Learning Disabilities

1
Learning Disabilities

• an Introduction
• Presenters
• Kristen OHare, Nipissing Student
• Elaine Beckett-Albert, Nipissing Graduate
• Mark Giddens, Adaptive Technology Technician
• Mike Walker, Learning Strategist
• Presented to Doug Bolgers PSYC3405 Psychology
  of Education class, February 2004

2
Presentation Outcomes

• What is a Learning Disability?
• Short video intro from Transitions to Post
  Secondary Learning
• Definition from LDAO LDs from an IP perspective
• Diagnosis and statistics
• Describe living learning with learning
  disabilities
• Student stories meet Elaine Kristen,
  university peers
• Social, emotional and academic aspects of LDs
• Tales from the trenches elementary school
• Describe how YOU can help your students succeed
• Remediation, modification and accommodation
• Resources for understanding and student success
• IT for IPs - brief review of technology for
  students w/LDS
• The Big Three
• Other Tools

3
LD definition from video

• Transitions to Post Secondary Learning
• developed by Howard Eaton Leslie Coull to help
  high school students
• understand their LDs
• prepare for the transition to college or
  university
• self-advocate for themselves
• note difference between a learning disability and
  an Attention Deficit Disorder or AD/HD

4
What is a Learning Disability?

• A new definition from the LDAO
• Learning Disability Association of Ontario

5
In brief "Learning Disabilities"

• refers to a variety of disorders that affect the
  acquisition, retention, understanding,
  organization or use of verbal and/or non-verbal
  information.

6
These disorders

• result from impairments in one or more
  psychological processes related to learning in
  combination with otherwise average abilities
  essential for thinking and reasoning.

7
These psychological processes could be

• phonological processing
• memory and attention
• processing speed
• language processing
• perceptual-motor processing
• visual-spatial processing
• executive functions (e.g., planning, monitoring
  and metacognitive abilities)

8
Learning disabilities

• range in severity and invariably interfere with
  the acquisition and use of one or more of the
  following important skills

9
These skills could be

• oral language (e.g., listening, speaking,
  understanding)
• reading (e.g., decoding, comprehension)
• written language (e.g., spelling, written
  expression)
• mathematics (e.g., computation, problem solving)
• organizational skills
• social perception
• social interaction

10
What a LD is Not!

• IT IS NOT
• low intelligence/an intellectual disability
• mental illness/emotional disturbance
• autism
• visual or auditory acuity problems
• laziness/lack of motivation
• a way to avoid other issues
• a physical handicap
• the result of a poor academic background

11
A Learning Disability is an Information
Processing Impairment

• It is like having too many bridges out as well as
  too many overlapping pathways along the
  information highways of the brain.
• Dale R. Jordan
• U. of Arkansas

12
So how might an LD affect a Learner?

• A Couple of Examples . . .

13
Cant you read this?

• Myle arn in gdisa bi LI tyma kesit dif Ficu
  ltform eto re Adi tslo wsm edo wnwh eniha veto re
  AdmYte xtbo Ok sbu twhe nius Eboo kso Nta peo rco
  mpu Teri zedsc ree nrea Din gsof twa Reto lis
  tent Om yte xtbo ok sith elp sal Ot.
• Visual/Phonological LD

14
Cant you see this?

• Cant you see the Dalmatian?

15
Cant you see this?

• Cant you see the Dalmatian?
• Visual LD
• visual ground figure

16
Cant you write this?

• Copy this Ill time you put your hand up when
  youre done
• Can you copy? Its not hard.Look, Im
  finished already!
• Now, please copy this using your
  non-dominant hand!!
• Grapho-motor LD
• Also demonstrates role of Working Memory

17
Some Stats . . .

• learning disabilities impact the lives of
  approximately 10 of the population
• approximately 4 of Ontarios school aged
  population is formally identified with LDs
• of Ontarios identified exceptional population
• approx. 48 of elementary students are LD
• approx. 54 of secondary students are LD
• 25 to 30 of those with LDs may have AD/HD
• 75 to 80 of those with AD/HD may have LDs

Sources Weber and Bennett, Special Education in
Ontario Schools, Fourth Edition and LDAC
National, Spring 2000
18
Diagnosis the Criteria

• diagnosis must be made by a psychologist
• based on a discrepancy between ability (as
  measured by IQ) and academic achievement and/or
  information processing
• this discrepancy is assessed using standardized
  psychometric measures such as
• WAIS WIAT
• Weschler intelligence achievement tests
• WJ-III
• Woodcock-Johnson tests of cognitive abilities
  achievement

