Posting by Peter Crimi. (I didn't think to have the user name be my actual name, sorry.)
1. Federal and State Law define a learning disability (LD) as: A condition that causes significant learning problems, most often related to reading and writing. More specifically a writing learning disability, most often referred to as Dysgraphia is defined as: A specific developmental disability that affects the person's ability to write. Problems may include fine-motor muscle control of the hands and/or processing difficulties. Under the current IDEA, the key to the existence of a specific learning disability is a severe discrepancy between a student’s ability and achievements levels. 2. Characteristics of someone who has Dysgraphia would include any of the following: Gripping the pencil too tightly while contorting their body to find a comfortable writing position. Their handwriting is highly illegible, more then age/level appropriate. They will tire quickly while writing, if they do not avoid writing altogether. They also have difficulty organizing their thoughts, as well as writing all the words in the sentence. There is a notable gap between the understandings of their written ideas verses when they are speaking. As far as being affected emotionally and socially, it is mostly appropriate depending on the age of the student. They find it hard to write and keeping up in class(es) when asked to manually write. 3. If I was a teacher in a regular education room and I had a student with Dysgraphia I would follow the instructions laid out in their IEP. If I see that the child is having such difficulty but is not classified I would suggest a Child Study Team be put together. Now, if the modifications and accommodations were left up to me it would then depend on the age of the student. If the child was just learning to write I would try things like: raised paper to appeal to their senses when forming letters and words, allow them to use something other then pencil, and obviously give them more time. If the student has been writing for a few years I would allow them to use print or cursive, whichever is more comfortable, give them more time to complete the assignment, and most importantly, remind them that I am not so much concerned with their actual writing, but more concerned with them grasping the concepts of what I am asking the other students to write about. If the student was older still I would allow them to use a tape recorder or perhaps a computer to take their notes. I could also record my lessons and post them online for all the students to use later. This will not only the student who needs it but will not make the other students wise to what is going on helping the student socially and emotionally. 4. References • www.ld.com this site provides all information found here and in this posting. It explains about Dysgraphia and has all resources for the student, parents, and teachers. • Here there is also a discussion forum for students and parents to talk about strategies and swap stories. • Writing Better: Effective Strategies for Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities by Steve Grahm—an almost definitive guide for teachers with students who have difficulty writing. • http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/dysgraphia/dysgraphia.htm --> Here parents can find information about the disability (user friendly while staying scientific) as well as find out what studies are being done to understand and help students affected by this disability • http://www.resourceroom.net/readspell/dysgraphia.asp --> This website has an article by a doctor who deals with many students who have Dysgraphia. I found it to be very informative while not being written over the head of most parents or teachers. • http://idea.ed.gov Here parents can read about what will be required by a school district once their child is classified with a Specific Learning Disability. It also gives the federal requirements for becoming classified as well as resources and an all around bevy of information.
1) How is your disability defined by the federal and state laws? The federal and state laws define a learning disability as a specific learning disability that means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken, or written, that may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations, including such conditions as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. The term does not include learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, mental retardation, emotional disturbance, or environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantages.
2) What are the developmental characteristics of persons with this disability? (This would include cognitive, social, emotional, physical, as well as levels of functioning.) The academic characteristics of a person with a learning disability include unexpected underachievement, resistant to treatment, difficulty to teach, inability to solve problems, uneven academic abilities, inactive learning style, poor basic language skills, poor basic reading and decoding skills, inefficient information processing abilities, and inability to generalize. Social characteristics include immaturity, feels socially unacceptable, misinterprets social and nonverbal cues, makes poor decisions, feels victimized, unable to predict social consequences, unable to follow social conventions (manners), feels rejected, naïve, shy, withdrawn, insecure, and dependant on others. The behavioral characteristics include being inattentive, distractible, hyperactive, impulsive, poorly coordinated, disorganized, unmotivated, and dependant.
