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27
Dyslexia-one of the three “Ds” of learning disorders
Filed Under "At-risk" students, Learning Strategies, motivating students, Reading, Special Education, underachieving students | 2 Comments
Image by MMortAH via Flickr
Most of us know what the three “Rs” of education are: Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic. But, how many of us know what the three “D’s” of learning disorders are: Dyslexia (Development reading disorder), Dysgraphia (Developmental writing disorder) and Dyscalculia (Developmental arithmetic disorder)? How many of us know how these specific learning disorders affect people? Notice, I didn’t ask how many of us know how these learning disorders affect students. That’s because if you have a learning disorder, it affects you all your life, in all areas of your life- not just when you are a student in school. You don’t outgrow learning disorders; you learn to cope with them.
Developmental reading disorders are more prevalent than you might think. Most likely, you know someone who has a learning disorder. Experts tell us that up to 17 percent of the population have learning disorders. That’s a lot of people! It’s important for us to understand reading disorders because we may have family members, friends, co-workers etc. who have them. If we understand the specific nature of DRD and the challenges the individuals face who have DRD, we can be more compassionate and helpful.
In this post, I’m going to examine the first “D” of the three “Ds”- developmental reading disorder also known as dyslexia.
Facts
- Individuals with DRD have average or above-average intelligence.
- DRD is not connected with the ability to think or understand complex ideas.
- It is not caused by a vision problem.
- DRD is a function of the problems the brain has recognizing and processing symbols.
- Individuals with DRD may have difficulty rhyming and separating sounds when they are listening to someone speak.
- Rhyming and separating sounds are abilities crucial for learning to read.
- DRD may be found in combination with dysgraphia or dyscalculia since all use symbols to convey meaning.
- New research suggests brain scans can predict whether individuals will improve at reading.
- Children with DRD who overcome their reading difficulties bypass brain regions normally used for reading.
Symptoms
Difficulty in
- rhyming;
- learning to recognize words;
- determining the meaning of simple sentences.
Tests
Before a diagnosis of DRD can be made the following tests should be conducted to rule out other causes
- complete medical, developmental, social, school performance , and family history
- psychoeducational testing
- psychological testing
Treatment
Treatments can consist of special education services such as
- Reading specialist help
- Individualized tutoring
- Individualized Education Plan specific to the student
- Psychological counseling to help with self-esteem issues
- Positive reinforcement
Students with reading problems can use software applications like Premier Software to read text to them. I have my students input text by typing or scanning text into a word processing program and then the software reads the text to them. My students take delight in listening to their text in a variety of male and female voices with different accents. I also encourage my students to listen to the novels and plays in their courses. In ” the old good days” I would have these books and plays on tape for my students, now I can get most of these as audio books online from places like Audible or in regular bookstores and store them on MP3 players or discs to lend to students. I’ve even seen an audio only bookstore here in town. It’s getting much easier to access audiobooks. Although I enjoy reading books and do not have DRD, I also like listening to them. I’m always delighted when I get gift certificates for audiobooks.
Prognosis
- Reading problems can cause behaviour problems or self-esteem problems in school as a reaction to teasing by other students;
- Remediation can help students become better readers, but students will alway face reading challenges even in adults;
- Reading problems can lead to problems in certain careers and occupations;
- Reading problems tend to run in families so families should try to recognize the signs early and seek help as early as preschool;
- Early intervention can give the best results.
I encourage my students who have reading problems or DRD not to define themselves by what they can’t do or have difficulty doing. Everyone is challenged in some way. The point is to discover your strengths and use those to help you achieve your best. Find someone to help you with your weaknesses, and you in turn use your strengths to help someone with their weaknesses. I have my students determine their multiple intelligences so they are aware of their strengths. We share the information in class, and I encourage them to help one another. As adults we do this, so why shouldn’t we teach our students to do this. I think working together and using the various strengths of team members to accomplish a goal is a life skill.
