Wendi ,
and if we show these students that we want to help them be successful there is a greater chance they will open up to us & allow us to help them.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Students with learning disabilities can inform the instructor of what strategies have worked for them in the past. The instructor and and student can work to achieve succes by incorporating those techniques in the classroom.
We all have had students with some type of learning disabilities. For me, building a rapport with the student, and then learning their challenges and how they have dealt with them in the past, gives me an opportunity to brain-storm with the student for additional ways to study and retain information learned in class.
I can ask them what techniques helped them get through assignments in high school or any other education they've had. Also use different instructional techniques to help motivate them.
Sue ,
I totally agree that when we can tap into the past success strategies for these students, we stand a much better chance of helping them be successful again.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Providing support is critical to these students. I also find that many students have been told through out life that they have a learning disablility. With this being said I find alot of the students have been held back from their potential. They were not given the chance to excel. When working with these students I try not to treat them as though they have a disability. I treat them as an equal and give them extra support and extra time to excel.
As stated in the course - find out what has helped the student succeed in the past. At times, I have been able to suggest things I have seen work for previous students with a similar LD and it can open a whole new area of assistance that the student hasn't tried before. I had a daughter who is dyslexic and found that she learned best when there was a lot of lecture and discussion as opposed to all knowledge being derived from reading
wilmanie,
I completely agree that we, as instructors, need to be demonstrating our willingness to help all of our students & this will then encourage those who are struggling to seek further help.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
It is helpful for the instructor to be open and be available for the student with learning with disabilities. Finding out what work for them in the past will enable the instructor to see where they have to meet the student in their learning experience.
This question hits home for me. I found out I had a learning disability in my 2nd year of med school. At first I felt insulted, and I was angered when they gave me an actual diagnosis. I had learned about the conditions in med school, but its a whole different game to be told you actually have it. It felt as if they were giving me a "retarted" label. It was only until I actually did research on learning disabilities that I got alot of insight on what it actually was and many different ways to cope with it. I got alot more tests done to me after that, like an IQ test, just to see what else I needed to find out about myself. And when the results came back, it showed that my intelligence was above average, as it is documented. For the most part kids with a learning disability, are extremely intelligent. The only problem is students must process the knowledge first to show that intelligence level.
Becoming aware of my learning disability empowered me to seek out and find different ways to not only help myself but also help my students or anyone else for that matter, that has a learning disability.
Make it personal: Pretend for a moment even if you dont have a learning disability, pretend that you do, and now imagine that you wanted to learn a particular material in a class to reach a goal in your life that you had set out for yourself. And if this is not enough, then pretend you have a child of your own that is interested in learning a subject, and they had a learning disability they were diagnosed with.
In order to make a difference we need to care. Even one person can make a huge impact in a students life when they are seeking this type of help. Talk to your students and find out what has worked for them in the past. If they have no idea, then talk to other instructors in what has worked for them when faced with this problem, all while being fair to all the students and not cutting down on the material that is needed for them to learn.
Students that are truly eager to learn, are not asking for a way out of the content in the class, they actually want to learn the material because they are going to be needing that knowledge later down the road when they are in the working field. What they need is support in finding ways that they can actually show their true intelligence on the subject at hand. And not be cut short for example by a time factor, which would not be indicative of their intelligence on the topic in question.
Nelida,
this is very true as we are required to provide them equal access to enable them to be successful.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
It's very important to provide support to students with disabilities due they had the same rights as others students to success in your class. You as an instructor should ask them what type of support or method of learning were used with them on previous courses that were helpful for them. Also using different audiovisual strategies could help them too.
Karen,
I firmly believe that the question of what has helped them in the past is one of the best that we can ask as it will help us know what to do in the present.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
To learn how to help a student with learning disabilities it helps to ask the student what has helped them in the past. Also it helps to research the disability and see what modifications work.
This is what I have found also, finding out from them what works best.
I think acceptance of each student on his or her own merits, truely provides the greatest likelihood of success for all students.
Personally, this has been the most valuable thing to me. Not having any formal training in this area, I simply ask the student what kinds of assistance or accommodations have worked for them before.
I really like your post and the methods you have brought up. I wish that instructors could do that, however were I work when a student mentiopns that they have a diabilty the instructor must refer them to the Dean so that accomodations can be reviewed and then the Dean puts together an academic plan for the student.
Depending on the disabilty I hace always found that giving student one on one tutoring has worked well. Also giving students extra time on tests and quizes has been beneficial to the student.
Daniel,
yes, the more we encounter these type of learners & have the chance to work with them, the more our own skills can increase.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
