Category: learning disabilities

It is possible to ignore stereotypes.  It is possible to accept the unconventional over the traditional.

The part of the brain that feeds us information on stereotypes and biases is linked with memory and goal planning. We recruit stereotypes and ideas and use this information as a way to make plans that are consistent with our goals.  When people and ideas don’t fit in with our preconceived notions we tend to ignore the contradictions until they become too dramatic to overlook.  When an exceptional situation gets our attention  we are confronted with changing  our thinking. 

This was demonstrated very dramatically last week when a dowdy looking Scottish woman named Susan Boyle captured both the attention and admiration of the world when she surprised an audience with her beautiful singing voice.

Susan’s voice was a contradiction to her appearance. The audience was prepared to dislike her based on her unattractiveness. What happened instead was a surprise and a pleasure when they heard her sing.  She made them feel good. It’s possible that the surprise and pleasure of her voice resulted in a rush of dopamine.

That same rush happens anytime we experience a novelty.  The Alliance College Ready Public School in Los Angeles is also a novelty.  In one of the most challenged and depressed urban districts in the county they have a 90% graduation rate.  These disadvantaged students complete  college prep courses and go onto universities despite being surrounded by a culture of violence.  

The school was also in the news when philanthropist Eli Broad donated six million dollars to their 11 schools.  He said the reason for the donation was because it’s time to take notice of the emerging leadership and excellence of charter schools.

In major cities all over the US charter schools are competing with public schools for students because they are demonstrating they are not resistant to fundamental changes.   Instead of just compensating students with learning differences, emotional issues, and  language and cultural barriers they are seeking methods to strengthen weak areas in learning.

Exceptional schools are schools that refuse to accept horrible outcomes year after year.  These schools have adapted interventions and developed evidence based teaching practices that respect their student’s weaknesses while finding new ways to improve. 

The Alliance College-Ready School is one of the 70 international school chains profiled on the School Chain Showcase.  This non-profit organization  (www.schoolchains.org) hopes to raise awareness by profiling successful school chains from around the world and showing the different ways they educate their students. 

On the website schools in Africa, Europe, America, and Asia demonstrate how it is possible to embrace a paradigm shift and create institutional changes.  These schools have looked at problems in a new way and found new possibilities.  Instead of being dumped into the failure category often associated with disadvantage and poverty they are embracing a whatever it takes belief and making systematic changes.

Visit the website – www.schoolchains.org to find ways and partners to improve education

Can success in life be predicted by intelligence measured on IQ tests?

The hereditarian view of intelligence claims that cognitive inequalities are written in our genes as well the social inequalities that arise from them. This view accepts that IQ differences between ethnic groups are a matter of heredity.  The accepted IQ ranking in racial/ethnic groups are – Ashkenazi Jews, East Asians, whites in general and then blacks.   Although this view has been denounced as racism wrapped up in pseudoscience it is still believed.  Unfortunately when a teacher believes this idea even as a generality it limits and cripples the success of their students.

In “Intelligence And How To Get It” Richard Nisbett puts forth evidence that stresses the importance of non-heredity factors in determining IQ.  This “new environmentalism” comes from neuroscience and genetics as well as from studies of educational interventions.

In a nutshell what Nisbett has found is that IQ differences are largely environmental and that extensive early childhood interventions have produced enduring IQ gains.  The challenge is in finding and implementing the right kinds of educational programs.  Nisbett believes that nearly everyone can be propelled above the threshold of an IQ of 115.

The way to gain intelligence is to live in an environment rich in possibilities.  Not only is it critical for parents especially those from poor and disadvantaged homes to have lofty goals for their children but for their teachers to have these same goals as well.  Embracing a possibility even one that seems unachievable is the first step to seeing it happen.

Imagine the story of Joyce Gladwell who grew up in the poor Caribbean island of Jamaica. She was able to go to high school only because her mother Daisy Nation was a dreamer and an idealist.  Daisy Nation’s ambitions made her a force to be reckoned with. These ambitions made it possible for her daughters to go to college.

A rich environment uses what’s available and the very first place is in our language. Language must be fine-tuned and practiced the same way a musician tunes and practices with an instrument.  With language children learn to question, to explore, to be engaged, to be creative, to dream and to aspire.    Children become masters of their language when they are talked to, read to, and questioned.  This is the beginning for enrichment and achievement and it must be woven into the fabric of everyday life.

Every parent and teacher can embrace the culture of possibility.   Embracing this culture is giving a gift to your child, to your student.  And it’s a gift that every child deserves.

Doctors recognize there are five stages to recovery. Whether its an unhealthy habit, an addiction or creating better habits the five stages are the same with the same potential for failure or success.

