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Helping Students With Learning Disabilities... Tips For Parents And Educators
Written by Cheryl Nicholson
BA-Advanced (psychology, sociology, linguistics)
MA-Student University of Manitoba
Knowledge, techniques, and a positive teaching philosophy are essential for parents and educators to successfully teach students with learning disabilities.
Knowledge will provide insightful understanding of students with learning disabilities. Knowledge is:
- understanding these kids are intelligent and that discrepancies exist between intellectual potential and academic performance.
- understanding that intellectual interests must be stimulated to motivate and reinforce students learning interest.
- understanding that these kids can be successful learners if given the appropriate strategies to build on their strengths.
- understanding that students with learning disabilities often have trouble in areas beyond academics such as difficulty with time management, organization, self-esteem, self-confidence, and socializing that require intervention.
- understanding the importance of actively recognizing and praising student strengths as an essential component for protecting the often-fragile self-esteems of these students.
Techniques are the specific tools in a parent's or educator's tool kit to promote learning success for students with learning disabilities. Techniques enable parents and educators to:
- provide innovative teaching approaches, and incorporates the use of technology to discover the most effective strategies for successful student learning.
- stimulate positive learning experiences that help promote student understanding of their learning and provide the opportunity to develop positive self-esteem, and self-confidence while decreasing learner frustration.
A positive teaching philosophy will provide an approach for dealing with student struggles that will enable healthy growth in all developmental domains. A positive teaching philosophy is:
- recognizing that for learning successes to occur both educators and their students with learning disabilities must put out an enormous amount of effort for true learning potentials to become an actuality.
- understanding these learners are often inconsistent (on and off days, fail to generalize new skills across domains without direct instruction) and that positive attitudes and a little humor goes a long way for preserving learner motivation.
- recognizing that maintaining a positive learning experience means positively reinforcing successive approximations to the end-learning goals, celebrating successes, and providing opportunities for the child to shine in their areas of strengths.
To better understand Learning Disabilities and Strategies that help visit the following Web sites:
http://www.ldonline.org*
http://www.dyslexia-parent.com*
http://www.dyslexia-teacher.com*
(* Will open in a new window.)
For further information or to contact Cheryl Nicholson please email her
or visit her Web site.
Related Articles:
Focus on Education 2007
Reading with Questions is the Key to Learning
Asperger Syndrome or ADHD?
Essential Tip to Help Your Kids Ride the School Bus Safely
Helping Students With Learning Disabilities
Organization is the Key to Stress Free School Days
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