3) If you were a teacher in a general education classroom, what information and strategies would help you best support a child with this disability? This would include academic support as well as social support. I would have the child read out loud so I can determine how much the disability affects his or her learning process. I would also mark down what words were read wrong and see if any of the words had things in common. I would also repeat information in different ways so students would be able to comprehend what I am saying and organize content systematically. For example I would use first, second, next, and then. I would have the assignments and teaching lessons include different experiences and interests because with such a broad variety, every student can find something they can learn about. To help a child with a learning disability socially I would teach them rules of the playground games, comprehension of nonverbal expressions, social conventions, when to terminate a conversation, how to ask permission to join an ongoing game, and sharing skills. I would also pair a child without a learning disability with one that has a learning disability so in this way; it creates an opportunity for the child with a learning disability to work on his social skills.
4) What resources would help you as a teacher to serve this child? (This would include websites, agencies, people within the school; a two to three line description is required for each resource.) http://www.ldaamerica.org/aboutld/resources/guide.asp. This site is of the Learning Disabilities Association of America. It has free guides and booklets for those that have learning disabilities or for those that want to learn more about them. They are sites that tell one how to assess a learning disability, what to do, and much more.
National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities (NJCLD) is a committee that 1. facilitates communication and cooperation among the member organizations. 2. provides an interdisciplinary forum for the review of issues for educational and governmental agencies, and act as a resource committee for those agencies and other interested groups. 3. provides a response to national issues in the area of learning disabilities when and as the need arises. 4. seeks agreement on major issues/problems pertinent to the area of learning disabilities. 5. prepares and disseminate statements to various publics so as to clarify issues in the area of learning disabilities. 6. identifies research and service delivery needs in learning disabilities. Mnemonics is a learning strategy that promotes remembering information by associating the first letters of items in a list with a word, sentence, or picture. This memory trick helps one remember a group of things. There is also new technology that one can use to help with their learning disability. For reading and writing there are audio taped books, “talking” computers, web-based texts, word processing programs, desktop publishing, and planning aids.
1) Federal and State laws recognize dyslexia as a "Specific learning disability" which is a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations. The term includes such conditions as perceptual handicaps, brain injury, minimal brain disfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. The term does not include children who have learning problems which are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor handicaps, of mental retardation of emotional disturbances or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage (34 CFR Part 300.8).
2) Individuals with Dyslexia experience difficulties in reading, writing, and speaking. Difficulties in reading and writing would include: difficulty learning to read; difficulty sounding out words; adding, omitting, transposing or reversing of letters in words; poor reading comprehension because of difficulty pronouncing words, and slowly reading word by word. Difficulties in speaking would include: difficulty remembering directions with several steps; difficulty pronouncing words; and difficulty memorizing the alphabet or multiplication tables.
3) If I was a general education teacher, I would look closely at the child’s IEP (Individualized Education Plan) for areas that are of immediate concern and incorporate into my daily instruction the accommodation(s) and/or modification(s) as required. I would periodically meet with the Child Study Team to ensure that I am meeting the child’s IEP and discuss any additional areas of concern. The child will be allowed the use of a spell-checker or laptop computer as a spelling aid, and have the ability complete a piece of work in a rough format in the first instance, returning to it later to correct spellings and punctuation. Homework would be written on the board well before the conclusion of the lesson in very clear printing, as it will take a dyslexic child twice as long to visually scan the words and copy them down. I would also frequently collaborate with the child’s special education teacher to keep them aware of what is being taught in the classroom, how well the child is doing in the classroom, and ask about additional methods of teaching this student. In addition to doing the actions stated previously, I would have the child read aloud or move their lips while reading; teach lessons incorporating multiple senses as to ease the burden of learning the material being taught; and motivate the student by praising them for effort. 4) Resources that would help me as a teacher to serve a child with this disability would be: http://www.dyslexia-teacher.com/dyslexia-information.html This website suggests strategies to teaching a student with dyslexia as well as general information on dyslexia for teachers (I used some of the information in my blog entry) http://www.hsutx.edu/academics/education/mltc/characte.htm http://dyslexia.mtsu.edu/about/natureofdyslexia.html These websites list characteristics of individuals with dyslexia from Preschool/Kindergarten up to high school, college, and adults. http://www.dyslexia-parent.com/mag30.html This website provides an example when multi-sensory teaching can be incorporated in the classroom. http://www.interdys.org/ The International Dyslexia Association (IDA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping individuals with dyslexia, their families and the communities that support them. http://www.ldaamerica.org/ The Learning Disabilities Association of America (LDA) is the largest non-profit volunteer organization advocating for individuals with learning disabilities. http://www.ncld.org/ The National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) provides essential information to parents, professionals and individuals with learning disabilities, promotes research and programs to foster effective learning and advocates for policies to protect and strengthen educational rights and opportunities http://www.nichd.nih.gov/ The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), established by Congress in 1962, conducts and supports research on topics related to the health of children, adults, families, and populations. http://www.nimh.nih.gov/ The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is the largest scientific organization in the world dedicated to research focused on the understanding, treatment, and prevention of mental disorders and the promotion of mental health.
