Strategies Important for People with LD - Assignment Example

The Adult Education and Training Survey demonstrates that a majority of the respondents who indicate that there was training they wanted to take but were not able to due to a lack of time which was pointed out as the primary barrier to training. Other important deterrents include the cost of training, inconvenient times and an inconvenient location. Individualistic factors like lack of time, family responsibilities, high fees and lack of appropriate course offerings play a major role in the decision not to take training. It is also probable that some individuals may not recognize the value or return to training because of a negative attitude towards learning. "Through socialization within the family, in the school and, later on, in working life, a positive disposition toward adult education becomes a part of some groups' habitus but not of others" [Rubenson and Xu (1997)]. There can in fact numerous barriers to adult learning which primarily depend on the individual's own circumstances, background and personality. Obstacles can be broadly classified into three categories (National Adult Learning Survey 2002 ) Physical barriers include lack of time due to work, family, and childcare responsibilities, difficulties in paying course fees and fear of losing benefits, disability, particularly lack of mobility, ill health and difficulties with reading and writing, English and numeracy. Attitudinal barriers are the hardest to overcome and include nervousness about going back to the classroom and concern about not being able to keep up, negative perceptions of schooling and scepticism about the value of learning, low self-esteem and lack of confidence both generally and in relation to learning, low aspirations and lack of role models, lack of trust in 'officialdom' and formal institutions or organizations and age- One in five non-learners think they are too old to learn. Structural barriers: These may relate to both supply (provider) and demand (learner), and include lack of transport, limited learning opportunities locally, lack of facilities and equipment, lack of necessary qualifications and lack of knowledge about local learning opportunities and learning advice sources. Apart from these, the learning provision has to be attractive to adults and relevant to their experience, flexible to suit adults' circumstances and schedules and should be supported by outreach programmes to attract adults who otherwise might not consider learning. It should also be backed by pertinent, up-to-date information and sound advice. Proactive approaches need to be implemented in order to engage people who are least well-equipped to participate in learning. The surroundings, staff and activities all need to reflect the specific needs of the target group to generate their interest. It advises providers to project an ethos of 'positive diversity' to counteract people's negative experiences or wariness of returning to learning. Negative experiences at school or college and concern about academic competence can deter people to take up training. Some people are skeptical about the value of qualifications and confused about the most appropriate ones to help them progress. Most feel comfortable using small local learning centers, particularly women with children. They gained confidence, but were disinclined to access more 'formal' provision. Practical obstacles included work and family commitments and fear of losing benefits. Many people are nervous about going back to the classroom and being able to keep up. Assistance with childcare and transport, more advice, and access to learning at the right time would encourage more people to learn. High travel times and costs, limited facilities and breadth of provision and lack of employers to support learning opportunities such as work placements can be helped by working in partnership and sharing resources can make training provision more economically viable. Community development centers may be a helpful option. Successful approaches to improve basic skills include confidential counselling for employees to overcome the stigma of literacy and numeracy problems. Other initiatives that can help are giving people time off to study, providing on-site learning resources like a company intranet, mentoring schemes, and linking basic skills education to ICT training. Health problems or disability can be barriers to learning, particularly limited mobility, lack of energy and communication difficulties. These could be overcome with support, or alternatives like learning from home. Psychological disorders like, dyspraxia, ADHD, Aspergers/Autism along with sensory impairments like visual impairment, deafness are also identified as significant obstacles to adult learning Dyslexia in adults has been described as a major barrier due to difficulty in processing information which may be linked to deficiencies in short-term memory and visual coordination. It is this weakness in short-term memory, whether visual or auditory, which can make it particularly difficult for the dyslexic person to learn the correspondence between the written symbol and the spoken sound.Primary areas of difficulty are reading, writing, spelling, numeracy, personal organization and time-keeping. Aphasia is an impairment of language, affecting the production or comprehension of speech and the ability to read or write. Aphasia is always due to injury to the brain-most commonly from a stroke, particularly in older individuals. But brain injuries resulting in aphasia may also arise from head trauma, from brain tumors, or from infections. Apraxia of speech is felt to be a neurogenic (neurologically based) speech motor disorder. Many (or perhaps most) children with apraxia of speech have no abnormalities as detected by MRI scans. Others may have specific damage to a part of the brain that can account for the problem. In the latter case, some children are born with such damage and other children acquire damage to the brain by accident or illness. Asperger syndrome, also called Asperger's syndrome, AS, or the more common shorthand Asperger's, is characterized as one of the five pervasive developmental disorders, and is commonly referred to as a form of high-functioning autism. In very broad terms, individuals with Asperger's have normal or above average intellectual capacity, with atypical or poorly developed social skills often with emotional/social development or integration happening later than usual as a result. