The Book Trend

Books have been the core of how we receive knowledge for hundreds of years.  As young children, parents read aloud.  As they reach school age, many struggle learning how to read, while others pick it up very easily.  This can make those struggling students even more frustrated.  Reading becomes a chore and not fun for those kids who struggle.  They are given remedial books that have boring subject matter. Recently series have come out that has gotten children who refuse to read or struggle, reading for 12 hours straight.  The HarryPotter series seems to have started it all (although many series have come out before).  Now, Rick Riordan with his multiple series (The Lightning Thief, The Kane Chronicles, and The Lost Hero), as well as the 39 Clues Series is keeping children longing to find out what is going to happen next.  But what happens to those kids who don’t find those books or find books that interest them.  Some find their way later in life to books.  Others avoid books like the plague.  Both parents and teachers should take the time to find books that relate to that child’s interest and start to read it aloud.  Over time, students may start picking the book up on their own to learn what happens.    

Forgetting Learning Disabled Students in Universities

Universities are required by law to give students with disabilities access to support so they can succeed. Now that more and more students with learning disabilities are going to college,colleges are creating programs to help them succeed.  There is a problem with those programs - they are geared to the moderately functioning special needs student. Often, these programs are not set up to help high functioning students with learning disabilities. University disability services usually look at students' GPA's to determine how much extra support they will get. Since high functioning students do well, these programs do not tend to address their needs even though they require certain support and accommodations too. These students fall through the cracks and end up supremely frustrated.  If the goal is to even the playing field for students with special needs and help them achieve all that they can, why are these students getting so little support?

American Sign Language as a Foreign Language

Schools are finally accepting American Sign Language (ASL) as a foreign language.  Offering ASL is one of the best things schools can do for kids with learning differences.  A learning difference or disability is characterized by difficulty with spoken, written, or understanding language.  Many kids who have a learning disability tend to fail when they take foreign languages such as French or Spanish (and ones with a different alphabet like Hebrew or Chinese are even more difficult!). One of the reasons these students fail is that understanding their primary language takes up so much processing time.  ASL is a visual language communicated through hand and facial gestures so it is processed differently. I have seen with my own eyes students who were exempted from taking a foreign language succeed in ASL. 

            Most schools now accept ASL as a foreign language.  But only a small number of high schools and colleges presently offer it.  Those of us who advocate for students with disabilities need to urge schools to offer ASL.  For more information about ASL go to aslpro.com or PBS "Sound and Fury".