Special education is the treatment of choice for learning disabilities in school. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act requires that school personnel, in conjunction with the child's parents, develop an individualized education program (IEP) for each student with learning disabilities who is eligible for special education. This plan is revised every year to take into account each eligible student's present skills and learning disabilities and abilities. The specific instruction students receive will vary depending upon their needs and capabilities. Some children need specific related services as well: a notetaker (for a student with a fine motor disability), word processors, laptop computers, books on tape, or extra time for tests. The IDEA requires schools to provide these special education and related services at no cost to families. Accommodations can include: • Taped textbooks available through Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic (see the description in Resources); • Extended time to take tests; • Tutoring; • Use of a notetaker, for students who have trouble listening in class and taking notes; • Use of a scribe during test taking, for students who have trouble writing but who can express their answers verbally to the scribe, who writes down the responses; • Use of a reader during test taking, for students who have trouble reading test questions; • Tape recording of class lectures; and • Testing in a quiet place, for students who are easily distracted. Recent research confirms that we can teach students with learning disabilities how to learn. We can put them into a position to compete! Here are the strategies that work: One is direct instruction. The other is learning strategy instruction. Teachers who were applying those kinds of intervention: a. broke learning into small steps; b. administered probes; c. supplied regular quality feedback; d. used diagrams, graphics and pictures to augment what they were saying in words; e. provided ample independent, well-designed, intensive practice; f. modeled instructional practices that they wanted students to follow; g. provided prompts of strategies to use; and h. engaged students in process type questions like “How is that strategy working? Where else might you apply it?” Something else that seems to make a real difference is the practice of scaffolding. Start out with heavily teacher-mediated instruction -- explicit instruction – then as students begin to acquire the skill, moving down the continuum to more student-mediated instruction. Whether the student is learning in a general education classroom or pulled out into a special education resource setting, be sure that activities are focused on assessing individual students to monitor their progress through the curriculum. Concerns for the individual must take precedence over concerns for the group, and over concerns about the organization and management of the general education classroom. Success for the student with learning disabilities requires a focus on individual achievement, individual progress, and individual learning. This requires specific, directed, individualized, intensive remedial instruction of students who are struggling. • Before skill instruction even begins, teachers need to address students' attitudes about writing. Intensive instruction (that can take place during writing workshop time) should focus on the following: writing strategies, knowledge of the elements of various genres (story, persuasive essay, exposition, etc.)and self-regulation strategies (goal-setting, how to talk oneself through the writing process, assessing their progress in meeting goals). • Teachers need to provide continuous support. Teach grammar and through intensive instruction. • handwriting instruction focus on legibility and fluency. Children with learning disabilities often find the mechanics of handwriting to be frustrating. Therefore, teachers should work with students to help them form letters efficiently.
Depending on the severity of the dysgraphia there are a variety of accomodations and modifications that can be introduced to the child's academic environment. All of the accomodations are related directly to the physical aspect of writing. Listed below are a list of accomodations that will help the students with Dysgraphia to be successful in a general ed classroom.
- When taking notes the student should be given more time to copy them down, or the teacher could give that student a photocopy of the notes. You could also make a photo copy of the notes and change it into a fill in the blanks worksheet that the student could complete while you are giving out the notes.
