Working with Students with Learning Disabilities

1. Working with Students with Learning Disabilities

2. Learning Disabilities: Incidence • 5 – 20% of the general population • That’s 5 – 30 million adults • Variance due to misidentification • African Americans and Hispanics are often inappropriately diagnosed with learning disabilities

3. What a Learning Disability IsNot • Not mental retardation • Not a homogeneous group of disorders • Not the result of: • Poor or intermittent academic background • Emotional disturbance • Lack of motivation • Socio-economic deprivation • Visual-hearing acuity • English as a second language • Physical disability

4. What a Learning Disability Is • Inconsistent • Permanent • A pattern of uneven abilities • Only present if the individual has average to above average intelligence (not necessarily “measurable” average to above average intelligence)

5. Learning Profile

6. Learning Disabilities • 5 main issues • Take information in through one or more of the senses (Input) • Figure out what information means (Process) • File information into memory (Storage) • Pull information out of memory (Retrieve) • Use what was learned (Output)

7. Abstract Reasoning Disorder Functional Limitations • Difficulty/Inability to make inferences • Difficulty/Inability to generate creative solutions • Difficulty/Inability to transfer generalization • Difficulty/Inability to understand relationships • Difficulty/Inability to work algebra Process  Output

8. Auditory Processing Disorder Functional Limitations • Difficulty/Inability to take information in through the sense of hearing and/or in processing auditory information • Difficulty/Inability to take notes • Difficulty/Inability to discriminate between similar sounds • Difficulty/Inability to spell correctly consistently Input  Storage

9. Functional Limitations(Continued) • Difficulty/Inability to listen and remember information • Difficulty/Inability to hear sounds over background noises • Difficulty/Inability to learn foreign languages • Easily fatigued when listening to a lecture • Difficulty/Inability to hear sounds in the correct order • Has problems taking phone messages

10. Auditory Processing DisorderActivity 1) Uke Ant An Dell Tat Ruth 2) Lee Hone Art Dough Dove Inch He 3) Dough Ford Ella Wear 4) Hang Herman It Mint 5) Shatter Nougat Any Sea 6) Ice Peed Gun Hex Shun

11. Auditory Processing DisorderActivity 7) ha leep air he 8) june how hull ask her 9) plea sway tube ease heated 10) caress peak reamed hone huts 11) jaw nan bah beak hen eighty 12) skoal elastic hap tee tude taste

12. Auditory Processing DisorderActivity 13) Poor Toe Reek Hoe 14) Hat Ten Shunned Deaf Asset Hoarder 15) Sayer Hutches Hiccup Ark Her 16) Plea Center Europe As Ward 17) Huge Act Men 18) Oz Tin Tech Sass

13. Auditory Processing DisorderActivity - Key • You can’t handle the truth • Leonardo Da Vinci • Dover, Delaware • Anger Management • Chattanooga, Tennessee • High-speed connection • Halle Berry • Juneau, Alaska • Please wait to be seated

14. Auditory Processing DisorderActivity - Key • KrispyKreme Doughnuts •  John and Bobby Kennedy •  Scholastic Aptitude Test •  Puerto Rico •  Attention Deficit Disorder •  Sarah Jessica Parker •  Please enter your password •  Hugh Jackman •  Austin, Texas

15. Constructional Dyspraxia Functional Limitations • Difficulty/Inability to sequence letters, numbers, words, sentences, paragraphs, steps, etc. • Difficulty/Inability to construct written papers in the correct order • Poor speller • Difficulty/Inability to work math problems in the correct order Input  Storage  Retrieve  Output

16. Constructional DyspraxiaActivity The flashback. Tale the action story about years of over eighteen place takes 1775 a ending a told In Period as Two earlier in and place Some of takes beginning a of Cities of in 1793.

17. Constructional DyspraxiaActivity Key The action of A Tale of Two Cities takes place over a period of about eighteen years, beginning in 1775 and ending in 1793. Some of the story takes place earlier, as told in the flashback. (A Tale of Two Cities Study Guide. McGraw-Hill, Inc.)

