Hello I am currently studying learning disabilities, and our teacher has stressed the importance of teachers and parents working together to help the child. So to gain a better understanding of LD and the parents point of view I was wondering from your point of view as parents what could or should the teachers and the school do to help the child in school?
What practices you find beneficial and detrimental to the students academic achievement?
Any information would be helpful.
Thank you
Catch children before they fall. Help children understand the code. Realize that dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia DO exist. See the child, not just the disability. Help children develop their strengths, not just focus on their weaknesses. Watch “Fat City”, by Rick Lavoie. My child’s disability was not as disabling as the system’s inability to meet her at her need.
Don’t shame my child, because the loss of self esteem can be far more damaging than any LD. I can remediate reading, writing, and math, but self-esteem, once lost, is a much harder nut to crack. A child will live up to expectations. Have high expectations. Help children to see that any challenge is just that — an obstacle, that can be overcome or circumvented, not a personal failure. The first leads to success despite challenges. The latter just leads to a child giving up on him or herself, to succumb, to be defined by cruel labels as lazy, dumb, stupid as the predominant audio that plays over and over on the track within their mind.
Work together. When parents and educators come together to benefit a child’s education the child wins. When they can’t, it is ultimately the child who suffers they greatest consequences.
Educators need to be trained to specifically help kids with LDs. Knowledge is power and the more that teachers know, the more tools they can draw upon from their toolbox to reach each child at their need. Teachers go into their profession because they want to help children succeed. Research knows what works, but much of that information and training is not disseminated to teachers during their formal education at university.
[Modified by: dhfl143 on October 19, 2013 01:41 AM]