The first is stage is to pre-contemplate.  It means you might have thought about change, but it’s only a thought.  Like thinking you’d like to lose a few pounds.  The second is to contemplate.  You have in mind a possibility or a plan but you’ve not given serious thought about making an important change.   The third stage is action.  You do some research about diets and consider the best one for you. Nothing really happens until the fourth stage where you make a plan, the plan is the beginning of your commitment to being better. The last stage is the relapse.   Doctors know even the most dedicated person will experience a relapse.  The reason is whenever you initiate change even positive changes you activate fear in the emotional brain.   If the fear is great enough your fight or flight response will go off and you will literally run away from what you’re trying to do.   In the human brain change is difficult and uncomfortable. 

Doctors recognize that relapse is not failure; it’s merely the response of our brain circuitry.   Unfortunately many of us will give up when our brain signals this struggle instead of acknowledging this important step in the process to change.

Understanding these limitations can be useful in the classroom.   These same synaptic pathways in the brain can make learning new information or a new skill difficult.  Some children like the addict in recovery will relapse and simply decide they aren’t smart enough or the task is too hard to continue.

Teachers have the perfect opportunity to help their students become more comfortable with these relapses by creating a comfort zone for learning.   Every student in your class should be confident enough to accept their mistakes and struggles.  This confidence needs to come from you – the classroom teacher. 

Every time you present a new concept or idea preface it with the information that learning is hard work and every person has different abilities.  By doing this you give students the space they need when they relapse.   Students can also work cooperatively in small groups so that those who grasp ideas quicker can teach and work with the slower learners.   Your classroom can become a place of opportunity instead of failure.

Michael Phelps now holds the record for the most gold medals won at a single Olympics with a total of eight.  He said, “ I’ve dreamed a lot of things, and written down a lot of goals, and this one was the biggest one I have ever written down.” 

But not too long ago he could have been labeled a problem student.  He still jokes about his middle school teacher who said he would never be a success.  In school he struggled with AHDH and started swimming to provide an outlet for his excess energy.

Phelps unlike many struggling students overcame his disability, he had the support of an encouraging and loving family and he never believed the words of his critical teacher.  How often do you think this happens?

It is inevitable that every teacher will experience a student with ADHD. It could be the biggest challenge a teacher can face.  It can result in frustration and exhaustion for the teacher worse it can negatively impact a student’s self-confidence and belief in his or her own ability to learn. 

What you tell yourself can become a self-defeating mantra whether you are the teacher or the student. 

Teachers who dread the presence of a student with ADHD will communicate this even in non-verbal ways.  What teacher’s witness is the impulsive, unorganized and easily distracted student.  What they don’t see or connect to is this behavior is a cry for help saying, “reach me and accept me.”  Teachers can look at the glass half-full or half-empty when dealing with a student with ADHD.   When they make a connection with the student and use behavior and classroom modifications this connection will become a life preserver. 

Some of these modifications are:

• A touch – on the shoulder or a smile so the student know what good behavior is
• Rewards to motivate like a smiley sticker on the corner of the deck
• Verbal reinforcement with positive praise
• Give the student specific tasks that require movement in the classroom
• Provide structure at all times and remain calm
• Have the student repeat verbal directions
• Provide advanced warning when a change is coming
• Take five minutes everyday with the with the student to make sure he or she is using a planner for organization
• Divide tasks into chunks of time with shortened assignments
• Consider how desks are arranged and be sure ADHD students are grouped with others and frequently switch

As difficult as this seems when a teacher practices compassion and understands how critical “what you tell yourself” is to learning  things can change and improve.  Look to Michael Phelps as an inspiration.  Know that in his life it was not just what he told himself but also what he heard from others. 

Have you ever dismissed your own shortcomings by saying, “it’s just the way I am,” or “I can’t change that?”

If you have you truly are a creature of your own habits.  Question is do your habits own you or do you own your habits?   Most people are owned by their habits simply because the human brain forms synaptic pathways like an expressway and it’s difficult to exit off that path without consciously developing new ways of doing and thinking.  When you change anything you create parallel synaptic paths and new brain cells that can jump onto a new track. 

The problem is whenever you initiate change even positive changes you activate fear in the emotional brain, and if the fear is big enough your flight or fight response will go off and you will literally run away from what you’re trying to do.    That’s why extreme changes like a new diet, fitness regiment or change in career will be difficult and uncomfortable. 

Authors Dawa Markova of “The Open Door” and M.J. Ryan of “This Year I Will” have found that humans approach challenges in four primary ways: analytically, procedurally, collaboratively and innovatively.   What happens is during adolescence the brain shuts down half of that capacity and uses only those modes of thought that seemed the most valuable during the first decade of life.   The result is few use the innovative and collaborate modes of thought.  It’s these two that creates discovery, invention and excellence. 

Teachers have the perfect opportunity to help students adapt to change by creating a stretch zone in their classroom.  The stretch zone is the place in the middle that will feel awkward and unfamiliar but it’s where true change occurs.  When students stay in the stretch zone their brain is healthier because it’s constantly challenged to learn not just new things but create new pathways. 