18. Dyscalculia: Math Disability Functional Limitations • Difficulty with mathematical reasoning • Difficulty/Inability to understand numerical concepts • Difficulty/Inability to read and comprehend applied math problems (word problems) • Difficulty/inability to understand math terminology Input  Process  Storage  Retrieve

19. Functional Limitations(Continued) • Difficulty/Inability to align numbers • Number reversals • Difficulty/Inability to process math facts rapidly • Difficulty with the concepts of time and money

20. Dyscalculia: Math DisabilityActivity 'r berthynas cyd-rhwng 'r feithder chan an adult’s femur ( ar ddiesgyrna ) a 'r anterth chan 'r hoedolyn all bod agosaedig at 'r linear hafaliadau Female y = 0.432x – 10.44 Male y = o.449x – 12.15 'r berthynas cyd-rhwng 'r feithder chan an adult’s femur ( ar ddiesgyrna ) a 'r anterth chan 'r hoedolyn all bod agosaedig at 'r linear hafaliadau

21. Dyscalculia: Math DisabilityActivity Key The relationship between the length of an adult’s femur (thigh bone) and the height of the adult can be approximated by the linear equations Female y = 0.432x – 10.44 Male y = 0.449x – 12.15 An anthropologist discovers a femur belonging to an adult female. The bone is 16 inches long. Estimate the height of the female (College Algebra: Sixth Addition. R. Larson & R. P. Hostetler. Houghton Mifflin Company)

22. Dysgraphia: Hand Writing Disability Functional Limitations • Extremely poor handwriting; handwriting frequently appears to be very immature • Difficulty with the physical act of writing • Will almost always print, since “cursive/script” writing requires a great deal more eye-hand control and coordination Output

23. Dysgraphia: Hand Writing DisabilityExample

24. Dysgraphia: Hand Writing DisabilityExample

25. Dysgraphia: Hand Writing DisabilityExample

26. Dysgraphia: Hand Writing DisabilityActivity

27. Dysgraphia: Hand Writing DisabilityActivity

28. Dysgraphia: Hand Writing DisabilityActivity

29. Dysgraphia: Hand Writing DisabilityActivity

30. Dyslexia: Reading Disability Functional Limitations • Difficulty/Inability to perform any task in which reading is an essential function • Difficulty/Inability to interpret charts, graphs, and other visual aids • Slow reading rate Input  Process  Storage  Retrieve  Output

31. Functional Limitations(Continued) • Difficulty/Inability to decode (sound-out) new words • Poor comprehension and retention of reading material

32. Dyslexia: Reading DisabilityExamples Call me Ismael. Some years ago – never mind how long precisely – having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I though I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially when my hypos get such an upper had of me, that requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off – then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball.

33. Dyslexia: Reading DisabilityExamples Iff reckleswere love ly, andday wasnight, and measleswerenice and a liewarn't a lie,life would be delight,--butth ingscouldn't go rightf orin suchas adplight I wou ldn't be I. ifearth w ashe avenand nowwas hen ce, and pastwas pre sent, andfalse w as true, the remig htbe somesense b utI'dbe insuspense foro nsucha pretense y ouwouldn'tbe yo u. e. e.cu mmi ngs

34. Dyslexia: Reading DisabilityExample Key If freckles were lovely, and day was night, And measles were nice and a lie warn't a lie, Life would be delight,-- But things couldn't go right For in such a sad plight I wouldn't be I. If earth was heaven and now was hence, And past was present, and false was true, There might be some sense But I'd be in suspense For on such a pretense You wouldn't be you. If fear was plucky, and globes were square, And dirt was cleanly and tears were glee Things would seem fair,-- Yet they'd all despair, For if here was there We wouldn't be we. (If by e. e. cummings)

35. Dyslexia: Reading DisabilityExample

36. Dyslexia: Reading DisabilityActivity I susgect th at thechil b wi tha learn ing disadility mu stfre quent lyex ger i               e              n                o                   e                   an alicein won berl an bex is ten ceof the wef in b tba tthe ymu st co ge wi tha n unsta dlew or lb in consistentabul tsa nd haphaza r b gerceg tio nsthey rec on Fuseb dyth erca zys ym dols we piv them gress ureb dy t he leng tho ft imei nwic hto b oi tamb frus tra ted dy regea teb fa ily resth eybo no tlear no hetra bit lon alw ayamb sow ern u stte achth embif Fere ntly.

