June 18, 2013

Posts Comments

You are here: Home / Archives for Disability

Helping Your Child Succeed

June 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Teva icon 

Image via Wikipedia

If your child is diagnosed with a learning disability, you may feel apprehensive about ensuring they receive the education they need and deserve. The way you act and react has the greatest affect on your child. Parenting children with disabilities can be frustrating at times, but if you approach the situation with understanding and a sense of humor, your child is not likely to view their disability as an insurmountable obstacle either.

Take Charge
Do your own research. Learn about new developments as well as programs or techniques that could help your child. Don’t necessarily rely on schools or doctors for all the solutions. You need to become an expert for yourself to help your child learn.

Advocate for Your Child
Likewise, you may have to speak up constantly to get the special help your child needs. Be proactive when it comes to your child’s education. Your voice might be the difference in getting the services your child deserves.

Gain Perspective
Although it’s easy to be intimidated by parenting a child with a disability, keep in mind that everyone learns differently. Remember that challenges can always be conquered. Be there to support your child, and don’t let tests and paperwork keep you away from this important task.

Remember Your Influence
Your child is going to pick up on how you deal with the challenges he or she faces. If you don’t look at the learning disability as a barrier to success, your child isn’t likely to look at it that way either. Keep up your optimism and instill a sense of hard work. Your child will follow your lead.

Filed Under: Family Support Tagged With: , ,

Categories of Learning Disabilities

June 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Math Lesson 

Image via Wikipedia

Types of learning disabilities are often grouped by areas of education. Recognizing the signs of each area will make it possible for you to pinpoint a problem and tailor your child’s education appropriately. Early intervention is often very helpful in assisting a child with a learning disability, so making yourself aware of the different signs and symptoms will allow you to help your child.

Math Difficulties/Disabilities
Your child’s difficulty with math can be affected by other disabilities, such as a language disability. If your child’s learning disability falls into the category of math difficulties or disabilities, he or she might struggle with memorizing facts. Your child also might struggle with counting principles or telling time.

Language Difficulties/Disabilities
Language difficulties and disabilities encompass the ability to understand and produce spoken language. Signs of these types of disabilities include the inability to retell a story and the inability to understand the meaning of parts of speech or directions.

Reading Difficulties/Disabilities
Your child may experience different varieties of reading problems. Disabilities dealing with reading can lead to a difficulty in understanding meaning. Your son or daughter could show a lack of ability to recognize letters or words.

Writing Difficulties/Disabilities
These disabilities deal with physically writing and/or understanding information. A writing disability can involve physical difficulty writing words or letters or a struggle to organize thoughts in writing. Symptoms, like writing coherence, revolve around the actual act of writing.

If your child has a learning disability, he or she can still get the education they deserve. Learn what to watch out for so you can get your child needed assistance.

Filed Under: Learning Theories Tagged With: , ,

Students With Disabilities

March 22, 2011 By 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: , ,

Special Education

February 23, 2011 By 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: , ,

Public School Pressure Strategies for Parents of Disabled Children

January 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Disabled students often are giving the same amount, if not more effort as their peers. Managing the work load can be stressful. Many parents do not learn of their child’s disability until they are enrolled in school. Many educators not trained to be flexible in their teaching styles to accommodate the needs of all students. Here are some learning options for disabled children.

There are many different  types of disabilities. Students who are enrolled in public school may be entitled to receive free testing. Just because there is a disability it does not always mean that there is a need to be removed from the class and placed into a special needs class. There are professionals available to consult for a second opinion or another assessment. Do not feel pressured by the school to put your child on prescription medications without a biased qualified party.

Many children who do not feel challenged in class often may be seen as disruptive, or that they are a discipline problem. Some school districts may pressure the parent to put them on Ritalin or another medication before they can be readmitted into the classroom.

Many students have managed to stay in traditional classroom settings with the help of a tutor. A tutor can help to complete assignments and special projects. Students that have support from a family member or paid tutor

Dietary changes sometimes can help improve concentration. Testing for food allergies is a good way to find out if there are any sensitivities.

