Monthly Archive for May, 2006

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Liz’s notes

Published on 22 May 2006 in Comments and News. 1 Comment

Liz Ditz has several worthwhile posts about Learning Disabilities. I missed many while I was away, so this is just a little bit of a catch-up. She’s alert to the news and quick to post on a wide array of topics related to Learning Disabilities. (This link points to the category of posts she’s tagged with “Learning Disabilities”; there are many other topics in her blog, too.)

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Oh well

Published on 18 May 2006 in Dyslexia, News and Research. 0 Comments

I’m feeling a little discouraged. Why? Well, I keep on learning about what people are doing in hopes of helping students achieve better.

In the Kenora Catholic District School (Ontario, CA), according to Shelley Bujold of the Kenora Miner & News, the school agency is investing in an FM sound system, apparently to amplify teachers’ speech so that students will hear it better and, therefore, learn to read and compute better. The only part of this I am making up is the part about how the local education agency expects the sound system to work. The parts about the sound system and the hopes of improved outcomes come from the story itself.

As part of a trial program at schools in the Kenora Catholic District School Board, special education students were given extra support to help them achieve.

The program started in January and runs through to June and implements a contact teacher in each school to help teachers and students with support.

“This was to enhance literacy and numeracy in the classroom for students with special needs,” said special needs co-ordinator Estelle Cantera during the regular board meeting.

She said a lot of background research went into the program in order to track progress of each student participating. They focused on Grade 4 and Grade 7 students because of their year’s previous data from the Education Quality and Accountability Office test scores. Cantera said the goal was to have 25 per cent of the students participating move up one level by June — starting from level one on a scale to four.

At least it’s a trail program. Ms. Cantera also is quoted as saying that the test will be whether the students make progress. Hooray for that part.

Link to Ms. Bujold’s story.

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Mother’s story

Published on 18 May 2006 in News and The press. 0 Comments

The press has once again picked up the human interest side of Learning Disabilities. In this version, Karen Meyer, a TV reporter in Chicago (IL, US), discusses a book by Dana Buchman, the mother of a girl with Learning Disabilities. Ms. Buchman explains her rationale for writing the book—A Special Education: One Family’s Journey Through the Maze of Learning Disabilities—this way:

“I thought if I could tell parents who are just beginning the journey some of the things that I had learned that it wouldn’t be so hard for them.” Buchman said. “So much of the poison of learning differences is this anxiety and sense of being overwhelmed and this confusion about not knowing it. And many parents have to know from the beginning that it’s going to be a lot of grey area, there’s no clear fix it.”

Link to Ms. Meyer’s feature on Ms. Buckman’s book.

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Dyslexia fund raiser

Published on 3 May 2006 in Dyslexia and News. 3 Comments

Masonic groups around the US support supplementatl services for students with Learning Disabilities in reading (dyslexia). The services, which are predicated on Orton-Gillingham methods, are a wonderful focus for the charitable efforts of these groups and have benefitted many individuals. Of course, it costs money to provide them, so Masons have developed fund-raising campaigns. In Shreveport, LA, where one lodge has a member who is both a school teacher and a musician, the Masons sponsored a concert by local musical groups.

Ryan Reid, a math teacher and a member of the band The Hoodlum Circus, is using his connections in the local music scene to raise money for the Louisiana Masonic Learning Center’s Dyslexia Training Program. Beginning Saturday at 6 p.m., eight bands and a variety speakers will take the stage at 516 Soundstage in Shreveport to raise money for the after-school
program.

Here’s hoping that these folks raised lots of money.

Link to the story.

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Another not LD

Published on 2 May 2006 in News, Not LD and The press. 0 Comments

Over on Teach Effectively I noted with admiration that journalist Stan Simpson candidly discussed his son Cash’an’s tentative diagnosis of having autism. I want to support the advocacy of Mr. Simpson and his family for their boy. It’s good to have people of influence promoting the needs of students with disabilities.

I also want to note that Mr. Simpson mistakenly identifies autism as a “learning disability.” He wrote, “Autism is a learning disability. The brain is wired differently.” The “wired differently” idea may be correct. Autism does include problems learning. But, common parlance aside, Autism does not equal Learning Disability in US law. Autism refers to one group of students who qualify for special education; Learning Disability refers to another group of students who also need special education. Both students with Autism and with Learning Disabilities deserve special education.

Link to Mr. Simpson’s column.

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