Andrew Blue: Learning Disabled or Genius?

Her kindergarten teacher recognized her inability to stay focused compared to her peers. In first grade, Grace took longer to complete assignments, had a tendency to daydream, and had difficulty with paper and pencil tasks which was the most noticable in math. Her first and second grade teachers provided her with additional educational support through small group instruction, and she receives weekly instruction from the reading specialist. Finally, her scores on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Fourth Edition and Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement show she has deficits in the areas of Working Memory, Passage Comprehension and Math Fluency. Since information has been obtained by a variety of dependable sources, identifying Grace as a learning disable child is

Learning disabilities are a life long struggle but if caught at a young age and early intervention takes place. The stress on the child and family is greatly reduced. Learning disabilities spread to every part of a child’s life affecting them socially. Teachers must remain professional and refrain from calling students lazy as in Adams case. A good teacher or specialist can demystify a learning disability and help a child’s

Most people think children with Autism will never be able to learn and function in normal society but in fact, children with autism have the ability to learn and improve their education and even their behavior which allows them to function as close if not equally in society. Depending on the level of the disease, most children diagnosed with autism still need assistance with living and job skills throughout their adulthood and later years. Most autistics are classified as “mentally retarded” but there are about 10 percent are considered “autistic savants.” (POV, 2013) A savant is defined as “someone who excels in a particular area.” (Riccio, 1999) An example of an autistic savant is someone who can play Beethoven sonata after only hearing it one time. Another great example is an autistic person can tell you if September 2, 1962 fell on a Saturday or Sunday. These examples are part of the autistic child’s brain function. Even though autistic children may seem mentally challenged they have great ability to stick to a particular motive and excel in that one

An intellectual disability, like the one had by Roland Johnson and about one percent to three percent of people, is defined as “a disability that is present at birth or occurs in the developmental period (before the age of 18) and is characterized by significant sub-average intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with related limitations in 2 or more areas of adaptive functioning” (Daul). Roland Johnson, though his life was hard, did not let his “limitations” limit him.

These prodigies, who had reached professional status at a very young age had varying theories of causation ranging from nurture to nature. The results indicated they had elevated level of intelligence, working memory and attention to detail. Interestingly, however, their family pedigrees showed an over-representation of relatives with autism. This indicates a potential commonality between child prodigies and savants genetically leading to the conclusion that child prodigies possess a form of autism but suppress typical signs.

Have you ever wanted to know several languages, be able to learn everything easily, or even have an IQ of at least 200? Charlie Gordon, in the story “Flowers for Algernon,” was a man who had an IQ of 68, but he went through a surgery that made him smarter than his own teacher at a school for the mentally challenged, and his own doctors. Charlie’s IQ was tripled after the surgery once he began to practice different languages as well as the English language. Charlie soon reverted to his former self at the end of the story, and this tripled intelligence that he possessed once before was soon back to the IQ of 68 Charlie had it easier in life after the surgery.

The award-winning short science fiction, Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, digs deep in how society reacts to different levels of intelligence. The book covers a wide variety of society from the creative minds to world-renowned scientists. When a retarded adult becomes one of those brain maniacs through a scientific operation, you get the full spectrum of what it is like personally as a handicapped person and through the minds of a genius. In the reports, you can see the progress and comparison of Charlie’s realization towards other people’s capability of intelligence.

Jadarius is a quiet and soft spoken year-old boy at Magee Elementary School. Jadarius's favorite sport is football. His favorite color is blue and he likes to watch Superman videos. In the summer, Jadarius looks forward to playing outside, eating vanilla ice-cream along with his mom's Hamburger Helper. Jadarius states, after high school, he would like to work at a Dollar General store and attend Jackson State University. His favorite subject in school is math. Jadarius has an eligibility ruling of Developmental Delay and Language/Speech Articulation. In reading, current I-Ready data indicates Jadarius recognizes Level K high frequency words, and with support, answer questions about key ideas and details stated in literary or informational

171).” This, in other words, is when a child cannot completely perform a task independently but can do it with a bit of assistance from a more competent figure. This zone of proximal development is something I experience with Blair. At two years old she has got to pick out her tooth and hairbrush, but she still needs a bit of help with both operations. Another idea that Vygotsky believed in was the method of scaffolding. This is known as the support for learning and problem solving that encourages independence and growth (Feldman 2012). For example, sometimes Blair has a tough time communicating using her words. I often encourage conversation by asking questions that instigate more of a response from Blair. This helps her grow in her communication and is good practice for her. Cognitive development was viewed by Vygotsky as the product of social interactions. He focused on the social aspects of development and learning instead of concentrating on individual performance.

Kaufman was found to have a fairly low Intelligence Quotient (IQ), it was low enough to have him labelled as “seriously learning disabled.” Because of this, Kaufman’s family reconsidered his whole future: they did not send him to the respected private school, Haverford Academy, as planned, but rather to a school made specifically for children with learning disabilities (Kaufman, 2013). “My fate,” Kaufman writes, was “sealed by a single test” (p. 21).

Although Jim did learn speech it became noticeably odd to others around him as he had developed his own, unique grammatical characteristics and his poor articulation meant he didn’t acquire normal language skills (Sachs et al 1981). Bruner suggests that this was due to lack of social interaction in his learning of speech, which again highlights the importance of nurture in promoting a child’s language development.

     Charlie Jordan words at a bakery in New York City. But there is something a little different about Charlie--he is mentally retarded. He also attends evening classes at Beckman College. Here he submits his “progress reports” to the research team at the college. In these reports

Observing the interaction with this little boy, I was truly amazed at his ability to hold a conversation with his mother. He freely expressed himself and was able to tell his mother what he wanted if he was requesting anything. I did notice a couple of times his mom had to ask him to repeat himself because she had a bit of a hard time understanding what it was that he was saying. However, she was able to put the pieces she did

Pupils who exhibit gifted characteristics along with another disability are referred to as ‘twice-exceptional students’ (Morrison, 2001; Nielsen 2002). This term is used in the article that I have chosen to review, which analyzes the responses and perceptions through interview, of one particular individual (Andrew) who was identified as being gifted and talented (G/T) and who had emotional and behavioral disabilities (EBD). What the researchers aimed to accomplish through this analysis was a clearer understanding of Andrew’s community and school experiences, as they stated that there was a lack of empirical data focusing upon pupils who displayed such behaviors.

In an attempt to explain the level of Kelly’s disability, an in-depth explanation of the various levels of learning disabilities will now be examined. These can be grouped into four categories; Mild, Moderate, Severe and Profound.