Students in today’s public school system have teachers that are not equipped to offer any extra help. Avoid having your child feel lost in the traditional classroom by having testing done for learning disabilities, not feeling pressured to agree with medicating your child by mandate of the school, and seeing if there are food sensitivities.

Filed Under: Children With Learning Disabilities Tagged With: ,

Glancing at the St. Louis Institute for the Deaf and the Blind

January 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Founded in 1962, the St. Louis Institute for the Deaf and the Blind provides a regular secondary, higher secondary and university education to students with the disability of deafness or blindness. The school started with only three teachers and 51 students; today, the institute boasts nearly 45 teachers and 400 students. The paragraphs that follow will offer a brief look at this extraordinary school — examining its aims and vision, its academics, and its facilities.

Vision

The St. Louis Institute hopes that, with rigorous work and dedication, the disabled students who attend the school can eventually join society as “useful citizens in a dignified way.” The institute works to find employment for its graduates and hopes to expand its reach to other corners of the world, ensuring that as many disabled students as possible get a chance to lead fulfilling lives.

Academics

The programs offered by the institute include a school for the deaf, a school for the blind, vocational training for students with hearing impairment, and a college for the deaf. The classes incorporate all the major subjects — English, mathematics, science, history and geography — but there also are more elective-type classes such as sewing, printing, drawing, computer science, weaving and music. Providing a core education along with vocational and enrichment studies is important to the institute.

Facilities

Students with disabilities, and especially blind or deaf students, often require advanced technology and facilities in order to receive a proper education. The St. Louis Institute has a library for the hearing impaired, the visually impaired, and the college. The blind students use multimedia and Braille. There are also computer labs that match the three libraries. The lab for blind students includes a Braille printer, which allows the students to type and print books with Braille as well as to write their own music. Other facilities include an infirmary, a hostel, an audiology center, an auditorium and a gymnasium.

Filed Under: Teaching Tips & Tricks Tagged With:

Resources for Disabled Students at Colorado State University

January 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The Americans with Disabilities Act protects the civil rights of citizens with disabilities, prohibiting discrimination based on physical or mental defects. This often means that businesses and universities must provide the proper accommodations for all disabilities so that equal use and enjoyment is possible. The university scene is usually particularly accommodating. Ideally, disabled students seeking higher education should have no trouble accessing the buildings and classrooms on campus and receiving the assistance and extra materials needed in order to learn.

If you or your child is disabled and you’re searching for the best education options, university websites are a fruitful place to begin. It’s common for colleges, especially large public ones, to list their resources for disabled students directly on their sites. The rest of this article will detail a specific college’s resources as an example for what can and should be expected.

Colorado State University requires students with disabilities register and meet with a counselor to go through the accommodations that the student may need. The following list includes several available resources.

  • Alternative testing and texts in the classroom
  • An interpreter or note-taking aid
  • The accommodations for trained animal assistants
  • Technology for classroom or at-home use
  • Transportation assistance on the bus or a shuttle cart for traversing campus
  • Priority registration for dorm rooms and classes
  • On- and off-campus awareness groups and centers that focus on disabilities

The law requires most of the accommodations Colorado State University has specified, but many universities go above and beyond the basic requirements. CSU is fairly middle-of-the-road when it comes to equality for disabled students. If a university does not list its resources on its website, call the administration for details. They may set up meeting for discussing the possible resources available, or they may provide exhaustive brochures. If the school is unresponsive and unhelpful, they aren’t likely to properly outfit the student with his or her essentials.

Filed Under: Treatment Tagged With: ,

The Intelligence Understanding: Learning Difficulty

December 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment

It’s a common accusation. It’s a vicious belief. Teachers deem your child too strange, too hopeless, to educate. They claim his intelligence is lacking — a consequence of his disorder, a proof that he does not belong in the standard classes. He is beyond their help and must therefore be placed with others like himself: branded as a special needs pupil.

And it is not this name that offends you. It is instead the assumption that your child is not brilliant — because you know that he is. He simply can’t offer it in the usual ways, can’t verbalize his thoughts with ease.

Too often is it believed that children with learning disabilities are of low intelligence and cannot be taught. This is incorrect, however, and must be understood immediately as nothing more than a myth. Most individuals with forms of disorders are of above average intellect. They excel with creativity and can offer information in new ways. They are not — despite what so many declare — unable to learn.

