SUGGESTIONS FOR HELPING THE STUDENT WITH A
LEARNING DISABILITY
1.
Give extra time for long reading assignments for the student
with a reading disability.
2.
Don’t be afraid to discuss with the student individually what
his/her limitations are, what situations are difficult, and what
accommodations would be helpful on a one-to-one basis.
3.
This student may need accommodations in test-taking
(extended time, a scribe, a reader, etc.)
4.
Your co-operation in allowing tape recording of lectures is
appreciated.
5.
Do not ask students with reading disabilities to read aloud in
class.
6.
Allowing the use of a word processor for writing assignments
and/or test may give the student a chance to better show
his/her command of the information without getting bogged
down in format details.
7.
It would be helpful if vocabulary unique to a particular course
could be written on the board during lecture.
WHAT IS A LEANING DISABILITY?
The following description was developed for the new (1985) Ministry document
Handbook for Teachers of Children with Learning Disabilities:
“Learning Disabilities” is a term that covers the more severe degrees of learning
difficulties. These difficulties are often most evident in children during schooling
and may include social functioning. They affect one or more of listening,
reasoning, remembering, speaking, reading, written language, spelling, handwriting, mathematical computations, problem solving, spatial relationships and
social interactions. They are thought to occur due to difficulty processing
information (i.e. the spoken and written word and/or body language). Often
students can handle the ideas in content areas though some may have difficulty
handling intent or subtle meanings. Once meaning is clear, they are able to use
new information, but they may have difficulty in generalising it to new contexts.
In most instances, expression, either written or spoken, causes great difficulty.
Their difficulties in dealing with various types of information may cause students
with learning disabilities to be disorganised, disoriented, unco-operative, socially
awkward, accident-prone, slow to adapt to change, overly active or lethargic, and
easily distracted. When thoroughly assessed, the social, emotional, cultural or
educational histories of these students do not indicate that these are learned
behaviours, although many of the instructional are management methods that
are effective with other types of exceptional students may be helpful to students
with learning disabilities. In general, their health histories should have no
indication of medical problems, particularly vision or hearing, although a
proneness to allergies may be indicated. Essentially, the student with learning
disabilities is one who is trying to achieve who has demonstrated abilities in
some areas and is not achieving in others. Performance is uneven or
inconsistent and may result in severe frustration with schooling.
Recent findings suggest that students with learning disabilities can be greatly assisted by being taught how
to approach and organise tasks. Sometimes termed meta-cognitive strategies, these skills in thinking about
ways in which they can understand, remember and articulate content are particularly critical for secondary
schools students.
Learning Disability
A learning disorder evident in both academic and social situations that involves one or
more of the processes necessary for the proper use of spoken language or the symbols of
communication, and that is characterized by a condition that:
a)
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b)
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c)
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is not primarily the result of:
impairment of vision
impairment of hearing
physical handicap
mental retardation
primary emotional disturbance
cultural difference
results in a significant discrepancy between academic achievement and assessed
intellectual ability, with deficits in one or more of the following:
receptive language (listening, reading)
language processing (thinking, conceptualizing, integrating)
expressive language (talking, spelling, writing)
mathematical computation
may be associated with one or more conditions diagnosed as :
a perceptual handicap
a brain injury
minimal brain dysfunction
dyslexia
developmental aphasia
SOME CHARACTERISTICS FO THE WRITTEN EXPRESSION OF LEARNING
DISABLED STUDENTS
(adapted from Mary Kay Galotto, Montgomery College, Diagnostic/Prescriptive
Learning Specialist)
1.
Handwriting
Often the student’s writing looks childish. Letters may be poorly formed; the writing may
sprawl unevenly across the page; letters are poorly or incorrectly formed; crude block
letter printing frequently may be seen.
2.
Spelling
Spelling errors may be gross, demonstrating little resemblance between the sight and
sound of the word. Basic sight words may be misspelled, such as “which”, “every”, “for,”
“they,” while more difficult words are produced correctly. Reversals of letters within a
word may occur. Letters may be arbitrarily repeated. Endings may be omitted.
Common spelling errors
Characteristic LD spelling errors
“reverance for reverence”
“equiment” for “equipment”
“grammer” for “grammar”
“facecion” for “physician”
“museam” for “museum”
“presuse” for “precious”
“atitude” for “attitude”
“qutity” for “quantity”
3.
Choice of topic
Learning disabled students often pick concrete, simple topics. A narrative is usually the
simplest to handle, because and experience is already structured chronologically.
Although they may have little difficulty discussing more abstract topics, they may not be
able to organize their thoughts easily to set down on paper.
