Module 2.3

Module 2.3  

 PBS Misunderstood Minds

Experiences of different learning disabilities:

            The introduction to learning disabilities involved activities demonstrating the experience of students with visual, auditory and attention problems. While I attempted the activities I became frustrated that I did not have enough time to complete the task. I would then repeat the task hoping I would do better the second or third time, but I did not always improve with the increased efforts which only lead to further frustration.

Attention: Basics, Difficulties and Responses

            Attention is an elaborate neurocognitive process that involves categorizing and organizing all of the stimuli around us while deciding what is important to focus on. While it has been described as a lack of attention it may actually involve the duration of attention to the task at hand. There is not the right amount of time given (too much or too little) to the task. Three patterns of behavior are indicators of ADHD; inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. Since all people experience a lack of attention at times the patterns of behavior must first appear before the age of seven, continue for six months, and cause problems in two areas involving either school, home, work, or social settings. Dr. Mel Levine sees attention as involving three control systems: mental energy that controls the energy supply, processing that selects, prepares and interprets information, and production that controls the student output. Some students may demonstrate problems in all systems or strengths and weaknesses between the systems.

            The mental energy system has four controls; alertness, sleep and arousal balance, mental effort, and performance consistency that all help regulate and distribute the energy to focus on a task and help control behavior. The processing system involves five controls; saliency determination (selecting what is important to focus on is); depth and detail of processing; cognitive activation (tying new information to prior knowledge); focal maintenance; and satisfaction control. The production system involves previewing; facilitation and inhibition (the ability to exercise restraint); pacing or speed of tasks; self-monitoring; and reinforceability (using previous experience to guide current behavior and tasks).

            Little in known of the cause of ADHD, but it is believed to be caused by chemical or structural problems in the brain due to environmental toxins, drugs, and genetics. It is important to create collaboration between the home and school. As the child gets older it is also important to build collaboration and a support system for them at school. I have found at the high school level that the child needs to takes “ownership” of their disability. The student needs to be able to say, “I have ADHD and these are my strengths and weaknesses and this is what I need to do to help myself.” They also need a lot of encouragement reminding them they can do it. There are many possible strategies for student with ADHD most using alternative approaches to learning.  Finding the best strategies involves observing a child and identifying their strengths and weaknesses and as Dr. Levine describes it, understanding their control systems.

Reading: Basics, Difficulties and Responses

            Reading is a complex task that involves several processes. Reading difficulties begins with a breakdown in one of the physical, neurological or cognitive processes. Since so many processes are involved in reading, finding the problem can be difficult. Reading is sequential and involves decoding, comprehension, and retention. A child must be able to decode words automatically to read fluently. When one reads fluently, they can focus on the meaning of whole

words and sentences. When one understands what they have read they can organize and summarize their understanding with their prior knowledge and store it for future use.

            Eighty-five percent of learning disabilities are in language and reading. While reading problems are neurological and will not go away, strategies can be taught. The earlier the intervention(s) is implemented the more likely a child can learn to read on grade level.

Writing: Basics, Difficulties and Responses

            Writing is a sequential process that requires combining physical and cognitive processes. Writing disabilities not only involve difficulties in writing down what one knows but also in note taking and other skills needed to keep up with the pace of the classroom. Dr. Levine breaks writing into six stages by age of development. The first stage, imitation occurs around kindergarten and first grade, a child pretends to write, starts to understand organization of letters in a line, and begins developing fine motor skills. At stage two, graphic presentation, occurring around first and second grade, a child can print letters, is aware of their appearance and compares it to others, and uses invented spelling. In progressive incorporation, stage three occurring in late second to fourth grade, a child writes about their experiences without planning. They begin writing in cursive, revising their work and understanding the rules of capitalization, punctuation, syntax and grammar. Fourth through seventh grade includes the fourth phase, automatization, where the child can apply rules of spelling, and punctuation, write at the level of their speech, review and assess their own writing, and write in stages by incorporating outlines and doing multiple revisions. Stage five called elaboration, around seventh to ninth grade, students can express their viewpoint and begin writing about problem solving using their own thoughts and  ideas from more than one source, they will now use transitional words and can write at a level that may exceed their own speech. The last stage, personalization-diversification, from ninth and beyond, students can write in different styles, write more creatively, vary length and complexity of sentences, increase vocabulary use and develop their own style.