19
For you visual learners

a visual guide to diagnosis.
20
Traditional Aptitude vs. AchievementAverage
Student
21
Traditional Aptitude vs. Achievement Student
with a LD
22
Aptitude, Achievement Info Processing Visual
(Dyslexia)
23
Aptitude, Achievement, Info Processing Auditory
(CAPD)
24
LDs in Elementary Secondary Education

• Diagnosis is still important but under the
  Education Act Ministry of Education students
  may be Identified as
• Exceptional Communication Learning
  Disability
• allows for IEP (Individual Education Plan)
• allows for special interventions
• remediation
• modification
• accommodation

25
Transition to Post-Secondary

• Identification of a learning disability for the
  purposes of services is NOT a diagnosis
• No longer Education Act but Human Rights Code
  Ontarians with Disabilities Act (ODA) so
  diagnosis is important
• admissions
• services accommodation
• funding

26
Issues at Post-Secondary

• Students at the post-secondary level MUST have a
  recent assessment with a valid diagnostic
  statement in order to get academic accommodation
• Many of the students havent had an assessment or
  havent been assessed since grade 3, etc.
• Proper assessment can make the difference between
  success and failure at post-secondary

27
Impact of Incomplete Documentation on Students

• services/accommodation may be provided on and
  interim basis
• students may not get personal access to the
  technology they need
• stress on family students waiting for
  assessments
• possibility of no diagnosis
• all support will be withdrawn
• students lose support on which they have become
  dependant

28
Nipissings LD Program

• Enhanced Services Program (ESP)
• Since September
• screened 66 students for possible inclusion in
  program
• had 33 students (re) assessed (5 more waiting)
• Currently have 56 students
• 16 returning, 30 first year (double cohort)
• 47 undergrad, 9 education
• 13 have additional disabilities to their LDs
• 9 have co morbid AD/HD
• 28 use alternate format reading materials

29
Living Learningwith a LD

• Meet Elaine Kristen

30
Social Emotional Aspects of a Learning
Disability

• From Introducing Learning Disabilities to
  Postsecondary Educators
• The Meighen Centre for Learning Assistance and
  Research, Mount Allison University

31
What does a Learning Disability feel like?

• Ask someone who has one!

32
Possible Academic Problems

• silent reading/reading aloud
• writing/spelling
• learning languages/math
• expressing what is known and understood
• having to re-do school work at home
• having no time off since everything takes longer
• dropping out

33
Possible Social/Emotional Problems

• feeling dumb, stupid, embarrassed, frustrated,
  anxious, lonely, isolated
• being called stupid, lazy being put down by
  teachers, friends, and even parents
• feeling nobody understands
• feeling need of help
• fearing rejection failure
• always having to cover up, act a role

34
Possible Career/Vocational Problems

• lack of basic skills
• lack of social skills
• Its never cured, It never goes away
• having to cover up
• never feeling adequate
• low expectations
• jobs dont last

35
Tough Facts from LDAC

• 35 of students identified with learning
  disabilities drop out of high school.
• 50 of adolescent suicides had previously been
  diagnosed as having learning problems.
• Volumes of research have shown that 30 to 70 of
  young offenders have experienced learning
  problems.

Statistics on Learning Disabilities. LDAC,
October 2001. Source Online http//www.ldac-taac
.ca/english/indepth/bkground/stats01.htm
36
Our Context as Teachers

• Our Desire - we want all of our students to be
  able to master the Three Rs and to develop
  normally physically, mentally and emotionally.
• The Reality approximately 9.4 of our
  elementary and secondary students are
  exceptional (MET, 1997).
• The Result - many of our students will not read,
  write or perform other academic tasks
  efficiently, despite our best effort and intense
  remediation.

37
Consequently

• In order for many of these exceptional students
  to be successful their
• skills must be remediated and/or
• learning either modified or accommodated
• Remediation may be needed for the student to
• overcome performance deficits (reading, writing,
  speech, motor)
• consolidate skills for future learning
• Modification may be needed for the student to
• experience academic success
• maintain motivation to learn
• Accommodation may be needed for the student to
• maintain grade level standards
• broaden future learning opportunities

38
However

• Modifications are not an option at the
  post-secondary level.
• Nor are modifications eligible for high school
  credit.
• Therefore, accommodation for severe disabilities
  may become more challenging and solutions, by
  necessity, more sophisticated.
• Technology has provided many new tools which may
  be used to accommodate students with LDs.