4.
Organization
Discourse is frequently disconnected, with little logical transition from one point to
another. Word choice is poor. For example
“For instance, one who cannot hear or one who cannot see as readily as a
normal individual is stricken with the inability to perform just a normal individual in
todays society.”
5.
Vocabulary
Written vocabulary may not match oral vocabulary. Students often are very aware of
their spelling deficiencies, and will limit their expression severely rather than risk
misspelling.
6.
Mechanics
LD students have the predictable mechanical errors that any student might demonstrate.
Usually it is a question of degree of difficulty. Besides sentence fragments, mistaken
pronoun reference, run-on sentences, misplaced modifiers, etc., the LD student may
randomly sprinkle capital letters throughout a paragraph, misuse standard end
punctuation, and use various homonyms creatively –“sun” for “son,” “two” for “too” or “to,”
“toed” for “towed,” etc.
7.
Appearance of the paper
Besides the specific items mentioned above, papers of LD students frequently look
immature. There are many cross-outs, write-overs, and erasures. This is different from
an edited paper, where corrections and additions are being made. The appearance of
the LD student’s paper may signal a person having word-to-word difficulty.
How Can I Get Students To Talk to Me
(at the right time!)
About Their Accommodation Needs?
The most frequently asked question by faculty at workshops such as this
is “How do I get learning disabled students to ask for accommodation?” Many
faculty would be more than willing to discuss accommodation and to provide
appropriate accommodation, but they don’t find out until too late that
accommodation is needed because the students don’t come forward. Often,
faculty asks if the support service provider couldn’t provide a list of learning
disabled students at the beginning of each new term so that the instructor could
approach the student if the student didn’t initiate contact. While your willingness
to take the initiative in such matters is appreciated, it is neither legal for the
service provider to offer up such a list, nor is it necessarily in the best interest of
the LD student. Legally, students have a right NOT to be identified as disabled, if
they so choose. They will not get accommodation unless they identify
themselves but that, too, is their choice. Moreover, while the faculty are
concerned with maximizing the learning experience in class for this student, the
service provider must also be concerned with helping the student develop the
independence and self-advocacy that will help him/her outside the classroom
while in college and beyond. Leaning disabled students NEED to learn how to
explain their disability, describe their needs and negotiate appropriate
accommodation. Their need for accommodation will always exist – the skills
needed to obtain such accommodation should also be developed on a
“permanent” basis.
For all of these reasons, it is appropriate for students to take the
responsibility of identifying themselves and their need for accommodation to you,
rather than vice versa. There is, however, something that you can do to help
students in this process. It is very difficult to have to identify yourself, time after
time, as being “different” – and more so for the learning disabled student whose
disability is invisible and whom you could not identify otherwise. Students will
feel more comfortable about identifying themselves in this manner if they are
approaching someone whom they believe to be receptive to the discussion. You
might try including a sentence like this in every course syllabus you put together.
“If there is any student in this class who has need for test-taking
or notetaking accommodation, please feel free to come and
discuss this with me.”
Experience indicates that, for the most part, the terms test-taking and notetaking
accommodation do not mean anything to the non-disabled students in your
classes and they will simply skip over it. To the learning disabled student,
however, what you have just done is identify yourself as someone who
understands that accommodation may be appropriate and, perhaps, has little
knowledge about the accommodation process. You did not say “I’ll give you
anything you want” – you merely said, “Let’s talk about it!” Such an invitation can
go a long way toward encouraging learning disabled students to approach the
instructor early – which is what you want and what they need!
TEACHING LEARNING DISABLED STUDENTS IN THE COLLEGE
CLASSROOM
1.
Provide a detailed syllabus
2.
Choose textbooks carefully.
3.
Explain how to use textbook aids.
4.
Assign advance readings.
5.
Provide handouts
6.
Develop a positive student-teacher relationship.
7.
Use a multisensory approach.
8.
Use role-playing techniques.
9.
Review material.
10.
Provide repetition.
11.
Gain the students’ attention.
12.
Ask questions.
13.
Provide opportunities for previewing.
14.
Personalize information.
15.
Give frequent quizzes.
16.
Teach mnemonics.
17.
Provide lecture outlines.
18.
Help students follow lectures.
19.
Encourage small group discussions.
20.
Teach initial concepts deductively.
21.
Use concrete presentations.
22.
Use the chalkboard.
23.
Clarify points.
24.
Extend time limits.
25.
Control level of language.
26.
Teach definitions and terms carefully.
From: College and the Learning Disabled Student, C.T. Mangrum and S.S. Strichart, New York: Grune and
Stratton, Inc., 1984.