The Seattle Post Intelligencer carried an Associated Press story datelined Everett WA (US) that reads like a terrible mash-up of race, disability, possibly poor parenting, and manifest determination. According to the story, an adolescent who has Learning Disabilities will have to write an essay as a way to have his record cleared.
The boy was found guilty last month of felony harassment for waving a noose at [an]other boy and using racial slurs in a parking lot at the high school in Monroe.
Because the teenager and his father had voluntarily taken a two-day racial-awareness class at Edmonds Community College in December, however, the judge granted a deferred disposition.
According to the story, “The white teenager, who has a learning disability, was expelled from Monroe High School after the episode and is now studying with a tutor from the public schools.” Do you think there was a determination of whether this boy’s LD played a role in his change in IEP? Let’s hope so. As deplorable as his action is, I can imagine that a boy who has LD and who may come from a home where racial intolerance occurs (we don’t know this to be the case; I’m alerted to the possibility, though, because the father went to the awareness class, too) might behave this way.
This one is full of interesting twists!
As an Ottawa special education teacher, Pierre Martel is outraged his son, Eric, can’t graduate from a French-language high school in Gatineau because he can’t spell in French.
Mr. Martel, who teaches at Carson Grove Elementary School, said his 18-year-old son failed a Quebec writing exam last spring because he has dyslexia, the same problem that troubled him as a student. “If a child is in a wheelchair, do you tell him he has to run to pass physical education? I was told that wasn’t the same thing, because the ministry requires linguistic competency.”
Let’s see…dyslexia, spelling, French, laws or rules or regulations, graduation, teacher as parent…there’s lots to consider in this story. Link.
Being a (former?) researcher, I’m intrigued by what sort of research is being done in various areas. Today I learned that there the American Acadmey for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry sponsors an award for research on Learning Disabilities, the Elaine Schlosser Lewis Pilot Research Award for Learning Disabilities for a Junior Faculty or Child Psychiatry Resident. I dug around the site a little more and found that the academy has an O.K. (not great) 1999 paper on LD.
Dayle Upham, an individual with a Learning Disability and a faculty member at University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (US), has published a book about LD. According to a story by Kelly McBride, Upham’s book, “Making the Grade: Reflections on Being Learning Disabled,” is more than a resource for future teachers.
Part of Upham’s mission is to not only help students who struggle with learning disabilities, but also to help correct misconceptions about the disabilities themselves, she said. For instance, while many people think the term “dyslexia” has to do with getting letters mixed up, the word actually means an inability to read – switching letters may be just one problem from which dyslexics suffer. And by definition, people with learning disabilities have either average or above-average intelligence, Upham said.
Congratulations to Professor Upham!
Reading Rockets, the national project on reading managed by WETA, has many useful resources. In addition to valuable materials (e.g., discussion guides to accompany the excellent film, A Tale of Two Schools), the site also provides sensible advice (“A recent poll found that 44% of parents who noticed their child was having trouble learning waited a year or more before getting help. But most reading problems can be corrected with early intervention. If you suspect a problem, don’t hesitate!”).
The Web site and other materials are well worth worth exploration and return visits.
According to a story in the Wichita Eagle, a grant from Workforce Alliance of South Central Kansas will support an initiative of the Urban League of The MidPlains that provides a career and educational program for youth. Individuals who have learning disabilities and meet the income requirements are eligbile for grants that are aimed to help them “overcome barriers to continuing their education or finding a job.”
Dyslexia questions
Under the title, Education Matters: Dyslexia: The Hidden Learning Difference,” Jayne Matthews of the Baltimore Times describes her son’s difficulties in learning to read. Thanks to help from a private center, the boy learned to read after three years of troubles.
Following her account of this story, Ms. Matthews turns the remainder of the column over to Thea Medvetz of the Dyslexia Tutoring Program so that Ms. Medvetz can discuss dyslexia and warning signs of dyslexia.
The intentions of Ms. Matthews and Ms. Medvetz are certainly laudable, and they give some good information. However, I found several statements published there to be of concern; I want to respond to them in hopes of helping others understand dyslexia and Learning Disabilities better.
National Institutes of Health research shows that dyslexia affects at least 1 out of 5 children in the United States.
I’ve seen the 1-in-5 figure many places, but I’m still not sure of it’s veracity. If dyslexia is one form of LD and LD is identified in ~5% of the population of school children, as documented in the Annual Reports to Congress, how could 20% of school children have dyslexia?
Difficulty decoding or sounding out words, or getting letters in the wrong order. For example, these children may read, “left” as “felt” or “form” as “from”.
I can go along with this one, as it’s presented. I hope, however, that people don’t misunderstand it as illustrating the diagnostic value mirror-reading; the reversals-are-diagnostic idea is a myth.
Difficulties with math.
It’s true that some children with reading problems also have math problems. But, not all children with math problems have reading problems.