So how do you create the stretch zone?   Look for ways to challenge students to make tiny continuous improvements. 

• Students should have their own improvement list and work to check off one item every week.  
• Teach students how to access their weak areas and grade their own progress.
• Guide students along their learning path by moving though new material like an explorer in a new place, it’s here they will go from curiosity to wonder.
• Remind students that new ideas like new habits feels awkward at first, and feeling awkward is a valuable moment one that scientists call confusion because it’s fusing the old with the new.  If the process is repeated enough the brain will begin organizing the new input with new synaptic connections.

Teach your students to become innovative thinkers, create collaborative groups where they can explore all the possible solutions to a problem. Every time students do this they will ingrain their brain with the ability to create parallel pathways.

Your classroom can be the best place for students not just to learn but also to create the ability to become a creature of new habits. 

Perception is everything.  How you see things shapes how you interpret the world.  In the classroom the teacher’s perceptions can mean the difference between success and failure.  The verbal and non-verbal communication of the teacher lets a student know if he or she is capable and smart or inadequate and challenged. 

Consciously or not you tip people off as to what your expectations are.  You exhibit thousands of cues, some as subtle as the tilting of the head, raising an eyebrow or dilation of the nostrils, but most are much more obvious.  And your students pick up on these cues.   In other words once an expectation is set, even if it isn’t accurate an individual tends to act in ways that are consistent with that expectation.  Surprisingly often, the result is that the expectation comes true.

Students who lack academic and social skills continue to struggle sometimes even when they are capable and the help and encouragement is sufficient.  Could it be because no foundation has been built to give that student confidence?

Every student needs to learn in a quality environment.  This type of classroom allows for failure.  For students the perception is mistakes are bad and embarrassing and should be avoided.  When in fact mistakes are opportunities to learn something.  The more mistakes made the more a student will learn and the greater chance they will of have of succeeding on the next try.  The key is to learn from the mistakes, not making the same mistake twice.  

Thomas Edison would never have invented the light bulb if he did not take this principle to heart.  He failed more than 10,00 times before he found the filament that would create light for a sustained period of time.  He did not view these as failures. 

How a student views their failures comes from you, the teacher.  If you can eliminate judgment and comparing, you can give every student the mental confidence to know that they can succeed.  An interesting case in point is the story about a group of American schoolteachers who were visiting schools in Japan.  In one school they watched a Japanese boy struggling at the board with a single math problem.  For forty-five minutes this boy worked on the problem making repeated mistakes.  During this time the American schoolteachers became anxious and embarrassed for the little boy.  Yet the boy did not seem to mind.  The teachers wondered why they felt worse than he did.

What they didn’t understand is that in Japanese schools practice in making mistakes is accepted as a natural part of learning.  Once the boy got the answer right his classmates cheered.  Maybe in American schools it’s forgotten that achievement is just a matter of plain hard work.  If students are worried about meeting expectations they many never get on the path to success thus ensuring themselves of the very thing they are afraid of – failure. 

Teachers can empower their students to learn by making their classroom mistake friendly.   Create room to fail with collaborative and cooperative groups.  Give students a stretch zone in which they move away from what’s comfortable and challenge themselves everyday.  Let them learn from their mistakes.

Gifted or learning disabled?   Can a child be both?

Inside the human brain are one hundred trillion connections most of which are still unmapped.  Mapping the human brain has been the domain of scientists except in the case of one extraordinary woman.   Barbara Young born with an asymmetrical brain made the discovery that allowed her to invent the treatment that transformed her life.     Today she runs the Arrowsmith School in Toronto where children with learning disabilities are literally building themselves a better brain.   Incredible as it sounds the human brain can change itself. 

Children at this school who were formerly taught using compensations are engaged in a form of mental olympics where exercises strengthen the weak areas of the brain as if it were a muscle.   After completing the program they are reintegrated into their public or private school at the appropriate grade level.

This astonishing discovery that the brain changes its own structure and function through thoughts and activity is called neuroplasticity.  The brain can change its own structure and perfect new circuits, when one part fails other parts take over.  Understanding neuroplasticity allows us to change the thinking that limitations and disabilities need not be lifelong handicaps.

Imagine the possibilities in applying this thinking for schools.  Rather than labeling children as learning disabled assessments like those used at the Arrowshmith School could be utilized to look for weak areas of the brain. Learning disabled and gifted do not have to be on opposite sides of the continuum.   The paradox is many children have both, creative talents alongside weak areas of the brain. 

Evidence like this will continue to improve society.  Scientists believe we will learn more about the human condition in the next two decades than was learned in the past millennia.  Developing evidence-based teaching will require a paradigm shift for schools.   Educators need to raise new questions, consider new possibilities, and to look at old problems from a new angle.   We all need to push harder for a system that can adapt and apply this new information.