Tom's last sentence certainly runs counter to the TAC circulated by the 
Rehabilitation office last January 10 in which the effects of LD on 
daily functioning of adults is detailed very nicely, as well as a great 
deal of other literature and qualitative evidence from persons with LD 
themselves.  ( CF Arlyn Roffman's  books or Rosalie Fink's for example)

Perhaps the approach that Tom's program uses helps persons with the 
"soft skills" to the degree that they can manage the effects of their 
LD on life functioning more effectively than they could before.   
Certainly giving learners control over decisions about what and how and 
when they learn, as Tom notes, goes a very long way in helping learners 
with learning challenges of all kinds manage their learning in ways 
that suit them best.

PowerPath users find that besides having control over decisions about 
their learning and self-designed learning plans and goals, learners are 
even more enabled to manage their learning when they have full 
information about their own learning challenges and can decide for 
themselves how best to manage those challenges when given a range of 
choices of accommodations to try out and experiences in doing so.  We 
find that often the bigger challenge for learners who struggle is not 
learning itself, but developing the metacognitive skills needed to make 
informed decisions, reflect on learning and mistakes, and plan learning 
goals realisitically.  These are skills that can then be applied to any 
life situation, including the workplace. But they are skills that must 
be explicitly trained in those for whom learning has been difficult for 
their whole lives.    Robin Schwarz

-----Original Message-----
From: Woods <woodsnh at isp.com>
To: The Learning Disabilities Discussion List 
<learningdisabilities at nifl.gov>
Sent: Fri, 23 Dec 2005 00:40:32 -0500
Subject: Re: [LearningDisabilities] Out of school youth with learning 
disabilities

David Rosen wrote:


>we heard that it

>is often difficult for community-based education programs that serve

>adults and out-of-school youth, even those which offer a high school

>diploma through the public schools, to get the records from the

>schools their students attended for those who were core evaluated and

>for whom there is an I.E.P.  I was wondering if anyone on this list

>has ideas about how that issue can be addressed.

>

>

It is, or should be, a requirement that states keep track of children
who receive special education services. Check with your state dept. of
education to see if they maintain a state "child find" list. You might
be able to submit names of your enrollees to determine whether a name 
is
present on the state's list. If it is, there will also be information
about evaluation dates, IEP dates, and the last school district
attended. A letter or phone call to the director of special education 
in
that school district should produce results. We have found in our
school, which serves incarcerated adults and youth, that it is often
most effective to contact the guidance office for  transcripts and
school records, and the sped director for the special education records
because these records are kept in separate offices.


>I also wonder what, from your experience, the needs and issues are

>for out-of-school youth who have learning disabilities, especially

>needs which might be different from adults with learning disabilities.

>

>

In my experience, there is very little difference between youth and
adults with learning disabilities in terms of their needs. There are, 
of
course, differences in maturity and differences in learning and
differences in strengths and weaknesses, social differences, goals,
family, housing, transportation and employment needs differences, but
these are individual differences and they need to be addressed
individually among all students, not by age or by disability.

Self-paced individualized learning and giving the students the power to
make their own decisions about their education have been factors that
our school finds enormously beneficial in motivating and helping
students pursue their educational goals whether or not they have
learning disabilities. It is my opinion that learning disabilities do
not become disabling unless the student is forced into an environment
that does not tolerate or accommodate the individual differences or
needs of the student. Self-paced individualized learning avoids this
pitfall. This is oversimplified, of course. There are many many details
that must be carefully considered to make it happen.

We see workforce development skills as being very important. We look at
the "hard skills" such as vocational, trades, and career training. We
also look at the "soft skills" which include qualities that make a
person employable (e.g. dependability, punctuality, ability to accept
directions and constructive criticism, interpersonal skills, and
communication). I believe I'd be pretty safe in saying that we do not
see much of a correlation between learning disabilities and workforce
learning.

Tom Woods
Community High School of Vermont

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