Yesterday, I watched a student try to complete a book report during class. I should hardly call it a book report. It was more like one of those old-timey worksheets that you fill out with the character names, five lines for a story summary, and a simple, “Did you like this book? Why or why not?”
Never once was it modeled for him. And never once did anyone clarify what the expectations were for the assignment. But that’s a whole separate issue.
This child has a learning disability in the area of reading.
I watched him independently attempt to write his “report” for a few minutes before I jumped in to support. It nearly brought me to tears. It was comparable to watching someone who is paralyzed from the neck down attempt to walk from point A to point B – with no wheelchair, with no walker, without a hand to support.
This child was expected to apply a hundred different skills that were already independently challenging for him. And we were asking him to do them all at one time.
He can’t read at grade level. Yet we were asking him to refer back to the text. That he couldn’t access.
He struggles with phonemic awareness to write individual words. Yet we were asking him to write complete sentences. Complete paragraphs.
He struggles with retaining information because his brain is trying so hard to decode each word. Yet we expect him to have a summary indicating what happened in the beginning, middle, and end of the novel.
He can’t remember which way his b’s and d’s go. So by the time he finishes writing the word, ‘bedroom,” he’s forgotten what he was supposed to write down.
Yet we ask him to do all of these things. All at once.
And then when he doesn’t turn anything in, we reprimand him for not completing the assignment.
We would never expect someone paralyzed from the neck down to walk from point A to point B without the support of a device or another human being. So why do we expect students with learning disabilities to get to point B without our support?
You may argue that you’re trying to hold each child to the same expectation. But isn’t the objective to get to point B? Isn’t that the expectation? And just as someone with a physical disability may receive physical therapy to manage his/her condition and use treatment techniques to prevent further disability, our students with learning disabilities are continuing to develop their skills. They continue to receive interventions in the area of their weakness.
But if you require them to use all that energy every single second of the day, they won’t be able to get through even a fraction of the day.
So, no, you say that it’s “high expectations” that you are holding them to. But what you’re doing is holding “unreasonable expectations.” Expectations that will do more harm than good. Expectations that have the power to shift a “love for learning” into a desire to avoid learning altogether. You can still hold high expectations. You can still expect them to read a novel, write a summary about it, and complete a book report. But you need to ensure you have the proper accommodations for your kids.
And you need to know that they want to achieve. They want to do well. And, with the proper supports, they can and they will. But we must find ways to wheel them to point B. Because they cannot do it alone. They cannot do it without our support.
Questions of the Day:
- Does your student/child love learning? How do you help shape their experience?
This made me cry Div. It’s such a simple concept, but not all educators get it. So proud of you for the work that you do and the understanding that you provide. The world is a better place because of you and the voice that you provide for those kids. Love you.
SO important in educating children with learning disabilities is that the tasks be broken down into pieces – THE CHILD CAN LEARN! (disclosure: I’m on the Autism Spectrum, so I think I know whereof I speak 😀 )
Such a great post! My daughter has cerebral palsy and will be starting school in September, yes it’s a special school (not like mainstream) and she will unlikely follow the “normal” curriculum yet it’s so nice to see somebody who notices a child struggling and helps.
This is so well written. Us Teachers really have to know our stuff and each child is so individual. Thanks for the resources tips!
This is a wonderful post, God bless you and those you teach!
My son is a special disability teacher. I have watched and learned so much from him. Will share this post with him so he can read it.
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My son has autism so he has an IEP. This helps him a lot when it comes to learning because he does love to learn, he just does it differently from other kids.
My daughter also loves to learn, she just get distracted easily. And she’s inherited my ability to get the giggles at inappropriate times.
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This is such a tough situation. I have several students with learning disabilities, particularly in the area of reading (I teach English). It’s so hard to watch them get discouraged by the things their peers seem to do with ease, and it can be difficult to know how to reach each student.
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honestly, this almost made me cry and I don’t think people get it. Reading is a gift most of us take for granted. I have lived exactly what you’re talking about. My daughter is now 26 so you can imagine how difficult back then it was to get her help. She was communications impaired and what effectively happened was due to chronic ear infections as a baby she didn’t develop her sounds that most children do in the first three years of life, she actually didn’t form words at all until she was three and the doctors kept telling me there was nothing wrong eventually in school she would pretend and find ways to hide what she couldn’t do until two teachers really superheroes fought the system to get her tested by a specialist. I will never forget what they did and will forever praise the work you teachers do out of love and compassion 🙂
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My son has struggled with reading for years and has finally seen tremendous progress this year. I think how we approached it really helped!
My son loves to learn and we know he’ll love Kindergarten next year (he’s thriving in his preschool this year.) My husband is an educator and actually works with teachers on reading strategies for students, and I think that’s helped at home too.
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So amazing!! you are doing great work
Great post. My son was always great at math but didn’t read fluently until 4th grade. He started to view himself as – not smart. His outlet was sports. And when he had to read a long book- even in 7th grade, if there wasn’t an audio book available- I would read it to him. He is a slow reader because his eyes don’t work together for reading. He comprehended everything he heard and read even though reading takes longer. I let him be who he was and we worked around anything that was challenging. He didn’t fit in a category of a disability, so we were on our own. The teachers did accommodate by giving him extra time for things like reports and papers. I encouraged him and had the attitude that everything was okay. Nothing was, wrong with him. Fast forward to high school and he has been awarded an academic letter with a GPA of 3.909, which is cool. But the most important thing, always, to me, was how he felt about himself.