- The student should be encouraged to use a computer in order to produce longer assignments that the student may struggle with.Also, if the student has trouble typing on a computer, a speech recognition software may be used to allow the student to use a speech-to-text tool to produce the work.
- If it is essential that the assignment is written out, the amount of page numbers and/or volume of the work may be reduced in order to accomodate the student's disability. It is also important to stress to the student with dysgraphia that the quality of the assignment is more important than the quantity.
- When giving out research papers or assignments, allow the students with Dysgraphia (or all of the students) to have a choice of writing a paper or doing a oral or visual presentation.
Students with dyslexia can in fact succeed in the classroom. The disability falls under what some call “invisible” disorders where the child appears normal, but because of the disability struggles in school. There are a number of accommodations what will help children with dyslexia succeed in school. Untimed testing will often take the pressure off of the student and allow them to more clearly focus on what they are reading or writing and allow them to get it down on paper. Oral tests and dictated homework assignments are an even better option in that you eliminate the prospect of having a student read the question wrong or write something down incorrectly. Do not however ask the student to read aloud in class as this will lead to further frustration and consequent embarrassment. If you do, let them know their passage ahead of time so as to give them time to prepare. Spelling tests should be reduced if not eliminated because mixing up letters within words or sentences is a tell-tale sign of a student struggling with dyslexia.. If you do proceed with spelling tests, make sure it is on a small number of expected words. Use matching, fill-in-the blanks, or short answer test questions. For fill in the blanks, provide an answer key because students with dyslexia often know the answer but have a problem putting the exact word on paper. Multiple choice should be eliminated because it creates too much additional reading material and opportunity to struggle. For short essays, try to grade on content rather than grammar, handwriting, and especially spelling. Other more simple steps includes limiting material that needs to be copied from a source to paper, provide a study guide for upcoming assessments, and listen to your student and hear out their concerns. Dyslexic students can succeed if there is a willingness on both the student and the teacher for them to succeed. Simple modifications can literally reverse a child’s struggles and allow for success.
6 comments:
Posting by Peter Crimi. (I didn't think to have the user name be my actual name, sorry.)
1. Federal and State Law define a learning disability (LD) as: A condition that causes significant learning problems, most often related to reading and writing. More specifically a writing learning disability, most often referred to as Dysgraphia is defined as: A specific developmental disability that affects the person's ability to write. Problems may include fine-motor muscle control of the hands and/or processing difficulties. Under the current IDEA, the key to the existence of a specific learning disability is a severe discrepancy between a student’s ability and achievements levels.
2. Characteristics of someone who has Dysgraphia would include any of the following: Gripping the pencil too tightly while contorting their body to find a comfortable writing position. Their handwriting is highly illegible, more then age/level appropriate. They will tire quickly while writing, if they do not avoid writing altogether. They also have difficulty organizing their thoughts, as well as writing all the words in the sentence. There is a notable gap between the understandings of their written ideas verses when they are speaking. As far as being affected emotionally and socially, it is mostly appropriate depending on the age of the student. They find it hard to write and keeping up in class(es) when asked to manually write.
3. If I was a teacher in a regular education room and I had a student with Dysgraphia I would follow the instructions laid out in their IEP. If I see that the child is having such difficulty but is not classified I would suggest a Child Study Team be put together. Now, if the modifications and accommodations were left up to me it would then depend on the age of the student. If the child was just learning to write I would try things like: raised paper to appeal to their senses when forming letters and words, allow them to use something other then pencil, and obviously give them more time. If the student has been writing for a few years I would allow them to use print or cursive, whichever is more comfortable, give them more time to complete the assignment, and most importantly, remind them that I am not so much concerned with their actual writing, but more concerned with them grasping the concepts of what I am asking the other students to write about. If the student was older still I would allow them to use a tape recorder or perhaps a computer to take their notes. I could also record my lessons and post them online for all the students to use later. This will not only the student who needs it but will not make the other students wise to what is going on helping the student socially and emotionally.
4. References
• www.ld.com this site provides all information found here and in this posting. It explains about Dysgraphia and has all resources for the student, parents, and teachers.
