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.
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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.