39
Our Reality

• Tales from the trenches

40
Adam (grade 4) reading disability (pre. board)

• reading at grade 1 level, highly frustrated
  resistant to learning
• resistant to resource, so accommodated in the
  classroom
• up two levels, completed grade level work,
  independent research project, class leader
• end of the year comment to John
• now in Grade 5 back in resource, same phonics
  workbooks, etc. shut down
• teachers, perhaps afraid of technology, but have
  also bought into the myth that if students learn
  differently, they wont make it in the real
  world

41
Eve (grade 4) gifted with a LD

• worked very hard but no significant
  ability/achievement discrepancy so parents paid
  for assessment
• performing just below grade level
• works harder than all of her classmates
• remediation every night thru Oxford LC
• principal wont allow identification IEP
  monitoring
• recently caught cheating in spelling in French
• I wanted to get them right just once.
• should she be allowed to experience success?
• strategy Report Card accommodating her
  learning disability according to the
  psychological assessment

42
Ruth (grade 4) not yet diagnosed

• problems with math
• probably non-verbal LD problems with drawing,
  visual/spatial awareness, awkward, late reader
• goes to Kumon Math every night
• nightly math sheet (10 20 min) may take 2 hours
  with parents help
• teacher warned not to rock the boat (not to ID)
• so teacher removed classroom accommodation
  resulting failure allowed teacher to contact
  parents parents influential in community and
  parent council
• letters flew testing has begun shook up
  resource team 5 kids will now benefit from 1st
  math program

43
What you can do . . .

• How can a classroom/ resource teacher support a
  student with a learning disability?

44
Be a GREAT teacher

• Use multi-modal teaching techniques, offer valid
  performance and evaluation alternatives, and
• remember . . .

45
We Learn... William Glasser

• 10 of what we read
• 20 of what we hear
• 30 of what we see
• 50 of what we both see and hear
• 70 of what is discussed with others
• 80 of what we experience personally
• 95 of what we teach someone else

46
Or Simply

• Tell me and I will forget
• Show me and I may remember
• Involve me and I will understand
• Ancient Chinese proverb

47
Teach Academic/Learning Skills Topics from
UNIV1011

• How We Learn
• Learning Styles
• Time Management
• Active Listening Notetaking
• Active Reading
• Writing Strategies
• Critical Creative Thinking

• Test Taking Evaluation
• Attitude Motivation
• Self-Determination Self-Advocacy
• Teamwork Rapport
• Energy Stress
• Health Wellness

48
Test/Exam Accommodation

• Common
• extra time
• spell checker
• use of a computer
• distraction-free environment
• leniency towards spelling grammar

• Less Common
• reader
• scribe
• e-reader
• voice dictation

49
Classroom/Lecture Accommodation

• Common
• tape recorder
• note-sharer/taker
• use of overheads/ visual organizer
• Alpha-Smart/lap-top computer/Pocket PC

• Less Common
• FM system
• wait time when called upon
• lecture notes on reserve/on web
• lecture outline in advance

50
Personal Study Accommodation

• master notebook
• organizer
• talking spell checker
• texts on tape
• tape/digital recorder
• computer
• scanner
• e-reader/e-texts
• voice dictation
• reduced course load

• study buddy
• study carrels
• mentor
• academic skills
• peer tutor
• professional tutor
• technology training
• learning strategy training based on LD assessment

51
What you can do . . .

• Learn as much as you can about learning
  disabilities!

52
More about accommodating individual student
differences

• PBS documentary, Misunderstood Minds
• http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoodminds/intro.h
  tml
• Check out the work of Dr. Mel Levine
• His organizations website
• www.allkindsofminds.org
• A Mind at a Time, Chapter 1
• http//www.allkindsofminds.org/bookExcerpts/aMinda
  tATime.aspx

53
More resources

• more PBS videos
• How Difficult Can This Be? The F.A.T. City
  Workshop by Richard Lavoie (2 copies in library)
• understanding learning disabilities
• shows us LDs from the perspective of learning
  disabled children
• Last one Picked first one Picked on by Richard
  Lavoie
• learning disabilities and social skills
• Look What Youve Done! by Dr. Robert Brooks
• learning disabilities and self-esteem

54
More Info. . .

• On learning disabilities
• www.schwablearning.org
• www.ldonline.org
• www.ldpride.net
• www.ldao.on.ca
• www.ldrc.ca
• http//specialed.about.com/cs/learningdisabled
• Activities to help understand processing deficits
• http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoodminds/
• Mikes Learning Resources site
• www.nipissingu.ca/faculty/mikew/resource

55
Questions?

• . . . lets look at some technology for students
  with LDs.

