After viewing the program on YouTube for our class meeting tonight, many of the issues covered by Richard D. Lavoie that learning disabled children deal with in public school classroom are of interest to me but, there was one thing that stood out for me the most and that was processing. The inability of learning disabled children to establish a process for language that occurs as quickly for them as it does for non-learning disabled students. Even if a class is moving at a normal rate a learning disabled child has twice the processing rate, focusing first on the question and then, second, on the answer. In a typical classroom, these LD children, after giving an answer, either are made fun of by other students because their answer is wrong, or, they are chastised by the teacher for giving a wrong answer, and sent out of the classroom. Next, the processing deficit that they deal with on a daily basis, when they focus on images and other material that is around the teacher, rather than on what the teacher is saying, negatively affects their ability to correctly process and monitor information given by the teacher. Six years ago while I was working as a substitute teacher within the State of Florida I was given the opportunity to observe a child who dealt with a processing learning disability, a child who I believe still suffers with this issue. Removed from his normal classroom and placed into a classroom for children with special needs, when I taught him he would focus more on the color of my tie or the color of my hair rather than on what assignment I was trying to teach him. His inability to monitor the new knowledge that could be processed prevented him from moving forward with his regular fourth grade class and placed him at a disadvantage. In a situation like this I believe I should have known more about learning disabilities, and how children process knowledge, yet, at the time I did not possess enough knowledge about how to help children with learning disabilities. Having the knowledge that I have obtained now, I believe, provides me with a better foundation on which to work in classroom with learning disabled students.
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
My response to the video "Fat City: How Difficult Can This Be" for our Technology in Education class
After viewing the program on YouTube for our class meeting tonight, many of the issues covered by Richard D. Lavoie that learning disabled children deal with in public school classroom are of interest to me but, there was one thing that stood out for me the most and that was processing. The inability of learning disabled children to establish a process for language that occurs as quickly for them as it does for non-learning disabled students. Even if a class is moving at a normal rate a learning disabled child has twice the processing rate, focusing first on the question and then, second, on the answer. In a typical classroom, these LD children, after giving an answer, either are made fun of by other students because their answer is wrong, or, they are chastised by the teacher for giving a wrong answer, and sent out of the classroom. Next, the processing deficit that they deal with on a daily basis, when they focus on images and other material that is around the teacher, rather than on what the teacher is saying, negatively affects their ability to correctly process and monitor information given by the teacher. Six years ago while I was working as a substitute teacher within the State of Florida I was given the opportunity to observe a child who dealt with a processing learning disability, a child who I believe still suffers with this issue. Removed from his normal classroom and placed into a classroom for children with special needs, when I taught him he would focus more on the color of my tie or the color of my hair rather than on what assignment I was trying to teach him. His inability to monitor the new knowledge that could be processed prevented him from moving forward with his regular fourth grade class and placed him at a disadvantage. In a situation like this I believe I should have known more about learning disabilities, and how children process knowledge, yet, at the time I did not possess enough knowledge about how to help children with learning disabilities. Having the knowledge that I have obtained now, I believe, provides me with a better foundation on which to work in classroom with learning disabled students.
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Hi William,
ReplyDeleteAfter watching this video, I too was most impacted by its discussion about processing. As I was watching the video I was thinking about all that the speakers were saying, and I couldn't help but not think about its implications for ELLs. Even though not all ELLs have a learning disability, the language barrier affects their processing of the English language. Therefore, they most likely experience many of the same feelings of frustration and embarrassment as the student with a learning disability. I think it would be interesting to compare the two scenarios. Also, how much more difficult would learning be for an English language learner who has a learning disability as well?
Thanks JoEllen for your comment
DeleteAfter working with both young and old ELLs overseas for the past few years I also believe, based off of my experiences teaching them, that the language gap between their first language and the second language they are trying to master is often huge, especially with languages like Korean, Chinese, and Japanese. Through these experiences I have witnessed students get frustrated when they couldn't pronounce an English word like a native can, or embarrassed when they didn't know enough English to communicate with me as a foreigner in their country. In these two instances they would just give up on using their second language and, as a result, would revert back to using their first, Korean. In terms of students with a learning disability, I did teach one first grader who had suffered from dyslexia (although her mother refused to believe it, which is something that I believe is due to Korean culture norms), and her learning disability kept her behind the other students in class. Unfortunately, as a result of the South Korean education system not believing that Korean students can have learning disabilities, she was kept in the same classroom as her classmates, who didn't suffer from learning disabilities. Looking back on it now, I can truthfully say that if she were attending school in the United States, her situation would have turned out much differently, and better.
Having also taught in Korea, I noticed similar situations regarding students with learning disabilities. I worked with two students who had very noticeable learning disabilities. However, as you mentioned, learning disabilities were not often recognized as a reality. Instead these students were often the ones most punished. While the situation might be different in the United Sates, I would be cautious to assume things here would always be much better.
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