LD Sorting Fact from Fiction
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Welcome, this Podcast Series is brought to you by the Student Success Collaborative.
The Student Success Collaborative is made
of City Year, One Global Economy,
Silicon Valley Education Foundation,
Teachers Without Borders
and the National Center for Learning Disabilities.
The Students Success Collaborative and
this Podcast Series are funded by the
Cisco Systems Foundation
My name is Karen Golembeski,
I'm the Assistant Director of Education Programs at the
National Center for Learning Disabilities.
This podcast is part of a three part series
on the basics of Learning Disabilities,
with questions provided by the Silicon Valley Education Foundation
and Teachers Without Borders networks of educators across the country.
Our guest today is my colleague Dr. Sheldon Horowitz,
Dr. Horowitz is Director of LD Resources and Essential Information
at the National Center for Learning Disabilities
and He is essentially our In house expert on LD.
Today's podcast is on the topic of Learning Disabilities
Sorting Facts from Fiction.
Welcome Dr. Horowitz.
Even when learning disabilities make up 50%
of the students receiving special education services
in the United States, many myths about learning disabilities
still exist. Would you sort some of the facts from fiction for us?
Dr. Horowitz: Sure. I'll be happy to speak about
some of the mythologies, some of the misunderstandings about
learning disabilities. It's true that almost
half of all children who receive any kind of special education services
in the United States are classified as having specific learning disabilities
and it is pretty remarkable that there is still so much confusion
about what LD is and is not.
As recently as 2010, there was a retro poll survey done
where we learnt that individuals,
parents, educators and others,
still confuse learning disabilities with other disorders
including mental retardation, below average intellectual functioning,
they even confuse LD with sensory impairments,
such as blindness and deafness.
And attribute learning disabilities to laziness, lack of motivation
nothing could be farther from the truth.
Learning disabilities are, in the words of renown researchers
“Islands of weakness in a sea of strengths“
One of the graduating high school seniors of Learning Disabilities
who is this year an Ann and Loretta Ford scholarship winner
whose essay you can read on our LD.org website
describes a brain as a computer...
with a glitch. Still able to process information,
still able to get the job done,
but in ways that are different and often unexpected.
I've heard students linking their learning disabilities,
their struggles of learning
to driving a car with a missing gear on the transition.
or figuring out how to get somewhere with street signs that are confusing or
the rules of the road change
depending upon where they are,
where things change from one block to the next.
I listened to a one young student telling me about his learning disability,
He said that: “learning disabilities are what I have, and not what I am“.
So the hidden message here is that learning disabilities is not a prescription to failure.
bur rather a hurdle or a set of challenges
that once understood by the person, by his parents,
by individuals, teachers at the school,
can be work around with targeted instruction
meaningful accommodations, high expectations
and a network of support.
I've often heard your advice those with learning disabilities
to become successful and comfortable with talking about their learning disabilities.
and what they need from others to be successful.
Why is so important to let people know about your learning disability?
Dr. Horowitz: It's a very good question.
If you have to look around the room and
just try to pick out someone who used to have learning disabilities,
What would you be looking for?
Would it be someone who is left handed?,
Someone wearing glasses?,
Someone who you knew avoided doing math?
or someone who wasn't a particular habit reader?,
The truth is that there isn't a short fired list of characteristics
that typified everybody with learning disabilities
and LD manifest itself differently in different people.
it's not necessarily something that you notice
unless the person with the learning disability
is doing something right there
reading or spelling or math or some kind of tasks
that would demonstrate the constant trouble that they have
that model the particular areas of weakness.
People wouldn't know about the presence of learning disabilities necessarily
unless it was mentioned, and it could easily be mistaken for a reluctance
to read or a poor math learning ability,
or spelling errors or note taking problems,
that would reflected not of the LD,
but that would be translated improperly
as laziness or even a lack of effort.
During the school years, the school is responsible
for seeking out students with LD,
and making sure that they have the instruction
and support they need to succeed.
However once a student is graduating from High School
and move on to college or to the work place,
the responsibility to disclose the presence of a learning disability
and ask for help lies completely with the individual.
This is a very important distinction
and there is more information about when to share
the presence of a learning disability,
to whom you might share,
how is best done, this is at the LD.org website.
Over the years I'm sure you've gathered some tips,
for teaching students with learning disabilities and worked with parents and teachers
motivated and positive as they progress through school
Would you share some of those top tips with us?
Motivation and Perseverance is really, really important,
Some of the very most interesting research
that we have about learning disabilities
helping us understand what seems
to make the most difference over time,
comes from some work that was done in an area
called success attributes.
More than income level, more than parenting style,
even more than overall intelligence,
researchers have identified certain characteristics
and behaviors, and you know what the number one item is?
The number one item
is that success attribute literature, is self awareness,
a person's understanding of the nature of their specific challenges
and what he or she needs to be successful.
Successful individuals with LD
don't give up!
They anticipate the help that they need,
and they find ways to get it.
In school, at the job, at home
and in the community.
And they learn to be confident and outspoken self advocates.
First, when they are in school, attending
those decision making meetings, those IEP meetings,
Even as early as middle school,
as they get older, they love the mantra
“No decision is made about me, without me“
They are part of the process,
they develop a vocabulary, they know how to contribute
to meaningful discussions about what they need to be successful.
And clearly it takes a strong and well informed
group of adults, specifically parents,
and educators, working in close partnership
with each other, to make all of this happen.
But research tells us, that is well worth the effort.
Karen: Thank You.
Before our final question today,
we have several questions about strategies,
for how to build comprehensive, permanent success in school and at home,
So, aside from staying positive and motivated,
how do you recommend people build their confidence and promote success in school?
One of the things that I would suggest,
that parents, educators and individuals with learning disabilities
think about in terms of promoting success
is to look at assistant technologies,
these can be enormously helpful,
and today we have many more options
to choose from than never before.
We have calculators, we have screen reading software,
we have cameras that take digital images
to print and convert into audio files,
for people who struggle with reading,
we have portable scanning devices,
that are as small as a size of a pen,
that reads text aloud and then save it for download to a computer later on,
we have software that captures natural speech
that imports it into a word processing program,
this is just a few of the kind of technologies
that are leveling the playing field for students with LD.
But not everything we do,
and not all of these kinds of activities and
opportunities that promote success need to be
High Tech. Students with LD tell us,
that the most important strategies for
success are often High Touch.
As oppose to High Tech,
Meaning that honest, face to face problem solving
with teachers and parents,
and students is critical for success.
Thats it!. Here are a few things not to do:
Don't call upon a child with dislexia,
a specific LD in reading,
to read aloud in front of the class,
unless, of course, you know that they will be successful.
Don't assume that a child with learning disabilities
doesn't want to visit a library
and take out books just because they are struggling with reading.
And don't assume that the child with LD
hasn't mastered an understanding of course content
because they did poorly on test or paper exams.
Instead, find ways to INCLUDE students with LD
in activities that demonstrate what they do know,
and help them and others, to see that learning disabilities
while very real, are not in any way a prescription for failure.
Karen: Dr. Horowitz, Thank You so much for your time today.
And thank you all of you for participating in this podcast,
please do visit the other podcasts in these series,
focus on LD basics as well as
Things you've always wanted to know about Learning Disabilities
Thank You.