Individual time i have found works. At the school i teach at, i have not had much experience with students with learning disabilities, but from the few we've had, what i try to do is between breaks or a few minutes after class i go over the important points and what to focus on when studying at home.
Repetition and assuring they understand while lecturing is also important.
PeAcE
Hi Joseph! You're right. The IEP provides for customization to individual needs and establishes a framework for accountability.
On the other side of the token, do you see any challenges (other than being a percieved crutch sometimes)in the IEP process, particularly for students who are headed to a general, bottom- lined and often unkind work environment that may not customize their job descriptions accordingly? Is there a link? Am I off the mark?
Hi Vickie, I taught in the public school system for a number of years and most of my population were LD. I initially looked at this as a crutch and driven by parents who needed assistence with their children. As time past and I became more familiar with the IEP process I became more involved with the development of the students IEP which allowed me to set levels of accountability in the shop. As those levels rose so did the growth of the student and levels of accomplishment, I believe this is the true meaning of an IEP to stimulate growth in a organized fashion.
Continuing education, especially regarding new techniques
Hi Vickie!
Excellent points. In many ways, I think our educational system does not do justice to students with learning disabilities. In many circumstances, the learning disabilities are not diagnosed and career schools can't be expected to be trained experts in adult learners with such challenges. I have always recommended to instructors to try to individualize and customize their instructional deliveries as much as possible to incorporate different learning styles, but without drawing attention to individual, student learning challenges.
I think our industry is more likely to enroll students with learning disabilities than a typical university or even commmunity college. Many times, someone with a learning disability has been told their entire life that they are not "college material", and by the time they're an adult, don't have the confidence to attempt an academic degree. Of course this isn't always the case, but I've found it often to be true.
Another scenario that I've run into frequently is that someone with a LD has been using it as a crutch to get assistance. Their parents have made excuses for them, which has allowed them to perform below expectations. When they hit the real world, they expect the same type of assistance. All their IEP in high school taught them was that "need" special assistance in order to learn. They haven't learned techniques to overcome their LD. It's very unfortunate.
Just last week I had a conference with a parent of a future student who was appalled that we would not provide the same learning support that her son's IEP dictated in high school. The parent was threatening to leave and send him to a "real school", and the son just sat in my office with his head down, embarassed by his mother's behavior.
Dealing with students at the post-secondary level with an LD is definitely a challenge, and one in which many smaller career colleges are not equipped to deal with.
Hi Christina!
This is a tough one. Sometimes a learning disability is hard to diagnose and we may not be trained to do so. Plus, we have to be careful about asking questions (privacy, etc.). Perhaps a good approach is to vary, as much as possible, instructional delivery among the different learning styles (visual, auditory, hands-on, etc.), and then, when we observe that there may be a challenge, give as much individual attention as possible without drawing attention to any special situation.
This information was very imformative. This issue still poses a challenge for me because I don't get very many students that have a learning disability that I know of up front but yet by observing the students I know that I might probably have a few. I am just not certain what measures to take to find out the type of learning disability they or if they even have one....
Hi Steve!
What a phenomenal situation! It is amazing the number of young adult learners that graduate high school and beyond without having a learning disability identified or addressed - and they have so much to offer.
You're right on target about watching and listening to determine student challenges. As busy as our classrooms are, helping challenged students really is on an individual, case-by-case basis.
The seasoned instructor has learned to balance time spent among planned presentation and activities, individual attention to special needs, and working with the students that are more likely to be overlooked - the "stars" who may need to have the bar raised or their creativity stimulated.
I suppose it really just gets down to observe, create, see, hear and do!
First off I watch & listen, not all students are willing to say they are having trouble. Then after identifying a challenged individual I try to make sure that I identify and use the learning style they are comfortable with somewhere in each lesson. I also speak to them regularly to see how they believe they are progressing and to see if I am helping with their success to the best of my abilities. Other than reading tests/quizzes to a student I would not say I have different methods of helping those students succeed, I believe I am just more aware of my methods and I try to use them more effectively. As an example, if at the end of the day I review the objectives verbally using questioning to verify understanding I might instead review verbally but also write the specifics on the board and promote more discussion around each topic. This helps the individual as well as the rest of the learners.
As a side note I believe it is important to remember that within our classes we may be the first to identify a student with a learning disability and how we handle it can change their lives forever. We once had a student in our class that had graduated high school and had a general degree from a community college. He was fantastic in the lab but struggled severely on the tests & quizzes, getting grades that were below what would be expected from just random guessing. We identified the challenges and started reading the questions to him. This helped his scores but he still struggled even with questions that duplicated what he had already applied in the lab. We suggested that he be professionally evaluated, he was, and it was determined he was dyslexic. We worked with him and his grades improved. So, here is a student that has already been through significant schooling and it wasn't until postsecondary schooling that it was identified he had a learning disability. Then to top it off, the group that had evaluated his disability asked if he would participate in a trail they were conducting free of charge to further evaluate his dyslexia. He agreed and it was found that his IQ was incredibly high to the point that he succeeded in completing puzzles using methods that the evaluators had never considered or knew possible. He now is very successful in our trade, something that may have never occurred if we had just let him fail.
Hi Maricelly,
I agree, small groups work well. Students with special challenges are part of our teaching experience at all levels. I've also found that adapting my instructional delivery and the types of assessments I've used to students with special needs and/or learning disabilities, without drawing undue attention or minimizing independence, works too.
What best practices have you employed to customize your lecture, classroom activities and/or assessments of progress to students with special needs?
