing is completed, and the results will be relayed to them at a meeting. The meeting will consist of the Principal, discovering teacher, and other teachers that help to collaborate on the issue. This is where the group comes together for the development of the IEP. This document is what will be the framework on how to help assist the student with his or her needs throughout the school year, and what will be included as far as accommodations to assist with as much mainstream classroom time as possible.

Filed Under: Learning Theories Tagged With: Education, Individualized Education Program

Learning Difficulties

February 10, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Learning difficulties can be manifested in many different ways. There are approximately 25 areas that are identified for students, and the struggle is that many of the issues tend to be combined with other difficulties. For instance, many children that tend to have reading disabilities also tend to have behavioral issues. This is probably the most common combination and mostly due to the fact that the student is frustrated with their lack of production and normalcy. The idea behind inclusion classrooms was to eliminate much of this frustration by allowing a student to be in a normal classroom setting with his or her peers. This has been very effective in the last decade, and many students are maintaining healthy behavioral habits as a result.

The biggest problem with learning difficulties is not so much the identification of the issue, but rather the reception in which the student receives help for that issue. Many times students tend to fight the help because they feel out of place or stupid. This is a tragic scenario as it can take years before a student realizes that the intervention is not intended to harm, rather help. For some, this can mean that learned things can be missed, and students fall even more behind. This cycle can create an ugly situation for students and their families, and many times can result in being held back in a grade, or more one on one intervention to get the student caught up with the key concepts.

ADD/ADHD is not considered a diagnosable disability at this time in school, and there are efforts to try and change that. The problem with this difficulty is that many believe it to be strictly environmental and therefore highly preventable. The age old argument of Nature vs. Nurture is hot on this topic, and many educators hope to see a change in the near future regarding this particular aspect of noticeable difficulties that students face.

Filed Under: Learning Theories Tagged With: Education, Learning disability, Student