• Here there is also a discussion forum for students and parents to talk about strategies and swap stories.
• Writing Better: Effective Strategies for Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities by Steve Grahm—an almost definitive guide for teachers with students who have difficulty writing.
• http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/dysgraphia/dysgraphia.htm --> Here parents can find information about the disability (user friendly while staying scientific) as well as find out what studies are being done to understand and help students affected by this disability
• http://www.resourceroom.net/readspell/dysgraphia.asp --> This website has an article by a doctor who deals with many students who have Dysgraphia. I found it to be very informative while not being written over the head of most parents or teachers.
• http://idea.ed.gov Here parents can read about what will be required by a school district once their child is classified with a Specific Learning Disability. It also gives the federal requirements for becoming classified as well as resources and an all around bevy of information.
1) How is your disability defined by the federal and state laws?
The federal and state laws define a learning disability as a specific learning disability that means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken, or written, that may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations, including such conditions as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. The term does not include learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, mental retardation, emotional disturbance, or environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantages.
2) What are the developmental characteristics of persons with this disability? (This would include cognitive, social, emotional, physical, as well as levels of functioning.) The academic characteristics of a person with a learning disability include unexpected underachievement, resistant to treatment, difficulty to teach, inability to solve problems, uneven academic abilities, inactive learning style, poor basic language skills, poor basic reading and decoding skills, inefficient information processing abilities, and inability to generalize. Social characteristics include immaturity, feels socially unacceptable, misinterprets social and nonverbal cues, makes poor decisions, feels victimized, unable to predict social consequences, unable to follow social conventions (manners), feels rejected, naïve, shy, withdrawn, insecure, and dependant on others. The behavioral characteristics include being inattentive, distractible, hyperactive, impulsive, poorly coordinated, disorganized, unmotivated, and dependant.
3) If you were a teacher in a general education classroom, what information and strategies would help you best support a child with this disability? This would include academic support as well as social support.
I would have the child read out loud so I can determine how much the disability affects his or her learning process. I would also mark down what words were read wrong and see if any of the words had things in common. I would also repeat information in different ways so students would be able to comprehend what I am saying and organize content systematically. For example I would use first, second, next, and then. I would have the assignments and teaching lessons include different experiences and interests because with such a broad variety, every student can find something they can learn about. To help a child with a learning disability socially I would teach them rules of the playground games, comprehension of nonverbal expressions, social conventions, when to terminate a conversation, how to ask permission to join an ongoing game, and sharing skills. I would also pair a child without a learning disability with one that has a learning disability so in this way; it creates an opportunity for the child with a learning disability to work on his social skills.
4) What resources would help you as a teacher to serve this child? (This would include websites, agencies, people within the school; a two to three line description is required for each resource.)
http://www.ldaamerica.org/aboutld/resources/guide.asp. This site is of the Learning Disabilities Association of America. It has free guides and booklets for those that have learning disabilities or for those that want to learn more about them. They are sites that tell one how to assess a learning disability, what to do, and much more.
National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities (NJCLD) is a committee that
1. facilitates communication and cooperation among the member organizations.
2. provides an interdisciplinary forum for the review of issues for educational and governmental agencies, and act as a resource committee for those agencies and other interested groups.
3. provides a response to national issues in the area of learning disabilities when and as the need arises.
4. seeks agreement on major issues/problems pertinent to the area of learning disabilities.
5. prepares and disseminate statements to various publics so as to clarify issues in the area of learning disabilities.
6. identifies research and service delivery needs in learning disabilities.
Mnemonics is a learning strategy that promotes remembering information by associating the first letters of items in a list with a word, sentence, or picture. This memory trick helps one remember a group of things.
There is also new technology that one can use to help with their learning disability. For reading and writing there are audio taped books, “talking” computers, web-based texts, word processing programs, desktop publishing, and planning aids.
Posting by Ronald Bolesworth
1) Federal and State laws recognize dyslexia as a "Specific learning disability" which is a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations. The term includes such conditions as perceptual handicaps, brain injury, minimal brain disfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. The term does not include children who have learning problems which are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor handicaps, of mental retardation of emotional disturbances or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage (34 CFR Part 300.8).
