Working with Students with learning dissabilities can help them with their goals in life as well.
Tony,
yes, building the trust with these students is key. Hopefully we can get them to open up to us & come for help.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I think the most difficult thing is coming up with ways to communicate ideas. As well as developing a level of trust in which they will let you know about a learning disability they might have.
In my experience, the students are not forthcoming with information about their disabilities. For the most part it is not being discussed at the admissions portion of the process and nothing is being said in the classroom. I am left to try to figure out what might be going on, or make semi-educated guesses. I assume this failure to disclose comes from fear and/or embarressment. This makes it difficult for me to be of help.
I have worked with several adult learners with learning disabilities many of whom were not diagnosed til later in life. This poses a challenge because, due to their late diagnosis, often they do not have previous instructional supports to suggest nor do they always know what they need to succeed.
travis,
this is an important point. These students may have been passed on, but through identification we stand a greater chance of helping them be successful.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I would say identifying those students who have slipped through the system and not identified that they do in fact have a learning disability and are not "dumb" as they may have thought or been told.
I agree, students will try to shuffle along and will often times make excuses rather than talk about a disbility. Some students my not even realize they have a learning disablity.
Patricia,
yes, if we can learn about these areas & then also how to best help these learners, we will be better positioned to help them succeed.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Brian,
I would agree this is a significant challenge, thank you for the idea on helping with this.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Learning to know the different styles of learning disabilities. That way, you can be more able to help your students with the problems that are relevant to their learning needs.
I would say appeasing the class as a whole. Having a student who learns at a slower rate isn't the problem. Slowing down or changing methods for those individuals is fairly easy. The problem comes from the rest of the class when they feel they are being left out to accommodate the slower students. Breaking up the lectures, and taking more breaks seems to help because I can spend more time with those who need it while others are on a break.
Jim,
yes, the personal relationship & demonstration of our willingness to help is key to helping the students to be successful.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
You need to know your students and have a relationship of trust where the student shares this information with you. The biggest challenge is to have enough time to spend with each student to where the student feels comfortable enough to share their learning disability with you
With adult learners you already have a wide variety of different backgrounds and learning ablitlities so it does make it tough to throw in a student with a learning disabiliity. I think as long as you know it from the beginning and have a strategy for the entire class things should run smoother.
Well I have worked with two students that just come to mind when I think of learning disabilities. With student A my hardest challenge was removing the students frustration that would make her cry each time she failed or couldn't grasp a concept. With student B my hardest challenge is not teaching her a method but its her excuses she makes up and blames her disability for her excuses. For example, my disability has not allowed me to prepare for the test becuase my laptop broke and I needed images that i can study with to retain the info, can I take my test Tue then they want to wait until Thurs.
For me one of the biggest challenges to working with students with learning disabilities is if they are truly understanding. When asking them, they seem to understand however, when it comes to quizzes and tests, it appears different. One strategy I have used, to help is to offer more time, but also different types of exams/quizzes, some even being a role-play or through polleverywhere.com to allow for "fun" but that will help them.
Thanks so much
It is only an advantage in my point of view. It only makes instructors better and understanding those in need
Understanding what the disability is and how to help the student succeed
I find that the greatest challenge I have encountered in working with students with learning disabilities is walking that fine line between being supportive of those students (eg: giving extra time etc.) and being viewed as showing favouritism by the students who do not have a problem.
