Return-Path: <nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id g260Wou22259; Tue, 5 Mar 2002 19:32:54 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2002 19:32:54 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <a05010406b8aafc3f2ae8@[10.3.3.130]> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: Anne Murr <anne.murr@DRAKE.EDU> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-LD:3922] Re: assessment of LD X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Content-type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=us-ascii Status: O Content-Length: 2605 Lines: 60 > NIFL-LD Digest 1243 > >Topics covered in this issue include: > > 1) Re: Assessment Software for LDs/ foreign lang. > by "Susan Jones" <sujones@parkland.edu> > 2) Re: Assessment Software for LDs/ foreign lang. > by SAMM <Samm@seattlegoodwill.org> > >---------------------------------------------------------------------- I'd like to respond to Susan Jones' remark about the teacher who "suspects this student, a recent immigrant from a country in Africa, has learning disabilities". How can we know a person has a learning disability without the expensive diagnosis by a psychologist? The legal/formal definition of LD is a discrepancy of at least one standard definition between IQ and functioning in reading and/or math. The LD label does not inform the educator about the nature or extent of the person's learning difficulties. We can easily identify if a person has a reading LD by asking him or her to tell you the sounds that go with letters. If they are not able to do this, they will not be able to read or spell well. Thus, my "reductionist" view of learning disabilities: it is estimated that at least 85% of persons with LD have a reading problem. How do we identify the root cause of that reading problem? The research from cognitive psychology is very clear that the basic processing "glitch" which causes reading failure is that persons are not able to perceive the sounds in words (phonemes), cannot connect the sounds with the letters (poor phonological processing skills), and therefore are unable to sound out words. Every person I see in our Literacy Center (child and adult) who struggles with reading (and even some fairly competent sight readers) cannot identify short vowel sounds - and aren't very clear about long vowels either. As I understand it, learning disabilities are cognitive information processing problems. The problem in a reading LD is that persons do not process sounds in language efficiently. As Mary Lynn Carver stated, the" Multi-Sensory Language Learning techniques like Wilson or Orton/Gillingham or many others" which directly teach letters and sounds and how they go together to make words, are successful in directly addressing a reading "disability" without needing the diagnosis of "Learning Disability". If they don't know the letters and sounds, don't worry about the label. Teach them. Thoughtfully yours, Anne -- Anne Murr, Coordinator Adult Literacy Center School of Education Drake University 3206 University Ave. Des Moines, IA 50311 anne.murr@drake.edu Tel 515-271-3982 Fax 515-271-4544
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