Return-Path: <nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id h9NHnNV23386; Thu, 23 Oct 2003 13:49:23 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2003 13:49:23 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <000101c3998e$7aa86d50$1a01a8c0@cccchs.org> Errors-To: listowner@nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "Sylvan Rainwater" <sylvan@cccchs.org> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-WOMENLIT:2763] Re: ADHD X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook, Build 10.0.4510 Content-Type: text/plain; Status: O Content-Length: 3758 Lines: 70 You make some excellent points. In addition to the points you and others have raised, I would add that the intersection with language learning needs to be considered as well. It's very difficult to find adequate testing for adult language-learners that's also free or at least low-cost. The impacts of culture shock and the difficulty of expressing one's self in a new language need to be taken into account. I know I have had students in my classroom with various sorts of learning differences. One student couldn't form letters reliably, and one time wrote the word "foot" backwards -- a perfect mirror image -- on the drawing of a body on the chalk board -- the foot was pointing left, after all. Sometimes the evidence is that unmistakable, and other times it is much more confusing. I have a student (entering her 5th year with us) who we've never figured out what the problem is. She's in a classroom where everyone else is making more progress than she is, and she's getting frustrated. It's not a question of intelligence -- we can see that she understands things at times (usually in a one-on-one session)-- but she doesn't always track what's happening, and often even when she learns something, she forgets it the next week. She fakes it a lot, which is quite understandable, but makes it more difficult to teach her. At various times we've considered whether she is involved in domestic violence, but it's really hard to tell. She has some obvious emotional issues from her own childhood. She obviously has more problems in the winter months (generally has more problems beginning in November and gets better starting about March/April). So is this ADD? Other learning differences? Emotional issues? Abuse issues? Some combination? We've never been able to figure it out for sure, and that's made it impossible to address it satisfactorily. She has parenting problems as well. Some accidents she's had make us wonder whether she may be dissociating sometimes. Her oldest son exhibits much of the same behaviors she does, and we wonder how much of that is a reaction to/ reflection of her and how much might be his own issues. So this stuff isn't easy. I think it's actually harder to deal with when the students are adults, language-learners, and may or may not also have some of the emotional issues you mention. I tend to look at my classroom and my teaching to see whether I can make the environment better for her, but I really think she needs individual tutoring on a consistent basis, and I haven't been able to provide that. And I suspect that she needs more than that. The fact that everyone else is learning, many with similar challenges, makes me wonder what's going on. She *is* slowly improving her English, but doesn't seem to be able to make much progress toward her GED. Sorry, didn't mean to get off on one student, but for me she illustrates many of the issues we struggle with in this area. ------- Sylvan Rainwater mailto:sylvan@cccchs.org Program Managaer Family Literacy Clackamas Co. Children's Commission / Head Start Oregon City, OR USA -----Original Message----- From: nifl-womenlit@nifl.gov [mailto:nifl-womenlit@nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Heidi Silver Pacuilla Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2003 11:09 AM <SNIP> As a disability specialist, I'm not at all trying to say that impairments and neurological difficulties do not exist. I am saying that how those differences and difficulties are received, accepted, and talked about by others is the basis for what we consider a "disability." Too often in education we rush to identify a learner's difficulty as an individual deficit without looking at the whole context in which they are trying to learn (which includes our classrooms and instruction). <SNIP>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Thu Mar 11 2004 - 12:17:53 EST