Learning Disabilities
Collection of Exceptional Experiences
Erin McNary
Education 225 8:00 am
Introduction
This semester I have two field placements at two different schools.
When I am talking with teachers the phrase “learning disabled” is used a lot.
I understand that it means a child who has difficultly with understanding or
being able to do something as well as “normal” children. What I didn’t
understand was how it felt to be a child with a learning disability. Then
Jim DeWeered came in to talk to my class about his life experiences with a
learning disability and the challenges that he has faced. He also brought in a
video to demonstrate the frustration felt by children with LD, called F.A.T.
City, which was very informative. After this day in class many of my
preconceived notions about learning disabilities changed.
Definition
IDEA defines a learning disability as:
A disorder in one or more of the basic psychological
processes involved in understanding or in using
language, spoken or written, which may manifest
itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak,
read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations.
The term includes such conditions as perceptual disabilities, brain
injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia.
The term does not apply to children who have learning problems, which
are primarily the result of visual, hearing,
or motor disabilities, of mental retardation,
of
emotional
disturbance,
or
of
environmental,
cultural,
or
economic
disadvantage.
Jim DeWeerd’s Presentation
Jim DeWeered speaking to
our class
Jim DeWeerd is an adult who has a
learning disability and a stutter. He spoke
to our class about his life and learning
disability. From his presentation I took with me two key pieces of advice to
use as a future teacher.
First of all I learned that simple compromises could make all the
difference for a child with a learning disability. To illustrate this point Jim
told us a story about note taking in class. His teacher had written notes on
the board and wanted Jim to copy them down. He told the teacher that he
couldn’t focus on that much information at one time. It was too difficult for
him to look at the board and then remember what he had seen to write it
down. He suggested that she give him a sheet of paper with the notes and
he would gladly copy them down from there. She would not allow it and Jim
felt an overwhelming sense of frustration.
The other forewarning Jim gave to
us was not to say, “You aren’t trying”, or
“You can do better if you try”. The reason
for this is because LD students are trying
and lack of trying is not the reason they
cannot do something. In order to make us
understand this idea Jim had an activity
for us. We were each given a sheet of
paper. Our instructions were to put the
Here I am trying to write my
piece of paper on our forehead and write
name on a sheet of paper.
our name in
the upper
right hand corner and the numbers one through
9 in the opposite corner. Although we were all
trying very hard very few of us were able to
accomplish this goal without mistakes. We all
felt a certain level of frustration with our
inability to perform a task much like a student
with a learning disability feels
Amy in disbelief that
she did so poorly
F.A.T. City Video
F.A.T. stands for frustration, anxiety and
tension. In this film Richard Lavoie takes a
group of parents, teachers, and psychologists and
shows them what it feels like to be a student with
a disability in a classroom. To do this he fires
simple questions in rapid succession at the adults in the room. Because
Richard asks his questions so fast, many are unable to answer his questions.
He explains the reason for doing this is to demonstrate how fast information
feels to be coming at an LD student. It takes a child with a learning
disability longer to process information so they may be stuck on the last
question when the next one is being asked. The members of this class also
learned that if they said, “I don’t know” Richard would leave them alone.
This being true, many of the participants would answer that way to avoid
answering the question. In a few short minutes these adults had acquired a
learned helplessness.
While I was watching this film I would try to answer the questions on
my own also. I couldn’t! One of Richard’s questions for example was “What
is the title of a famous story with a duck in it?” Sounds easy doesn’t it?
Given enough time I could probably list five with no problem, but because of
the speed the questions were being asked the anxiety level was too high. I
couldn’t think of a single story with a duck in it and I was not even in the
class with Richard Lavoie.
If you would like to see this film click on the link below for Richards
presentation.
LD OnLine: How Difficult Can This Be?
Reaction
and Impact on Myself
Before coming to Jim’s presentation I really did not understand much
about learning disabilities. Truthfully, I thought children and adults who had
them really just functioned at a lower level. In class I learned that learning
disabilities have nothing to do with ability or intelligence. All of my
classmates and I have average or above average intelligence, yet we were not
able to achieve well when writing on our foreheads. I believe that it will be
very important in the future for me to understand learning disabilities and
the students in my class who have them. If I had not heard Jim speak or
seen the F.A.T. City video, who knows what I might have thought about
learning disabilities when I begin to teach.
However, this one day in class will not teach me all I need to know
about learning disabilities. Because they are the “invisible”
disabilities I feel I must learn more so that I may spot them
in the future and teach to suit each student’s needs.