2) Individuals with Dyslexia experience difficulties in reading, writing, and speaking. Difficulties in reading and writing would include: difficulty learning to read; difficulty sounding out words; adding, omitting, transposing or reversing of letters in words; poor reading comprehension because of difficulty pronouncing words, and slowly reading word by word. Difficulties in speaking would include: difficulty remembering directions with several steps; difficulty pronouncing words; and difficulty memorizing the alphabet or multiplication tables.
3) If I was a general education teacher, I would look closely at the child’s IEP (Individualized Education Plan) for areas that are of immediate concern and incorporate into my daily instruction the accommodation(s) and/or modification(s) as required. I would periodically meet with the Child Study Team to ensure that I am meeting the child’s IEP and discuss any additional areas of concern. The child will be allowed the use of a spell-checker or laptop computer as a spelling aid, and have the ability complete a piece of work in a rough format in the first instance, returning to it later to correct spellings and punctuation. Homework would be written on the board well before the conclusion of the lesson in very clear printing, as it will take a dyslexic child twice as long to visually scan the words and copy them down. I would also frequently collaborate with the child’s special education teacher to keep them aware of what is being taught in the classroom, how well the child is doing in the classroom, and ask about additional methods of teaching this student. In addition to doing the actions stated previously, I would have the child read aloud or move their lips while reading; teach lessons incorporating multiple senses as to ease the burden of learning the material being taught; and motivate the student by praising them for effort.
4) Resources that would help me as a teacher to serve a child with this disability would be:
http://www.dyslexia-teacher.com/dyslexia-information.html
This website suggests strategies to teaching a student with dyslexia as well as general information on dyslexia for teachers (I used some of the information in my blog entry)
http://www.hsutx.edu/academics/education/mltc/characte.htm
http://dyslexia.mtsu.edu/about/natureofdyslexia.html
These websites list characteristics of individuals with dyslexia from Preschool/Kindergarten up to high school, college, and adults.
http://www.dyslexia-parent.com/mag30.html
This website provides an example when multi-sensory teaching can be incorporated in the classroom.
http://www.interdys.org/
The International Dyslexia Association (IDA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping individuals with dyslexia, their families and the communities that support them.
http://www.ldaamerica.org/
The Learning Disabilities Association of America (LDA) is the largest non-profit volunteer organization advocating for individuals with learning disabilities.
http://www.ncld.org/
The National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) provides essential information to parents, professionals and individuals with learning disabilities, promotes research and programs to foster effective learning and advocates for policies to protect and strengthen educational rights and opportunities
http://www.nichd.nih.gov/
The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), established by Congress in 1962, conducts and supports research on topics related to the health of children, adults, families, and populations.
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is the largest scientific organization in the world dedicated to research focused on the understanding, treatment, and prevention of mental disorders and the promotion of mental health.
Special education is the treatment of choice for learning disabilities in school. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act requires that school personnel, in conjunction with the child's parents, develop an individualized education program (IEP) for each student with learning disabilities who is eligible for special education. This plan is revised every year to take into account each eligible student's present skills and learning disabilities and abilities. The specific instruction students receive will vary depending upon their needs and capabilities. Some children need specific related services as well: a notetaker (for a student with a fine motor disability), word processors, laptop computers, books on tape, or extra time for tests. The IDEA requires schools to provide these special education and related services at no cost to families.
Accommodations can include:
• Taped textbooks available through Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic (see the description in Resources);
• Extended time to take tests;
• Tutoring;
• Use of a notetaker, for students who have trouble listening in class and taking notes;
• Use of a scribe during test taking, for students who have trouble writing but who can express their answers verbally to the scribe, who writes down the responses;
• Use of a reader during test taking, for students who have trouble reading test questions;
• Tape recording of class lectures; and
• Testing in a quiet place, for students who are easily distracted.
Recent research confirms that we can teach students with learning disabilities how to learn. We can put them into a position to compete! Here are the strategies that work:
One is direct instruction. The other is learning strategy instruction.