56
Technology for Students with Learning Disabilities

• Tools to help accommodate for information
  processing deficits

Go
57
Universal Design for Learning (CAST description)

• UDL shifts old assumptions about teaching and
  learning in four fundamental ways
• Source online Center for Applied Special
  Technology (CAST) www.cast.org/udl/

58
UDL basic concepts (CAST)

• Students with disabilities fall along a continuum
  of learner differences rather than constituting a
  separate category
• Teacher adjustments for learner differences
  should occur for all students, not just those
  with disabilities

59
UDL basic concepts (CAST)

• Curriculum materials should be varied and diverse
  including digital and online resources, rather
  than centering on a single textbook
• Instead of remediating students so that they can
  learn from a set curriculum, curriculum should be
  made flexible to accommodate learner differences

60
For more about UDL see

• CASTs Universal Design for Learning site
• http//www.cast.org/udl/
• Online textbook
• Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age
  Universal Design for Learning. David H. Rose
  Anne Meyer ASCD, 2002
• www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/ideas/tes/

61
What Can Students with LDs Expect?

• Typical accommodations available to students with
  learning disabilities at the post-secondary level

62
A brief overview . . .

• What is a Learning Disability?
• Ministry of Education definition

63
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

64

• a) is not primarily the result of
• impairment of vision
• impairment of hearing
• physical disability
• developmental disability
• primary emotional disturbance
• cultural difference and

65

• b) 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 computations

66

• c) may be associated with one or more conditions
  diagnosed as
• a perceptual handicap
• a brain injury
• minimal brain dysfunction
• dyslexia
• developmental aphasia.

67
BSWD Bursary for Students With Disabilities

• This year up to 10, 000
• Tied to OSAP eligibility
• For disability-related educational expenses
  assessments, computers assistive software,
  adaptive devices, tutoring, therapy, ergonomic
  devices, etc.
• NOT for tuition, books, residence, etc.

68
Kristens Profile

• Visual LD (dyslexia)

69
Mikes Profile

• Auditory LD (CAPD)

70
Taras Profile

• Non-Verbal LD

71
Non-verbal LDWAIS Profile
72
Verbal ScoresWAIS III Profile
73
Non-Verbal ScoresWAIS III Profile
74
Non-verbal LDVerbal IQ Profile area of strength
75
Non-verbal LDPerformance IQ Profile area of
deficit
76
Kyles Profile

• AD/HD LD

77
AD/HD LD WAIS-III Profile (Weschler Adult
Intelligence Scale)
78
Verbal Profile good Thinking Skills, poor
Memory Attention
79
Non-Verbal good Social, poor Attention
Visual/Motor Coordination
80
Difficulty with Attention/Memory/Decoding
Potential
81
A Simple Model of Information Processing

• Attention
• Sensory Input
• Processing
• Decoding
• Memory - may include Storage and/or Retrieval
  processes
• Encoding
• Physical Output
• Expression

82
Where can IP break down? Dr. Allyson G.
Harrison, Queens University

• 1. Frontal lobe functioning deficits
• - abstract and conceptual thinking
• 2. Memory impairment
• - Short term memory
• - Working memory-mental blackboard dynamic
  process
• - Long term memory
• - Storage vs retrieval issues
• 3. Sequencing deficits (visual or auditory)

83
Breakdown continues Dr. Allyson G. Harrison,
Queens University

• 4. Speed of information processing
• 5. Attention
• - Selective (cannot choose/focus)
• - Sustained (cannot maintain)
• - Divided (cannot shift/hyperfocus)
• 6. Narrow processing style - cant
  simultaneously attend to process multiple
  aspects of a stimulus field

84
Still breaking down Dr. Allyson G. Harrison,
Queens University

• 7. Poor scanning resolution-miss relevant data
• 8. Right hemisphere dysfunction good at details
  but not global picture. Gets lost in details,
  easily overloaded. Cant make sense of
  holistically presented information. Poor ability
  to interpret visual cues.
• 9. Faulty output mechanism - interferes with
  demonstration of adequate information processing.