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common childhood neuropsychiatric disorder affecting 3-10% of children that often remains unrecognized or "hidden" in adulthood. Although ADHD was once thought to disappear as children grew up, data suggest that one to two thirds of children with ADHD continue to have significant symptoms throughout life (Wender, Wasserstein, & Wolf, 2001). Adult prevalence estimates vary widely. Conservatively, 1-6% of adults are believed to meet formal diagnostic criteria. The core symptoms of ADHD-hyperactivity, inattention, and impulsivity-change as the child grows older. Research suggests that hyperactivity declines with age, attentional problems remain fairly constant, and executive function problems increase in adulthood. Coexisting psychiatric conditions, learning disabilities, and social difficulties are common. The persistence of ADHD into adulthood first became apparent in the 1970's, but is only recently becoming more generally known in the adult mental health field (Wender, Wolf, and Wasserstein, 2001). Children with dyspraxia do become adults with dyspraxia and adult life throws up more challenges such as cooking, which can prove to be daunting to an adult who has dyspraxia. The primary symptom of dyspraxia is poor motor planning leading to difficulties with co-ordination, which can vary from mild to very severe. For example,Perceptual difficulties - tendency to fall, trip over and bump into things; Difficulty using equipment such as tin openers, scissors; Difficulty with performing simple tasks such as putting paper into an envelope; Organisational difficulties including workload, housework, leisure time ;Difficulty learning new complex skills, such as driving a car, dancing Adults with dyspraxia can also experience other difficulties for example, difficulties fitting into new groups, problems understanding body language. The result is that adults can become isolated and withdrawn. Some dyslexic people are perhaps unaware that they suffer from dyslexia; others were not diagnosed until well into adulthood. It is a problem which, unlike some disabilities, is also not always instantly recognizable by others, and one which some dyslexic people try to hide. Some simple tasks such as taking phone messages, filling in forms or completing timesheets may become major problems which can seriously affect a dyslexic person's confidence and lead to frustration and anxiety. Dyslexic people are often gifted in visually-based skills such as art, sculpture, design, architecture and engineering and are often creative, original, lateral thinkers. They may devise their own, often highly successful, if rather unusual, routes to problem-solving. Because they have to try hard to succeed, many dyslexic people develop qualities of determination and attention to detail, to a marked degree. advice and recommendations for an adult with dyslexia would include: making others aware of the presence of dyslexia so that they do not constantly criticize poor spelling or handwriting, a recommendation that extra time be allowed, or other special arrangements made, in order that specific difficulties do not unduly affect performance in examinations, provision of computer support to minimize the impact of specific spelling difficulties, a short course designed to improve performance in some or all of the following skills: spelling, report-writing, study-skills, revision and exam techniques, time-management and general organization and an individualized learning programme designed to address deficiencies in basic skills. Training programmes have several essential components to accommodate weaknesses in short-term memory, material to be learned has to be made more manageable and to compensate for perceptual weakness a multisensory method of teaching is adopted which stimulates learning by using all the senses. Mnemonics, visual images, mind maps, speed reading and other techniques may be used. Computers can minimize spelling and handwriting problems for dyslexic learners, allowing them to express themselves more freely in writing and thus significantly improve the quality of their writing. They can also help enormously with planning and organizing difficulties, reducing the frustration of writing. For many learners, a keyboard makes a sufficient enough difference, as learners do not have to form the letters. Specialist keyboards and mice are also available, as are larger, coloured key-tops that can be stuck onto the keys of any keyboard. It is essential to make sure that background color, color and type of font, and spacing between letters are adjustable to Others, however, will need voice-recognition (speech) and reading software. These are especially useful for learners with severe reading and/or writing difficulties and for learners frustrated from long experience of failure. Reading software can be effectively combined with voice recognition technology, enabling a technological version of scribing/language experience which gives the learner more autonomy.. Voice- recognition technology can also help in developing writing skills, such as written expression, sentence structure, punctuation and proof-reading. Other useful hardware includes spell checkers, dictionaries and thesauruses, many of which have a speech facility.A 'Reading pen' is especially useful for those with auditory processing problems. It scans and pronounces individual words and sentences and defines words. Repeating approaches that have not worked in the past should be avoided and approaches that match learners' learning style. Basic skills should be taught in a context. Use learners' own written work and materials from a vocational area the learner is studying or working in, or subject content that is of particular interest to the learner. Learners should understand their learning styles, their strengths and weaknesses, and how their dyslexia affects their learning. Trainers should find teaching methods, approaches and materials that suit their learning styles, such as using highlighters and scissors and paste to manipulate written materials. Learners should try to find their own strategies so that they become independent in their