ARCHIVE - Acknowledgment Workshop

Learning Disabilities:

Chapter 2

Main Categories of Learning Disabilities:

Dyslexia: Difficulty learning to read with emphasis on decoding and spelling

Dyscalculia: Difficulty learning math concepts and computations

Dysgraphia: Difficulty learning to write, especially handwriting.

Population with Learning Disabilities:

5% of school age students

Twice as many boys as girls

The numbers of students being diagnosed as having LD has increased due to:

Growing public awareness, social acceptance, limited alternative, cultural influences (poverty, drugs and teenage parents), increased need for literacy in work.

Characteristics of Students with Learning Disabilities:

Often teachers are the ones that need to recognize and recommend students to be assessed for LD, therefore it is important to know the characteristics to look for.

Student is presenting ineffective/inefficient information processing or learning strategies.

Based on your general impression of the student, you determine that he/she is having unexpected difficulty in one or more academic areas.

*It is not a LD if the different in ability and performance is based on:

Visual, hearing or motor disability

Emotional disturbance, environmental, cultural or economic disadvantage

The most common characteristic of students with LD is trouble with reading. There are three major areas that students have difficulty:

Phonemic Awareness: Being able to blend, segment or manipulate speech

Alphabetic Principal: Letter-sound relationship

Rapid Naming: Name familiar objects, letters or numbers

Identifying and Assessing Students with Learning Disability:

Teachers are usually the first people to recognize learning disabilities.

Some things to look for are:

1. What academic areas is the student successful and unsuccessful?

2. What is the student’s academic achievement level in this area compared to what his/her work is demonstrating?

3. How does the student compare with others?

4. What outside factors may be affecting the student’s performance?

5. Is the student’s 1^st language the same as the one you are teaching in?

6. What learning strategies or learning compensatory strategies is the student using?

7. How does the student perceive him/herself as a learner?

8. What accommodations have you tried? What worked, what didn’t?

Accommodations:

Use an advance organizer:
Provide basic information or activates student’s prior knowledge
Make learning visible:
Think aloud and make the thought process visuual
Teach self-regulations:
Encourage students to ask themselves questions about their learning such as; Does this make sense? What do I already know about this topic?
Teach self-monitoring:
Set goals for the student and charts or graph to monitor success.
Teach memory strategies:
Use acronyms such as: Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally (for the algebra order of operations)
Adjust workload and time:
Have students only do the odd problems in math or on worksheets or divide the task into smaller sections and give feedback after each section is completed.
Present information in multiple ways that provide opportunities for extended practice and application:
The same information can be taught with a lecture, handout, video, coloring or artistic activity and hands on research or exploration.
Use learning tools and aids:
Allow student to use computers to help with both handwriting and spelling.
Other:
Control the difficulty
Teach in small groups < 6
Use direct and cognitive strategies for teaching

Information from:

Vaughn, S., Bos, C., Schumn, J.S. (2003) Teaching exceptional, diverse and at-risk students in

the general education classroom. (3^rd ed.). New York: Pearson Education.