37. Dyslexia: Reading DisabilityActivity Key I suspect that children with learning disabilities must frequently experience an “Alice in Wonderland” existence. Often we find that they must cope with an unstable world, inconsistent adults and haphazard perceptions. They’re confused by crazy symbols we give them, pressured by the length of time in which to do it and frustrated by repeated failures. They do not learn the traditional way, so we must teach them differently.

38. Dyslexia: Reading DisabilityActivity ...I was sitting on the verandah of my farm home in eastern Iowa when the voice very clearly said to me, "If you build it, he will come."

39. Dyslexia: Reading DisabilityActivity …I was sitting on the verandah of my farm home in eastern Iowa when a voice very clearly said to me, “If you build it, he will come.” (Shoeless Joe by W. P. Kinsella)

40. Language Comprehension Disorder Functional Limitations • Difficulty with vocabulary • Difficulty/Inability to answer factual questions • Difficulty/Inability to concentrate during lectures • Poor or low reading comprehension • Difficulty with oral language Input  Storage  Output

41. Functional Limitations(Continued) • Understands what he/she hears, but not necessarily what was said • Difficulty/Inability to use prior knowledge to perform activities • Poor written expression • Low knowledge in content areas

42. Language Comprehension DisorderExample Two sets of the same book are stacked triangularly against opposite walls. Both sets must look exactly alike. They are twelve books high against the wall, and twelve books from the wall. Which postulate proves that the two stacks are congruent? • SSS • SAS • ASA • It cannot be determined

43. Language Comprehension DisorderActivity Whan that Aprill with his shoures sote the droghte of Marche hath perced to the rote, And bathed every veyne in swich licour, Of which vertu engendred is the flour; Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth Inspired hath in every holt and heeth The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne Hath in the Ram his halfe course yronne, And smale fowles maken melodye, That slepen al the night with open yë— So priketh hem Nature in hir corages— Than longen folk to goon on pilgrimages, And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes, To ferne halwes, couthe in sondry londes; And specially, from every shires ende Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende, The holye blissful martir for to seke, That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seke.

44. Language Comprehension DisorderActivity Key When April with its sweet showers has pierced the drought of March to the root, bathing every vein in such liquid by which virtue the flower is engendered, and when Zephyrus with his sweet breath has also inspired the tender plants in every wood and field, and the young sun is halfway through Aries, and small birds that sleep all night with an open eye make melodies, their hearts pricked by nature, then people long to go on pilgrimages, and pilgrims seek foreign shores and distant shrines known in sundry lands, and especially they wend their way to Canterbury from every shire of England to seek the holy blessed martyr who has helped them when they were sick. (Beginning of the general Prologue fromThe Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer - in Middle English)

45. Long-Term Memory Disorder Functional Limitations • Inconsistent when learning new information &/or facts (might remember one day and not the next) • Difficulty remembering rote facts • Difficulty/Inability to process and recall information through associations (events, related ideas and concepts, and names) Storage

46. Long-Term Retrieval Disorder Functional Limitations • Difficulty/Inability to recall information on tests • Difficulty/Inability to retrieve words from memory • Difficulty/Inability to pair, retain and retrieve visual and/or auditory information • Difficulty/Inability to recite poems, speeches, plays, etc. from memory Retrieve

47. Processing Speed Disorder Functional Limitations • Slow and/or uneven automatic processing speed • Difficulty/Inability to complete assignments within imposed timed constraints • Difficulty/Inability to take timed tests • Difficulty/Inability to make comparisons rapidly between and among bits of information Input  Process  Retrieve  Output

48. Processing Speed DisorderActivity www.archimedes-lab.org

49. Reasoning Disorder Functional Limitations • Trouble thinking in an orderly, logical manner • Difficulty/Inability to prioritize and sequence tasks • Difficulty/Inability to apply a learned skill to a new task • Difficulty/Inability to figure out the “next step” Process  Output

50. Short-Term Memory Disorder Functional Limitations • Difficulty/Inability to remember steps in sequential order • Difficulty/Inability to retain information and/or concepts long enough to understand them • Difficulty/Inability to follow directions Storage