learning and recognize that processing difficulties will not be overcome by practice, so avoid persisting with ineffective approaches such as trying to get the learner to 'hear' the sounds. When addressing weaknesses, such as poor comprehension in someone with poor (visual) word recognition, 'scaffold' the skill should be learned and look for compensating strategies such as the use of tapes. Learners should be to make visual representations of information, such as mind maps. Areas where learning disabilities may affect adults include: education, vocation, self-esteem, social interactions, and independent living. Adults with learning disorders display a wide array of critical characteristics that are problematic for them in their daily lives. First, academic skills that were not mastered during the school-age years remain difficult. There is a high probability that the source of the problem(s) is the underlying dynamics of the learning disability: the psychological processes that have a bearing on the presenting problem. These psychological processes include cognition, perception, language, attention, motor abilities, and social skills. These processes, individually or collectively, have a bearing on academic skills, but they have equal impact on all areas of adult functioning whether at home, at work, or in the community. Many adults (some of whom are unaware of their LD) have developed ways to cope with their difficulties and are able to lead successful, functioning lives. LD shouldn't hinder a person from attaining goals. Regardless of the situation, understanding the specific challenges and learning strategies to deal with LD directly at every stage can alleviate a lot of frustration and make successful living much easier. The first strategy is persistence, which can be defined as the ability not to give up in the face of failure. Another strategy which appeared important for people with LD is well-developed self-advocacy skills. Someone mentioned the distinction between "best-interest advocacy" and "self-interest advocacy." He explained that "best-interest advocacy" involves someone other than yourself acting on your behalf for what they think is in your best interest. "Self-interest advocacy" is acting on your own behalf for what YOU want, and having the capacity to make decisions regarding your own future. A third adaptive strategy is the use of humour. Cognitive reframing theory (a term from the field of psychology) suggests that an individual has the capacity to reinterpret negative experience in more positive ways, and this in turn reduces stress, anxiety and negative self-esteem. This positive thinking allows one to focus attention on more proactive tasks (like working towards personal goals). According to Dr. Seligman and his associates, adaptive strategies for living can be learned. It therefore becomes vital for professionals in the field of learning disabilities (teachers, counsellors, psychologists) to assist children and adults with LD to develop appropriate strategies that will empower them to become self-sufficient, productive and self-fulfilled . Part B: Bob aged 32, joined his local college and after an initial assessment was placed in an Entry 1 (beginner) level class. He had very little English at that stage.He attended the Entry 1 class for three years. Each year he was re-enrolled for the same level because he did not make any progress in reading and writing. His speaking and understanding of English improved, he obtained work in a takeaway restaurant and he used English in his daily life but, as time went on, he became increasing frustrated with his inability to make progress in class. His trainers too, were becoming more frustrated with what they considered was his lack of commitment and motivation. Bob's attendance was poor, he did not complete homework and he often gave reasons for having to leave the class early, particularly when the classes were doing literacy work. The practitioners began to feel that he was wasting his time. The practitioner encouraged Bob to attend class and began to get to know him. She believed that he might have dyslexia. Bob was unable to have a full dyslexia assessment at that time. However, the practitioner managed to organise one-to-one sessions until the end of the academic year and also arranged for a colour assessment. The dyslexia specialist found that yellow filters helped to prevent letters jumping. Bob had never heard of dyslexia. He had not had a positive experience of school and left when he was aged 12. His teacher said he was stupid and could not learn. The teacher would beat him or send him on errands. Bob was good at mathematics but he found school very difficult and by the age of 12 he had lost confidence, so he left school and went to work. Bob now receives a one-hour, one-to-one session each week in addition to the class. He never misses this session and would prefer more than one hour. Having one-to-one support has made a significant difference to Bob and after less than three months he is able to read simple texts. He is much more positive and recognises the progress he is making: "...with one to one I am learning. We do practise of sounds to help with reading. I copy the letters and can write them. I tell teacher and she writes [language experience]. I like this. I can read. Now I can break words - before seemed too long now can break into syllables. At home or when I walk around I try to read the words I see. I read signs. Now I am always trying to read". Though Bob prefers one-to-one support, his attendance on the class has also improved dramatically and he does not find reasons to leave the class early. The reasons for his preference for one-to-one work are that: the work can be tailored to his needs; noise in class affects his ability to concentrate; he finds it difficult when the practitioner writes on the board; he feels stressed when a passage is too difficult for him or has small print. The support practitioner is also pleased with Bob's achievements and is impressed with his commitment to learning to read and write. Some of the strategies that have been particularly useful for Bob are:language experience; teaching recognition of phonics and key words in context; developing an individual spelling plan using look, say, cover, write, check. 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