I really loved reading this. I have a family member whom I believe has a learning disability. Everything you’ve explained – INCLUDING THE CARTOON PHOTO – I have seen play out. I hope that you do a follow up to this story, because I would really like to know HOW – in baby steps – an educator might go about teaching and helping a student who has difficulty: retaining things, reasoning on things, “decoding” things. Great job with this story.
I actually went to a learning disability school and looking back, I give our teachers SO MUCH CREDIT for dealing with us. We were not easy at all!
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Like any typical teen. My son loves learning about things that interest him. I try to purchase all of his favorite books. When he was younger I would purchase Spider Man learning books which he loved.
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Our school has great resources for this kind of thing. We have plenty of reading specialists and in class aids to help the kids who learn a different way. I volunteered in my sons 1st grade class and a girl who couldn’t read a simple word was zipping through a book by the end of the year thanks to the patience and knowledge of a very skilled reading aide.
We had our oldest son’s IEP meeting yesterday and left feeling overwhelmed, as usual. Thank you for this post. I know every child is different and it is ok that he is learning at his own pace.
First, can I just say that I love your passion and compassion for these students?! I think teachers can get so frustrated sometime with the everyday that they can forget that these children are our babies, our everything. Now, this really hits home because I was just in a meeting to go over some accommodations for my son. It hurt my heart to hear that he desperately wanted to focus but just couldn’t seem to get it right. Thank you for sharing this, I tweeted and hope other parents will be able to see a possible need in their children.
I really hope my little boy loves to learn. I am a huge fan of reading and we read to him every single day.
We need to adapt to each child, particularly when they have learning disabilities. The sooner that those high up in education realise this, the better.
My daughter loves math but is a bit slow at getting the questions done. Her teacher does not seem happy with her speed and I am afraid it might affect her love of learning. I’m not sure if I should go talk to the teacher or just wait it out.
I always pray for Elias to get amazing teachers like you. He is going to kinder and while I don’t doubt there are amazing, professionals out there, I can’t help but worry.
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Thank you for sharing this. I have a daughter who struggles to read and this helped give me perspective into her world and the world of her educators. I’m thankful for people really helping her at her level so she can keep learning and growing.
Your empathy and understanding is quite refreshing. Never lose it.
This is one of the reasons I love that we have to option to home school or opt for school choice. Every child learns differently and should be able to learn in a way where they can thrive.
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Fantastic post! It is crazy how often we set kids up to fail and then blame them for it.
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I totally agree. Nothing makes me crazier than when people can’t seem to understand that kids learn at different speeds and in different ways.
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It makes me so sad that people can be so ignorant. I love that you’re bringing awareness to this topic.
Teachers have such a tough job. They need to teach to every kid’s level and needs. Each kid is lacking in some area. My son doesn’t struggle with classwork, but with self-control when he gets bored. Each of his teachers have done a great job of working with us to address his issue of self-control. I don’t think that you as the teacher need to bare all the weight of filling in the educational and behavior gaps of every kid in your class. Parents need to work with teachers to help their children fill in their gaps.
This was a wonderful analogy. And a great way to explain and break down things to make it easier for someone to understand how someone with a disability struggles.
I am so touched to read this. As a mom, I understand every child comes with their own challenge. My daughter can read very well..but she has difficulties with spacing hence her writing is always an issue. She told me once “Mummy, I don’t understand why my handwriting is so bad although I have practice so dilligently”. She did practice writing everyday, much more than her peers and she was so sad to hear the comment from her classmate than her handwriting is so bad.
TEACHING CHILDREN WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES.
Another amazing article.
Made me teary eyed reading this post.
Hope God makes clones like you to make a change in this world.
God Bless you dear Divya.
xoxo
This was a great post! I wish all educators thought as you do and then perhaps our education system would be better. I love your thoughtful approach to how kids with disabilities should be taught. Thanks for sharing your experience with us!
~Crissy
http://www.whimsicalfawn.com
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I know that this is a difficult situation. I am all for accommodations as long as the student is still learning at the end of the day. I have heard of parents doing all of their child’s work and then the child is doing nothing for himself. I agree that throwing someone into a pool, especially one with so many learning difficulties, and not having help is silly. But I also think that the goal isnlt point B. The goal is learning so that they can eventually reach point B on their own without aid.
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Preach it sister! The sad thing is, there is often not enough support for the classroom teacher to provide enough accommodations for everyone. I remember how hard it was when I was teaching trying to differentiate for all the different levels (but kids still have to take standardized tests, but thats a whole sperate soap box;) ). Obviously you are a great support for teachers, and I wish more schools had teachers like you in them. 🙂
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Very sensitively explained Divya.
Special educational needs are often ignored but helping these children will be the biggest blessing to society .Keep up the great work
Great job raising awareness. This saddens me. And many times those struggles are not identified in time or at all and the child gives up
Thank you for these tools I know many ppl that will benefit from them
Wow, this article is so important, it covers a very delicate subject and I think your perspective is wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing this with all of us.
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I recently started tutoring high school kids so I really relate to your post! It’s so hard to watch them struggle with the material that’s often beyond their capabilities but then it’s the best feeling when they start to get it.
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Thanks for sharing this, it really gave me more insight into this topic I would have never came across. It’s great what you are doing!
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So many of my family members teach children with disabilities and I think it takes such special skill to do so. I know so much compassion and patience has to go into it.
I love when teachers put extra effort into helping kids with learning disabilities. You rock Divya.
Preach!!!! Thank you so much for being an advocate for that student (and all of your students). You are awesome!
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When I taught, I would just do class-wide accommodations, even though only a few actually needed them. The biggest accommodation I made as a history teacher was creating graphic organizers for note taking.
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(((lovingly sent this to my child’s teacher. xoxo)))
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