Brittany's Case History: My Provisional Disability

Gurney et al (2006) and Nocon (2006) both acknowledge that children with learning disabilities have a greater need for the health services compared to the general population and this high level of need extends into adulthood. A recent Confidential inquiry into premature deaths of patients with LD has found that the average age of death of people with LD (sixty-five years for males and 63 years for females) as being significantly less than the United Kingdom population of seventy-eight years for men and eighty-three for women (Heslop et al

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

Ever since I was young, I knew something was different about me. I’ve always had an active imagination and would write all kinds of stories, sometimes through pictures and sometimes through words. Not until I was in first grade did I notice my writing was different than my friends. It didn’t bother me though because I was too young to realize something was wrong; I was just different. One weekend, after playing restaurant with my mom and brother, my mom contacted my teacher to talk about some concerns she had with my reading and writing. She was told that I seemed to be progressing on an age-appropriate level with my peers and that nothing appeared to be wrong. But my mom persisted, and insisted that I be tested for a reading disability. My dad is dyslexic and my mom, knowing it can be passed down, was watching for the signs in my older brother first and now me. After testing, one of SV’s school psychologists announced that my results showed I had a learning disability. I then went to my pedestrian to talk about it and then to a special learning center in Sewickley for further

If you saw a person in the mall in a wheelchair, would you judge them? Or would you look at them like they are a normal human-being? People who have a disability whether they are physically disabled, mentally disabled, or learning disabled, are still themselves. Nancy Mairs was forty-three year old woman with multiple sclerosis. She wrote an essay, “Disability”, that explained her views of her physical disability.

Keaunna Knox has been a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) since 2007, and has worked ever since 2000 with children with special needs who had speech and language disorders. She began as an “Instructional/Speech Aide” at Pasadena Unified School District working with children with moderate and severe intellectual disabilities. All the students she worked with had speech and language disorders, and, since the Districts therapy was overloaded Keaunna implemented the communication goals she wrote. Based on that experience and many others, Keaunna decided to enroll at Cal State Los Angeles to pursue her professional career in teaching. She received her Master’s in Mild-Moderate Disabilities in Special Education from Cal State Los Angeles and a second

An English language learner is defined as someone who “has sufficient difficulty speaking, reading, writing, or understanding the English language and whose difficulties may deny such individual the opportunity to learn successfully in classrooms where the language of instruction is in English” (Ortiz, Woika, 2013, p. 2). As defined by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), a child with a disability has “mental retardation, hearing impairments (including deafness), speech or language impairments, visual impairments (including blindness), serious emotional disturbance, orthopedic impairments, autism, traumatic brain injury, other health impairments, or specific learning disabilities; and who, by reason thereof, needs

Jasmine Keller is a fourth grade student who has been monitored and reported as a student at-risk. Jasmine has a, “weak short-term memory that affects her involvement and progress in the general education curriculum in the areas of reading decoding, reading fluency, reading comprehension, spelling, and math calculations. Her reading level is at second grade. Broken down word recognition is at an equivalent of grade 1.7, and comprehension at 1.3. She has relative strength in vocabulary. If given classroom assessments with a screen reader she is very successful. Her writing skills assessed to be uneven with only weak spelling skills, which is at a first or

IDEA defines a learning disability as a disorder in understanding or using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell or do mathematical calculations. Learning disabilities are a life-long issue. Language problems that go untreated in the early years of school can continue into high school and adulthood. As a child who suffered with an Auditory Processing Disorder (APD), early intervention was very important for me to progress in school. I continue to this day, to utilize and build on compensatory techniques taught by my grade school Speech Pathologist. Henceforth, I have been able to succeed in school, social settings and now in college.

In a research study done by the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, schools, districts and states were studied to look for a structured process that could be most effective in discovering whether an English Language Learner might have a learning disability or just difficulty acquiring the language. Two factors were identified that lead to inconsistent identification of students who may have a learning disability. Those factors are lack of understanding among teachers about why English language learning students are not progressing and meeting academic benchmarks and the referral process into special education.

Dyslexia is a learning disability that many children have but are misunderstood until they have actually been diagnosed with the learning disability. Dyslexia does not mean that children are not smart; it just means that they learn different. This is why it is sometimes for parents to understand why their children are not doing well in school and struggle sometimes with a simple task of reading a book. My book report is about a 280 page book called “Can’t Rad, Can’t Write, Can’t Talk Too Good Either: How to Recognize and Overcome Dyslexia in Your Child.” In the book “Can’t Rad, Can’t Write, Can’t Talk Too Good Either: How to Recognize and Overcome Dyslexia in Your Child,” the

As such, the importance of further research is to determine if these students are actually being placed there due to the inexperience of teachers’ knowledge regarding ELL students. In addition, the ethical implications of this topic is, these students then become further behind from obtaining the necessary English skills in speaking and writing required to be successful academically in school and in the future workplace. Indeed, it is essential that administrators and teachers in our school system correctly identify a student with ELL difficulties versus a true learning disability and thus, decrease the number of ELL students dropping out of school. In particular, this topic is very relevant in my future role as a new special education teacher, as I will potentially be evaluating ELL students’ academic progress and their possible need for special education services. The current trend is that ELL students are being disproportionately placed in special education services and, as a result, fall further behind in acquiring English, are subjected to bias and inaccurate assessment, and have higher drop-out rates when inexperienced teachers are in charge of their

The LDA organization offers specific information on a number of disabilities that children are afflicted with, including dyslexia, dyscalculia, central auditory processing disorder, non-verbal learning disorders, language disorders and writing disorders (dysgraphia). The LDA site notes that "learning disabilities" is actually an "umbrella" term alluding to a number of disabilities.

The mother explained she cannot read or write in the English Language, but her son’s older siblings can and try to help the younger sibling. The two older siblings have been very successful throughout their educational experience and have not struggled as the younger. She stated that her son as no desire to read at home, and completing homework is an everyday struggle with him. This student is in Tier 3 of the Response to Intervention (Mesmer & Mesmer, 2008) process, and has been referred for testing for special education services.

Jennifer is a 2nd grader being referred for possible learning disabilities in reading. Jennifer has always attended Sand Hill Elementary and has not repeated a grade. She is eight years old. She has been screened for vision and hearing problems and was found to have normal vision and hearing. Her teachers have described her as cooperative and likable. She does not exhibit behavioral problems.