Feb
21
There’s more to ADHD than inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity.
Filed Under "At-risk" students, Behaviour Management, Special Education, Teacher Support, underachieving students | 1 Comment
Image via Wikipedia
About 9 percent of kids who are between 8 and 15 are affected by ADHD. There’s lots that we do know about ADHD, but lots that we don’t know about it even though thousands of studies and scientific articles have been written. We’re not certain about the causes of ADHD, how to prevent it, how to minimize risk factors, what the most effective treatments are, or what the most effective strategies are to help students deal with the disorder so that they can do their best in school. Much research still needs to be done to get definitive answers to these questions
Often when we hear the term ADHD linked to students, we think of symptoms of impulsivity, hyperactivity and inattention. But there’s more to the disorder than that. Thanks to the work of researchers like Dr. Russell Barkley, Dr. Martha Denckla, and DR. Thomas E. Brown, we have come to appreciate students with ADHD also have a developmental delay in executive functioning that has a significant negative impact on their academic performance.
Executive functions include
- Inhibition – The ability to stop one’s own behavior at the appropriate time, including stopping actions and thoughts.
- Shift – The ability to move freely from one situation to another and to think flexibly in order to respond appropriately to the situation.
- Emotional Control – The ability to modulate emotional responses by bringing rational thought to bear on feelings
- Initiation – The ability to begin a task or activity and to independently generate ideas, responses, or problem-solving strategies.
- Working memory – The capacity to hold information in mind for the purpose of completing a task.
- Planning/Organization – The ability to manage current and future- oriented task demands. (
- Organization of Materials – The ability to impose order on work, play, and storage spaces.
- Self-Monitoring – The ability to monitor one’s own performance and to measure it against some standard of what is needed or expected.
The developmental delay for students who have ADHD can be approximately 30 percent compared to other students. That explains why Lisa (not her real name) who is 14 and in my grade nine class is acting like she’s 10 and in grade five. She has that developmental delay in executive functioning that is part of ADHD. Lisa has difficulties with things like
- managing her time
- managing her school materials
- planning long term assignments and projects
- persevering until tasks are completed
- resisting distractions
- solving complex problems
- weighing the consequences before making decisions
Adolescents, like Lisa, who have an ADHD disorder can also have other coexisting conditions and disorders. Sandra Rief notes up to two-thirds of students with ADHD can have at least one other co-existing disorder such as anxiety disorder (25 to 20 percent) , depression (10 to 47 percent), oppositional defiant disorder (40-64 percent) , learning disabilities (20 to 60 percent) , sleep problems ( 40- 50 percent) or Tourette syndrome (7 percent) . These co-existing disorders make diagnosis of ADHD, intervention and management more challenging.
Rief cautions us that other emotional and environmental factors that have nothing to do with ADHD can cause ADHD like symptoms. Factors like chaotic or neglectful home life, family stresses like divorce or custody battles, experiencing or witnessing sexual abuse or violence, or bullying or peer pressure, can also result in the negative behaviours that look like ADHD adaptive behaviours. The school environment can also lead to ADHD like symptoms, too. Factors like poor instruction, low academic expectations, nonstimulating and unmotivating curriculum and/or ineffective classroom management can result in behaviours that mimic ADHD disorder.
Teachers can help students with ADHD do their best in school by being proactive and anticipate problems before they occur. I’ll discuss my experiences with proactive classroom management strategies in a subsequent post.
Feb
13
Nine things parents can do to help students develop good organization skills so students can do their best at school.
Filed Under Behaviour Management, Goals, Learning Strategies, motivating students, Organization, positive climate, Special Education, Study Skills, underachieving students | 3 Comments
Image by Jeff Hester via Flickr
Some students have good organization skills and some do not. Managing time and materials efficiently are skills students need in order to do their best in school. Parents can help students do their best by helping them develop efficient time and materials management skills.
