Articles

Based on articles #1 and #2:
1. What are the social and mental implications for children with learning disabilities?
2. Think back to when you were in school. What strategies do you remember teachers using (academic or behavioral). Think about how a child with a Learning Disability would respond to these strategies. Explain and comment.
3. How will you refine your practices to address the social needs of students with disabilities?

1. The social and mental implications for children with a learning disability are that these children are at a higher risk of depression. Depression and learning disabilities have been found to be co-morbid; however research can not draw any directional conclusions. The article stresses that learning disabilities may lead to emotional distress, learning disabilities could also aggravate preexisting emotional concerns, emotional issues could mask a child’s learning disability, or emotional issues my aggravate preexisting learning disabilities. In any of these cases, research also shows that positive affect may influence cognitive functioning and help facilitate the learning of new material.
2. When I was in school, I was removed from the regular classroom for speech lessons, phonics practice, and math help. For a very long time this made me feel inadequate in the classroom. These feelings were heightened by watching my classmates in the “enriched group” do fun hands-on projects and activities which I was unable to participate in. I believe that many of the children with learning disabilities could have shined in these special projects and activities because it was a different way of learning. This would have been a wonderful opportunity to improve efficacy. (Can you tell I am still a bit bitter! It’s very interesting how deeply those early experiences affect a young child’s life.)
3. I think my experience growing up will help me to be a better teacher in a diverse classroom. I hope to offer my students many different ways to learn, grow, and express themselves. I hope to offer opportunities to allow each individual student to shine using their own strengths, and help children with disabilities acquire the tools they need to succeed and feel good about themselves.

Based on Article #3:
1. How has the evolution of medical technology changed the way we look at disabilities?
2. What implications will this new outlook have on teaching and mandated legislation?


1. Now we are beginning to look at disabilities from the perspective of brain imaging. We can now look at the brain and see which parts are being activated with different inputs and stimulus.
2. This could mean that we will be able to identify children with potential reading problems earlier. The earlier the intervention the better. This will help us be able to develop more specifically targeted interventions to help us to rewire the brain. The brain can be trained and pathways can be strengthened to help individuals who are processing input in a way that could deter reading acquisition.
“The US Department of Labor estimates that illiteracy costs American businesses about $225 billion a year in lost productivity.” This figure alone could get a lot of people in Washington moving and shaking on trying to put together some new mandated legislation. (Although I wish that it was this statistic that got people moving: “Most poor readers never catch up over the years, with between 21 to 23 percent of US adults falling at the lowest level of literacy.” I believe that with figures like and new research to provide answers, something will have to be done!


Based on Article #4 and #5:
1. The disproportionate representation of culturally and linguistically diverse children in special education is a significant issue in education. After reviewing the article:
a. List some of the issues surrounding this topic?
b. Discuss how legislation has attempted to ameliorate this problem
c. Describe the problem as you see it
d. Make a suggestion…What is the solution as you see it?

A. The issue is that every child has the right to fair and equal education no matter what their background. There is research that shows that there may be a disproportionate representation of culturally and linguistically diverse children in special education.
B. Racial and ethnic minorities are protected from discrimination in The Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1974, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) was amended in 1991 and 1997 to stress the need to prevent mislabeling of culturally and linguistically diverse children. This mislabeling often was connected to a high drop out rate. The requirement that states had to collect data for the purpose of monitoring and reducing disproportionally was also added to IDEA.
C. For me, this topic is very close to my heart. During my time at my undergraduate university I was a Spanish major. Through the department I became involved in many outreach programs. One of the programs was CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates for children). Through this program I could help and support children that were in some way in the court system- I concentrated my efforts on the Spanish speaking children. Out of all the children that got lost in the system, I felt they were at the biggest disadvantage. I would help these children learn English and encourage them to stay in school. These kids, and all of which whose native tongue isn’t English, face so many challenges. Teachers must be extremely aware and patient of these challenges. After living for a year in Argentina and being reduced to communicating in a language that was not my native tongue, I have so much understanding for these kids. In Spanish, I am boring and slow. I can’t express through the language all the complex thoughts I am capable of. The same is true of these kids. As teachers, we just need to give them the tools that they need so they can express themselves. Language is so important, but if you have a little patience its amazing what can be said using non verbal communication and charades. That’s a great way to start and build confidence and a positive relationship so you can start building the language foundation.
D. As I see it, I think we need to better train our teachers in learning how to properly identify a learning disability. Teachers should be aware of the problem of disproportionate representation and give them the tools they need to be able to stop the problem by accurately identifying learning disabilities no matter what the child’s background. Giving the teacher different options and ways to understand the root of the problem can help get to an accurate and efficient solution. Awareness among teachers is the key. The teachers are trying to do the best they can in a classroom. If they didn’t want to help every child, they wouldn’t be a teacher. So we just need to make sure that these teachers are given the knowledge, background, and tools to do the best they can possibly do for each individual child no matter what their cultural background.