Dyslexia. Or basic reading comprehension. I know some students won't even open or carry a book. I try to make sure that the notes are based on the reading. Even if they don't read it, they still have it there. If it's made up and unstructured, they get really lost. It has to go step by step too. I use jokes and comparison to make words stand out. I count on those moments to stick in their memory for whatever the reason.
The most common learning barrier in my experience has been dyslexia. As an individual who had significant dyslexia myself, I have a fine appreciation of the challenges faced by students who have varying degrees of this learning disability. When approaching students with any learning problem or disability I try to gain understanding of what has helped them in the past to learn & how they have met that end.
I have heard this also. I had a lot of trouble through out school with this. But with time I adapted to it and for the most part I'm ok. I just slow down when I start to have troubles and I usually can figure out what's in front of me.
Dyslexia. I believe Tom Cruise is a "victim" of this. Because of some helpful high school instructors, he was able to work through it and become a very successful movie actor and producer. I may have one in a couple of hundred in my accounting classes. It would be very difficult to succeed in this area with this affliction. For that reason they don't normally choose this major or have already learned to cope with it.
I haven't encountered many eather. But I have had a few ADHD students. It had been difficult at times keeping there attention and it seems to be as frustrating to them at times as it is trying to teach them.
I've delt with Dyslexia most of my life. The problem is we tend to not tell our instructors about it due to our experiences in the past of feeling a lack of intelligence.
I teach graphic design and we joke about most students with learning disabilies are sent to our program. That's because the most common learner in our program is a visual learner. I can't identify the specific learning disability but I know it when I see it, I have a learning disability myself.
In motivating students I will often describe my own difficulties and then explain what I have achieved in life, I had a business for 19 years and every avenue I have taken in this profession I have been successful with (I am the program director now).
This does a few things, it gets students to see they can succeed, that there is someone in a management position that understands them and that they can't pull any punches with me, I understand what is going on first hand.
i encounter a few students with difficulty in basic reading skills, and they always try hard and succeed well in my classes. but in cosmetology, most disabilities are overcome quite nicely.
Critical thinking. I always ask students at the end of a class to write in their own words what I lectured about and to give an example of a problem situation in their own words, including the solution as to what they would do. Often students cannot put in order and/or sequence what the assignment is. Gives me an opportunity to work with the student individually to develop critical thinking and note taking skills as well.
The most common claimed by students is dyslexia. Often though they have no "verification" of the problem so how many of them actually have it is unknown. Most who really do have the problem are actually easy to accomodate. Others claim a problem only after poor test results.
Evan
Not only they fell they will be treated differently if they tell the teacher but i think it is more about what would their peers think ,if they get word that the student have a learning disability.Most of them had been labeled in elementary,middle and high school as haviving a learning disability and that separated them from the main stream at school.They do not want to repeat that experience.
I agree that English as a learning language presents the most common obstacle in the classroom. Almost by definition it has amazing similarities to any reading disability. Patience and persistence mixed with creativity and compassion help us - and them - find ways to succeed.
Having two children of my own with IEPs due to severe dyslexia and high testing anxiety helps me spot and help resolve students with that difficulty. I tell my students that problem-solving is a better indicator of intelligence than reading speed.
I have come across students that are color blind, in classes such as Microst Excel until they tell me privately about being color blind, I am baffled as to why they cannot follow the formatting chapter, which is one of the easiest chapters. It is very important for a student with a learning disability to approach the instructor privately, however; most students will not since they feel that they will be treated differently as a result of the instructor knowing.
dislexia and reading comprehension as a result.
For me it is probably dyslexia.
For some of my students, it is basic understanding of the english language.
The most common form of Learning Disability it Dyslexia. It is a dysfunction of the cognitive processing which makes reading and comprehension difficult. words running together and reversing letters or confusing letters that have reverse images requires the student to take more time to compensate for the decoding and recoding of the words.
I have found the most common disability that i see is the adult ADD. I know some have their opinions on it but I have a child that suffers from it. My son went from making D's to A's with the aid of his medication. Not saying that this is the fix all because we are all responsible for our own actions but it has made a difference. So for the adults who never knew that maybe that was the cause of their grades growing up and not lack of trying. This adults are now in our classes still struggling to focus on the information we are trying to relay to them.
I'd have to say it is foreign students who are weak in english. On the other hand, some of those students try harder and actually do better than some of the studnets who speak english natively. Motivation for success is a huge driving force!
Poor eading comprehension and lack of vocabulary are the most common disability I see. Then English as a second language.
Hi Tracey!
It sounds like you have a very good system for assisting ESL students. Being a seond language learner and being the instructor of a college course can be a challenge for all concerned.
I would like to redirect the thinking of instructors away from the idea that ESL is a learning disability. A disability is a "lack of concept development or lack of ability to learn". Most students in college classroom have learning challenges not disabilities. We may have students confined to wheelchairs who are physically disabled but certainly have the ability to learn. I hope we wil be careful not label people. Thanks for letting me share this with you and that you will give it some thought.
Keep up the good work!
Jane Davis
ED106 Facilitator