Teachers who were applying those kinds of intervention:
a. broke learning into small steps;
b. administered probes;
c. supplied regular quality feedback;
d. used diagrams, graphics and pictures to augment what they were saying in words;
e. provided ample independent, well-designed, intensive practice;
f. modeled instructional practices that they wanted students to follow;
g. provided prompts of strategies to use; and
h. engaged students in process type questions like “How is that strategy working? Where else might you apply it?”
Something else that seems to make a real difference is the practice of scaffolding. Start out with heavily teacher-mediated instruction -- explicit instruction – then as students begin to acquire the skill, moving down the continuum to more student-mediated instruction.
Whether the student is learning in a general education classroom or pulled out into a special education resource setting, be sure that activities are focused on assessing individual students to monitor their progress through the curriculum. Concerns for the individual must take precedence over concerns for the group, and over concerns about the organization and management of the general education classroom. Success for the student with learning disabilities requires a focus on individual achievement, individual progress, and individual learning. This requires specific, directed, individualized, intensive remedial instruction of students who are struggling.
• Before skill instruction even begins, teachers need to address students' attitudes about writing. Intensive instruction (that can take place during writing workshop time) should focus on the following: writing strategies, knowledge of the elements of various genres (story, persuasive essay, exposition, etc.)and self-regulation strategies (goal-setting, how to talk oneself through the writing process, assessing their progress in meeting goals).
• Teachers need to provide continuous support. Teach grammar and through intensive instruction.
• handwriting instruction focus on legibility and fluency. Children with learning disabilities often find the mechanics of handwriting to be frustrating. Therefore, teachers should work with students to help them form letters efficiently.
Depending on the severity of the dysgraphia there are a variety of accomodations and modifications that can be introduced to the child's academic environment.
All of the accomodations are related directly to the physical aspect of writing. Listed below are a list of accomodations that will help the students with Dysgraphia to be successful in a general ed classroom.
- When taking notes the student should be given more time to copy them down, or the teacher could give that student a photocopy of the notes. You could also make a photo copy of the notes and change it into a fill in the blanks worksheet that the student could complete while you are giving out the notes.
- The student should be encouraged to use a computer in order to produce longer assignments that the student may struggle with.Also, if the student has trouble typing on a computer, a speech recognition software may be used to allow the student to use a speech-to-text tool to produce the work.
- If it is essential that the assignment is written out, the amount of page numbers and/or volume of the work may be reduced in order to accomodate the student's disability.
It is also important to stress to the student with dysgraphia that the quality of the assignment is more important than the quantity.
- When giving out research papers or assignments, allow the students with Dysgraphia (or all of the students) to have a choice of writing a paper or doing a oral or visual presentation.
Students with dyslexia can in fact succeed in the classroom. The disability falls under what some call “invisible” disorders where the child appears normal, but because of the disability struggles in school. There are a number of accommodations what will help children with dyslexia succeed in school.
Untimed testing will often take the pressure off of the student and allow them to more clearly focus on what they are reading or writing and allow them to get it down on paper. Oral tests and dictated homework assignments are an even better option in that you eliminate the prospect of having a student read the question wrong or write something down incorrectly. Do not however ask the student to read aloud in class as this will lead to further frustration and consequent embarrassment. If you do, let them know their passage ahead of time so as to give them time to prepare. Spelling tests should be reduced if not eliminated because mixing up letters within words or sentences is a tell-tale sign of a student struggling with dyslexia.. If you do proceed with spelling tests, make sure it is on a small number of expected words.
Use matching, fill-in-the blanks, or short answer test questions. For fill in the blanks, provide an answer key because students with dyslexia often know the answer but have a problem putting the exact word on paper. Multiple choice should be eliminated because it creates too much additional reading material and opportunity to struggle. For short essays, try to grade on content rather than grammar, handwriting, and especially spelling.
Other more simple steps includes limiting material that needs to be copied from a source to paper, provide a study guide for upcoming assessments, and listen to your student and hear out their concerns. Dyslexic students can succeed if there is a willingness on both the student and the teacher for them to succeed. Simple modifications can literally reverse a child’s struggles and allow for success.
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