            Neurodevelopmental functions needed for writing involve graphomotor skills, attention, language, memory, and high-order cognition. Difficulties can be caused by a variety of things. 

Most strategies involve alternative approaches and repetitive attempts and practice.  I have found with more severe problems and with older children assistive technology, such as a computer, is a god-send. One of my students, a great cartoonist, is also dysgraphic. While he can draw he finds writing difficult. Another student who struggled even on a computer took up the guitar to improve his motor skills.  

Math: Basics, Difficulties and Responses

            The neurological functions involved in math include memory, language, attention, temporal-sequential ordering, high-order cognition and spatial ordering. While it is believed you either know math or you do not, many students have strengths in some areas and weaknesses in others. Math requires some skills in sequence, others are independent. Since math is not necessarily learned in a sequence, a natural development is difficult to chart making math difficulties even harder to diagnosis.

            Expects believe math disabilities occur within five different skill types. These deficits can be independent of each other or in combination. The first is incomplete mastery of number facts.  It is important for a student to be efficient in their math facts to advance to higher levels. Computational weakness involves having a good understanding of concepts but errors are made in computing. Difficulty transferring knowledge is the inability to connect the abstract and conceptual aspects of math. Making connections is the inability to comprehend the relationship between numbers and the quantities they represent. If a student has not made the connection it makes it harder for them to recall the information and to apply it in new situations. Incomplete understanding of the language of math involves knowing language that is often not heard outside of math classrooms and showing difficultly following spoken and written instructions found in word problems. Difficulty comprehending the visual and spatial aspects and perceptual difficulties is the inability to visualize math concepts effectively. Although this is rare it is probably the most severe of the math disabilities.

            Strategies for a student with math disabilities often use alternative approaches to learning materials. Checking work can help as well as using research-based methods designed to strengthen specific weaknesses.

Thoughts:

            I found the website Misunderstood Minds easy to use, full of information for professionals, teachers, parents and students. Even though I have done simulations of learning disabilities before, I found these enjoyable, enlightening and frustrating (something our students go through daily).

Public Broadcasting Systems (PBS). Misunderstood Minds retrieved February 23, 2011 from             http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoodminds/intro.html.

LD Online

            A learning disability is a neurological disorder that can not be cured and will last throughout ones lifetime. One out of every seven Americans has a learning disability and they often run in families. Eighty percent of people with learning disabilities have difficulties in reading. With support and intervention children can learn strategies to be successful in school and later in careers.

            There are five common learning disabilities. Dyslexia, a language-based disability; dyscalculia, a mathematical disability; dysgraphia, a writing disability; auditory and visual processing disorder, a sensory disability in which a person has problems understanding language; and non-verbal learning disabilities, involving our executive functioning skills.

            When a question arises that a child is having difficulties it is usually due to atypical developmental milestones. Children generally meet certain milestones in cognition, language, motor coordination, social interaction, and adaptive behavior. There are differences in the rate that students reach these milestones and often they will show strengths and weaknesses in different areas. Cultural and environmental factors may also play a part in determining if a milestone is developmentally achieved or not. A parent or teacher usually becomes concerned when there are marked differences in the time at which skills emerge, the sequence in which the skill emerges, and/or the quality of the skill level and how it affects the student’s overall functioning.

            If the parent or teacher suspects problems they should be careful in recording the dates and times of the occurrence, duration and frequency of the behavior, the type of activity involved, the setting the activity was in, and the students interaction with their peers and others.

Thoughts:

            I loved this website. It is full of current articles, recommended books, links to topics and a question and answer section. While I find a lot of sites are geared more for the younger child I found great information and advice for high schools such as taking the SAT and assisting students with foreign language issues. I also enjoyed the different video stories about how people’s life has been effected living with a learning disability. 

http://www.ldonline.org/ldbasics.