For the fourth time, the Roper Public Affairs &’ Corporate Communications group has reported a survey of US opinion about Learning Disabilities to the Tremaine Foundation. Although the report is entitled “Measuring Progress in Public & Parental Understanding of Learning Disabilities,” it also includes data about the views of the general public, teachers, and school administrators. It’s worth reading the entire document, but here are a few notes to whet the appetite.
Continue reading ‘LD opinion survey: good news, bad news’
Archive for the 'Not LD' Category
In “City Pushes Shift for Special Education,” New York Times reporter Jennifer Medina made the same mistake that many reporters before her have made. She used “learning disabilities” as a synonym for “students with disabilities.” I wonder what Ms. Medina’s editor thinks the term “learning disabilities” means.
Continue reading ‘Yet another misuse of LD’
Does anybody know what is meant by “audible delays?”
According to a newspaper report by Bethany Hart who writes for the Washington Court House (OH, US) Record-Hearald, a woman named Tanya Cottrell noticed her child “was learning things in school a bit slower than the other children. He was diagnosed [with] having audible delays which is considered a learning disability.”
Continue reading ‘New syndrome: Audible delays?’
Whoever writes the section of About on Learning Disabilities provides support for Irlen Syndrome. Although there are two sentences expressing reservation and it doesn’t flatly commend the idea, there are 100s of words describing it and making fact-like statements such as “It often runs in families and typically goes mis-diagnosed as a learning disability or dyslexia.”
Here are the two disclaiming statements:
At least there are those two sentence. Still, why report all the other stuff uncritically? But, perhaps I’m misreading the entry or over-reacting. I invite readers to check it (link to the entry) and then vote in this poll.
Loading ...I’m talking about speech, but not about speaking indistinctly and running one’s words together. I’m talking about speech that insults.
Over on One Special Place, Renee Beauregard has a post deriding the use of “retard” and its variants (‘tard, ‘tarded, etc.) in common speech.
Do you have any idea how many times people with developmental disabilities are called the “R” word – in a way that is meant to be derogatory? And now, this word has become an adjective used as much as any other negative word to describe a person.
The history of disabilities is replete with terms that were once used clinically as well as insultingly: imbecile, idiot, moron, and others. Now that groups such as the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD; formerly American Association for Mental Retardation or AAMR) have changed their names, maybe the term “retard” as a slur can take its place on the slag heap of misbegotten insults.
Ms. Beauregard notes some examples of people taking offense at this use of the term. Link to her post. There are other resources available, too. Check Alex Santoso’s post from Neatorama for notes about the usage of some of these terms. Meanwhile, have a little consideration, please.
Sphere: Related ContentDespite getting virtually no recommendations about future content (3 votes!), I’m starting to post some new content. The new content is, in my obviously biased view (else, why would I post it?), pretty important stuff. It’s about research, practice, knowledge, and all that sort of stuff as it connects to Learning Disabilities. In this page, I discuss big-idea concepts that recur in Learning Disabilities. These are the themes that one sees when one reads a diverse array of literature on the topic of LD.
I recommend it. What’s more, you won’t have to find this post each time you want to refer to the page; it will always be directly accessible under the “special content” link in the top navigation bar.
Sphere: Related ContentIn “Solving the dyslexia puzzle,” Teri Maddox of the Belleville (IL, US) News-Democrat reports about Matt Grohmann’s struggles with dyslexia. The good news is that Mr. Grohmann hooked up with Michele Johnson who tutors for the Valley of Southern Illinois 32nd Degree Masonic Learning Center for Children.
Sphere: Related ContentMatt Grohmann looks forward to after-school tutoring the way other kids look forward to Boy Scouts or baseball practice.
The one-on-one sessions with a reading specialist give him a chance to be successful and make the rest of his life happier.
Continue reading ‘Masons to the rescue again’
V. Dion Haynes
Washington Post
Dear Mr. Haynes,
In your article about changes in the administration of special education in Washington (DC, US), entitled “Special-Ed Getting New Computer System, Staff” appearing 27 February 2008 on page B04,” you used the term “Learning Disabilities” as a generic reference for students with various other, legally recognized disabilities. Here is an extract (my underlining):
For years, city and school officials have criticized programs provided by the D.C. schools’ special education office, which serves 9,400 students with physical or learning disabilities. The school system spends about $137 million a year on private school tuition for about 2,400 children it cannot serve in the public schools.
Specific Learning Disabilities is a specific category of disability under US federal law (Public Law 108-446, 108th Congress), and it is expressly differentiated from mental retardation, emotional disturbance, and other disabilities. It is not a generic term and should not be used to refer to multiple categories of disabilities. Although it may seem trivial to some, this difference is important to many. Using the term “learning disabilities” as a generic obscures important differences in students and may even undermine efforts by parents and educators to seek services for students who have learning disabilities, emotional or behavioral disorders, intellectual disabilities, autism, and speech-language disorders (among others).
I hope that this note is helpful. Thank you for your reporting of the substantive content in your article (which I’ve covered elsewhere).
John Wills Lloyd, Ph.D.
Editor, LD Blog
Professor, University of Virginia
This is the lead from an editorial praising the movie, “Taare Zameen Par.” The movie is generating multiple entries in my Google news searches.
Eagle’s Eye: Every child is special
Bollywood actor Aamir Khan’s directorial debut, Taare Zameen Par (TZP) focusing on the saga of a dyslexic child, possibly is one of the outstanding Hindi films produced in 2007.
Released 21 December worldwide, TZP vividly portrays the manner in which an eight-year-old boy, disinterested in studies, is humiliated and punished by all his teachers at school.At his home, too, with utter disregard to the boy’s special talent for painting, his parents pack him off to a boarding school as a disciplinary measure. The boy faces virtually living hell and yet again fares badly in studies until an exceptional art teacher (played by Aamir) ‘discovers’ the hidden talents of the child.
Later in the editorial, the author trots out the usual list of famous individuals said to have had dyslexia and raises the currently pop ideas of Professor Julie Logan from the Cass Business School in London, which we’ve discussed before on LD Blog. Sigh.
Although I have serious problems with those lapses and the intellectually challenged idea expressed in the film and the editorial title (“every child is special”), I wonder what the movie’s like. Anyone seen it? I’d like to see it.
Links:
The original editorial ;
The earlier post about Professor Logan’s research;
The official Web site for the film.
Not LD still going strong
The misrepresentation of Learning Disabilities as a generic or catch-all term continues. I just stumbled upon another instance of it.
I elected not to link back to the site so as not to provide traffic for the it. Sigh.
To get an idea of how many times we’ve talked about this problem, please follow the tag “Not LD.”
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