Somewhere in cyberspace I ran across an article and printed
it out. I’ve been thinking on this subject for a while and wonder
what you all think –
The writer of the article picked up this information which was originally
published in LEARNING DISABILITES
RESEARCH AND PRACTICE.
“Dr. Marshall Raskind and Dr. Roberta Goldberg argue that educators
should broaden their approaches for LD students to include life skills and
psychological and emotional support to help them cope with their disabilities when they become adults. Learning disabilities are ‘life disabilities’ they noted, arguing these students require attention to more than just academics.
The researchers argues educators should help LD students develop compensatory strategies rather than try to fix the disabilities, focusing on what the students can do well rather than trying so hard to remediate the thing they do not do well. In these days of heightened pressure to demonstrate school-wide academic achievement, such as a shift in approach may be difficult, they acknowledged, but Taskind said, “Maybe it makes sense to put a little more effort, or just equal effort, on some of these other things.”
Anne
PS - if you would like to read the whole article (I don’t have a link) but the title is:
POSITIVE ATTITUDE TRUMPS IQ. GOOD GRADES AS SUCCESS PREDICTOR FOR LD ADULTS.. It is dated November 4, 1999
It might be on the Wright site.
Re: Always a question of balance.
Boy……as the author of a remedial series I could write forever….since I’m off for NYC in a few hourse I’ll get to the point. There isn’t time for most disabled readers to go through months, if not years, of compensatory strategies when the world of here and now is making fun of them, torturing them, no time for basketball or being a kid - READ READ READ HATE HATE HATE FAIL FAIL FAIL
There comes a time when we must hurry. I beg you to look at a 6th grader who cannot read. Wait a short couple of years and look at the 8th grader who cannot read. The changes are immense! There is not a moment to waste on philosophies, on doing it exactly right - or even in being right. Action is required. The more immediate and effective the better.
That is why I’ve spent my life (20+ years in special education - behavior disorders) in developing the fastest REMEDIAL intervention I could imagine…..find……dream….
In my opinion, compensatory strategies are often surrenders for people who don’t have the time nor technology, nor belief…….that children can be remediated and catch up.
My experiences say they can. Our reading technology says they can.
Re: Always a question of balance.
My personal experience is that “compensation” and “life skills”, while they may start out as good intentions, usually slide quickly down the slippery slope into excuses for not doing any work at all and warehousing kids. Teaching compensation skills is as long and difficult as teaching any other skills, and takes a sensitive and knowledgeable teacher to figure out what works best. Since there’s an obvious problem of finding teachers who can even present basic phonics, I won’t hold my breath waiting for someone like this in every school.
Amen!
That middle school descent into self-destructive hostility by kids from basically any background who came into the place ready to learn and impress their teachers… it’s hard to watch.
Re: compensatory strategies vs. remediation?
I have to agree with everything else said here — it’s far more important to actually remediate the disability, at least to the degree possible, and compensatory strategies can certainly be added on later. A lot IS possible, that much we know and my experiences confirm this, though I don’t doubt life skills training is also important. According to the special ed. teachers I know in high school, though, compensatory strategies is shorthand for “struggle through school with D’s”. When a student is reading five to six years below the grade level of their books, compensatory strategies just aren’t going to cut it! I’d feel far better about recommending “psychological and emotional support” if we were doing a better job with really using the “best practices” that are out there. With so few teachers really able to teach their kids what they need to know, I’m reluctant to even go there…
sharon
Every situation is different — ideally, a person gets *both* compensating strategies and remediation.
Currently, there are far (far, far) more cases where students are told ‘way too young that “hey, you just aren’t cut out to be a reader, compensate!” than there are students subject to intensive remediation that calls to mind the law of diminishing returns. Actually, what usually happens is the students are told to “compensate” — but not given the accommodations or the training in compensation strategies to make it possible. They’re just told to lower their expectations.