To help students develop efficient time management and materials management skills, I encourage parents to
- Create several calendars with all the important events at school such as due dates for assignments, quizzes, tests and exam dates, field trips, after school practices etc, and post these calendars in prominent places where the students are most likely to see them- their room, the kitchen, inside the front door etc. Students can also set things up so that they get email messages to remind themselves of due dates etc.
- Negotiate a time to do homework. School is important, but it’s not the only important thing in students’ lives so flexibility is in order when working out a homework schedule.
- Encourage students to complete homework, and if no homework was assigned then to review the day’s lessons, work on major projects or spend the time reading. Reading for just 20 minutes a day can improve students’ vocabulary and grammar skills. It’s amazing how so little can do so much- just like exercise.
- Establish a routine time for things like dinner, television watching, computer use and bedtime. Following routines helps reduces stress on students’ attention and memory controls and enables them to be better rested the next day so they are better able to meet the demands of school.
- Establish a homework and study area for students away from the distractions of TV, computers, phones, computer games etc. The reason is obvious- too much temptation.
- Suggest that students tell their friends that they are not available to talk to them on the phone during the time set aside for homework. Homework time is for homework, not for socializing.
- Store school supplies and materials in a specific place. A place for everything and everything in its place enables students to find things easily when they need them.
- Have students pack their school bags with all the things they’ll need the next day. This helps ensure students have what they need for school that day. It also reduces the stress of running around looking for things the last minute.
- Clean out students’ backpacks at the end of the week, file assignments and old tests in the appropriate spot and throw out any unnecessary things.
These are some of the strategies I suggest parents use to help their kids develop efficient time management and materials management skills. Parents can help their children who struggle with organization strategies by modeling organization strategies for their children. After a while, the behaviors will become a habit and children will do them automatically.
I’m sure there are other strategies that are also helpful that I haven’t thought of. What else could teachers suggest parents do to help their kids be better organized?
Feb
10
Visual learners love to use graphic organizers but auditory and kinesthetic learners would benefit from using them too
Filed Under Engaging Assignments and Activities for Students, Graphic Organizers, motivating students, Organization, Special Education, The way I see it, underachieving students | 3 Comments
Graphic organizers are great learning tools for students no matter what their preferred learning style. I have written here and here about graphic organizers and how I use them, but I have to thank Richard for a new- to-me link to even more graphic organizers. I’ve found visual learners love using organizers once they’re introduced to them, while auditory and kinesthetic learners aren’t too interested in them, that is until I tell them what graphic organizers can do for them.
I teach my students a process when I get them to write a paragraph, an essay, create a poster, a PowerPoint presentation, etc. The process starts with brainstorming. The students generate and record all kinds of ideas about a topic during this part of the process. They then select the most appropriate ideas to use for completing their assignment. That’s where graphic organizers come in.
Graphic organizers can be used to do more than organize ideas in a visual way. They can be used to store ideas for later reorganization. Students regardless of their preferred learning style can park the ideas they select after brainstorming into a graphic organizer and need not worry about forgetting the ideas. who have short term memory challenges. This is especially useful for students who have short term memory challenges. Once the ideas are parked in graphic organizer, students can organize or reorder the ideas as they see fit. Students won’t get overwhelmed trying to remember everything and trying to organize it all in their heads if they use an organizer.
I show my students how to break down assignments into manageable chunks. Sometimes that involves using several graphic organizers. For example, if I assign a five paragraph essay, students can brainstorm ideas and park them into a mind map they’ve created by hand or by using software like Smart Ideas or Inspiration. Once they’ve created the mind map, they can take those words and create phrases and put those phrases into five paragraph essay organizer. Once they’ve parked their phrases into the five paragraph organizer, they can create sentences out of the phrases and paragraphs out of the sentences. I encourage them to insert appropriate linking words to help their essay flow.
My students regardless of their learning style appreciate graphic organizers more and more when they see how powerful a tool they can be.
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