LD OnLine

LD OnLine is the world's leading website on learning disabilities and ADHD, serving more than 200,000 parents, teachers, and other professionals each month. More than 2.9 million school-age children in the United States – approximately 5% of the student population – are diagnosed with learning disabilities. Many more struggle in school but never receive a formal diagnosis. LD OnLine provides the parents and teachers of these children with accurate, authoritative information about learning disabilities so they can obtain the help they need.

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New Post has been published on http://specialedpost.com/2013/04/06/learning-disabled-and-employed-how-its-done/

Learning Disabled and Employed: How it’s Done

Grant Kelsey at work.

Grant Kelsey overcame a learning disability to become a production assistant for WHAG-TV in Hagerstown.

The Frederick resident needs to repeat tasks to learn to do them independently, he said, and math can be especially difficult.

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Question: How can I get my child with LD motivated to read more?

Any reading struggles that your child is experiencing may help explain why she chooses not to read. From a child’s perspective, it is less painful to give up than it is to try and fail. These articles may help you and your child work through some of these issues of motivation:

Motivation: The Key to Academic Success

Managing Your Child's Education: Creative and Smart Ideas

Tips for Developing Healthy Self-Esteem in Your Child

Defining the Self as a Learner for Students with LD

When Kids Hate to Read

Practical Tips to Help Your Child Learn Better and Value Education

Adapted from the LD FAQ section on our sister site, Reading Rockets.

Any other tips or strategies?

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Question: How can I find a professional who can diagnose a student's learning disability?

First, find out from a school administrator exactly what services the school system can offer and when they could provide them. Express your concerns and find out the procedures involved in going through a screening process for your child. If the timeframe or suggestions are unacceptable, there are independent educational testers that you can go to privately. The following articles might be helpful to you:

Stages of the Assessment Process

Basics for Parents

10 Steps in the Special Education Process

Who Can Diagnose LD and/or ADHD?

There are several national organizations that can help families through this process and give local professional referrals. They might also have information about financial assistance for testing. You might want to contact:

International Dyslexia Association

Learning Disabilities Association of America (LDA)

Wrightslaw Special Education Law and Advocacy has a useful nationwide search tool. Use it to locate professionals in your area. You can also contact the Parent Educational Advocacy Resource Center in your state for more options.

In addition, you can look in your local phone book for “educational testing” or “psycho-educational testing” for someone in your area. LD OnLine also has a Yellow Pages service that might be helpful. Search by state for organizations, or find a parent advocacy group near you.

Be sure to ask potential testers, tutors, and consultants about their experiences and specializations before choosing a provider. A full psycho-educational assessment can provide insight on how a student learns, and what kind of help that student needs.

Adapted from the LD FAQ section on our sister site, Reading Rockets.

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Adults with Dyslexia in the D.C. Area: Participate in a Brain Imaging Study!

ADULT DYSLEXIA STUDY If you are a native English speaker 18-35 years of age, have a documented history of dyslexia, and are in good physical health, the Center for the Study of Learning at Georgetown University invites YOU to participate in a study! The process involves~non-invasive~functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and cognitive testing.

Compensation is $35/hr. for fMRI scanning sessions (2 sessions, 2 hrs. each) and $15/hr. for the cognitive testing session (2.5 hrs.). Contact~emn5 @ georgetown.edu~for more information!

[ldonline-blog]

Question: I'm reading, it is helpful for me to both see and hear the word. Where can I find software that can read text to me when I'm online?

If you are regularly downloading articles or documents to read that are in PDF, you can use the built in screen reader in Adobe Acrobat Reader called Read Out Loud to hear any text in the document read aloud.

If you need assistance with reading MS Word documents, or to have the text of your writing read back to you for editing purposes, one good option might be WordTalk, a free program text-to-speech program for Microsoft Word. You can also use the built-in screen reader/text-to-speech features on your computer.

Both Microsoft and Apple have simple text-to-speech programs built into their operating systems. Microsoft's Narrator is relatively limited in features, and is intended for users with visual impairments. However, some of the features may be helpful for you. Apple's VoiceOver has similar capabilities and can assist users with reading typed text, windows, menus and controls.