The complication that comes from a difficulty, however, is in the way information is absorbed. Children can be precocious but can also be unable to demonstrate this. Words may elude them; numbers can confuse; and the necessary motor skills (such as holding a pencil properly) can disappear, leaving them unable to communicate as others do.

This is not validation of below average potential, though. It is instead a need for unconventional applications — all of which must be utilized by teachers to ensure that school becomes a welcoming environment and not a simple terror.

The misconception that plagues individuals with learning disabilities is that they can never succeed. Their intellect is thought to be weak. The truth, however, is that they are often the most dynamic students in the classroom. They simply must express their skills differently. And this requires patience from all.

A difficulty is not a failing. It is instead merely unique.

Filed Under: Learning Theories Tagged With: , , , ,

Learning Difficulty: Understood

December 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

It’s an assumption of ignorance, of weak minds and flawed comprehensions: a disability brands all individuals unable to be taught and undeserving of the chance. There’s a confusion of intelligences, with labels flung out, naming each child futile. Parents despair; teachers falter; and the entire education system considers the cause to be a lost one. There’s nothing to be done and nothing to consider. These students are deemed failures.

And the stigma of learning difficulties continues.

The notion of a disability is one that’s too often met with worry, tension and misunderstandings. Children who are burdened by even a mild worry are often forced to suffer from the misconceptions of their family, friends and peers. Education becomes an impossibility — not because of their problem but because too many others refuse to help them.

It’s essential therefore that all individuals understand what a learning difficulty truly is and what must be done about it. This is not a failing of the brain. It’s merely a new way of receiving — and communicating — information.

Defined simply: a learning disability is when a child cannot process letters, numbers, phrases of speech or other elements as his peers do. It’s a disorder (with causes that cannot be directly predicted. Physical impairment, illness, genetics and more can spark a complication). It is not, however, a reflection of intelligence or ability. Students cannot absorb facts as others do; but they can still be taught. The methods may just require creativity, with an emphasis on visual aids and repetition.

And this must be recognized. Too often are children thought to be unworthy of their teachers’ time, left behind while their classmates move forward. They are deserving of an education, however. It merely must be presented differently. This is not an indicator of mental deficiency. It’s just a compromise of traditional methods.

A learning difficulty is not an excuse to abandon any student. It’s instead a demand for patience and understanding.

Filed Under: Children With Learning Disabilities Tagged With: , , ,

The Mastery Technique: Defined

December 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

No child is beyond teaching. No student is to be denied an education. This philosophy — despite its assurances, despite its offering of hope — is not a common one. The truth is instead a sadder thing, with many assuming that those who suffer from disabilities lack the intellect to succeed. These individuals are deemed unworthy of the traditional methods, are believed to be without the necessary skills. They’re branded wastes of time and effort, with many instructors certain that there’s not enough patience in this world to offer them. And so many children are refused the chance to flourish.

This must stop — and the introduction of the Mastery Technique is providing a far better alternative.

Explained simply, the Mastery Technique is a belief that no student is incapable of learning. The fault of failure, it’s noted, does not rest with disorders or disabilities. It instead is found in the environment: with loud, disruptive classrooms undoing all studying. The intention to understand pages is made impossible merely by the lack of organization.

The Mastery Technique offers a solution to this, however. Classes are instead shaped smaller, with the value of the group emphasized. Students are to learn through the effects of peer communication, strong teacher interaction and carefully sequenced programs (meant to offer the necessary structure). All details of the day are planned — with time given to each individual to ensure they are comprehending the material. Repetition and hands-on experience is offered to all.

And this is a revelation of teaching. No longer are pupils who suffer from disabilities simply ignored, unable to keep pace with their friends. School becomes an environment that is conductive to educating all, rather than just the lucky majority. Disorders are countered with calm hours, persistent lessons and group aid. And the results are staggering.

The Mastery Technique should be utilized by all who wish to find success for their students. Ignore the past and embrace the future.

Filed Under: Treatment Tagged With: , , ,
«Older Posts