If you are mostly concerned with being able to hear text on websites read aloud, you might consider ROKTalk. ROKTalk is a web-based application that allows you to hear any web text read out loud. Because it is web-based, you don't have to install software, which may be useful if you are using different computers (at the library, in the classroom, etc.). ROKTalk is free for a few websites (Google, Wikipedia, the BBC) and charges a monthly fee for unlimited access to any website. Browser-based apps such as Google Chrome's text-to-speech tool, SpeakIt! and Read&Write for Google Docs are also effective tools for online reading. Similarly, Natural Reader has free text-to-speech programs with limited functionality that may be sufficient for your needs. Several options are available from a basic copy for free download, to a more full-featured version for purchase.

Answers adapted from Dr. Tracy Gray's response to a question on our sister site, Reading Rockets.

[ldonline-blog]

April is National Poetry Month!

Don't miss these 30 ways to celebrate.

[ldonline-blog]

We couldn't agree more!

Via: Guitars in the Classroom.

[thisisnotpsychology-blog]

The term twice exceptional refers to children who are exceptional both because of their intellectual gifts and because of their special needs.

A 2e child usually refers to a child who, alongside being considered intellectually above average, is formally diagnosed with one or more disabilities.

The combination of marked strengths and weaknesses found in 2e children can result in behavior and academic performance that puzzle parents, teachers, and even some medical and mental health professionals. Because their disabilities or deficits are often not apparent to those around them, twice-exceptional children may appear to be uninterested, lazy, distracted, or disruptive in class. They might present any of the three profiles identified by educator and researcher Susan Baum: bright but not trying hard enough, learning disabled but with no exceptional abilities, or average.

In each situation, the 2e student’s strengths help to compensate for deficits; the deficits, on the other hand, make the child’s strengths less apparent.

There is no clear-cut profile of twice-exceptional children because the nature and causes of twice exceptionality are so varied. Some 2e children may have no formal diagnosis, but do have learning differences of other kinds, such as in learning style or preference, that make it hard to function in a standard classroom. This variation among twice-exceptional children makes it difficult to determine just how many of them there might be. Some estimates place the number at 2 to 5 percent of all gifted children, while others believe it to be higher.

[neurodiversitysci]

One of the hallmarks of giftedness, as I understand it, is that “the complex is simple and the simple complex.” Why? Contrary to popular belief, high-level thinking is not just more, better, and faster lower-level thinking, but a qualitatively different process. Once you’ve reached...

[dyslexic-kids]

Dyslexia: The deconstruction of school testing

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Having studied the childhoods of highly creative people for decades, Claremont Graduate University’s Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and University of Northern Iowa’s Gary G. Gute found highly creative adults tended to grow up in families embodying opposites. Parents encouraged uniqueness, yet provided stability. They were highly responsive to kids’ needs, yet challenged kids to develop skills. This resulted in a sort of adaptability: in times of anxiousness, clear rules could reduce chaos—yet when kids were bored, they could seek change, too. In the space between anxiety and boredom was where creativity flourished.

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Perplexed by your child's struggle to sustain attention?

Wondering why video games and TV are so effective at securing it?

This NYT article on the disconnect between attention paid to homework tasks vs. to screens and technology.

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Your IEP Road Map is here! Click on the image twice to view a larger version.

Use this helpful infographic to navigate the stressful and complex IEP process.

Source: National Center for Learning Disabilities.

[ldonline-blog]

According to Board of Education director Brant Parker, assistive technology helps "level a playing field for individuals who would not be able to demonstrate their capabilities as learners.” Tech tools can be a game changer, and not just for those with LD.

See this NYT article for more information!

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Are you an educator of students with learning disabilities?

Writing goals for student progress can sometimes be as challenging as completing them! Let the following links guide you through the process:

LD OnLine - Writing IEP Goals

TeachingLD - Info & Resources for Teaching Students with LD

National Association of Special Education Teachers - Determining Measurable Goals

[ldonline-blog]

Are you an educator or a parent of a student with dyscalculia? Follow these insightful tips to provide specific classroom support:

Focus on understanding (especially of quantity)

Use concrete materials to help link mathematical symbols to quantity

Start at a level which the child is comfortable at, so that they experience some success, and slowly move to more difficult areas

Provide a lot of practice for new skills/concepts

Reduce the need for memorisation, especially initially

Ask a lot of questions to get the child engaged and thinking about their own thinking

Make learning as active and fun as possible - a positive experience

Click through the link to see more!

[ldonline-blog]

Get informed!

Read up on working memory research and training techniques.

Via Learning Works for Kids.