Students Who Learn Differently
The purpose of the 1999 Educational Support Committee questionnaire was to heighten awareness among FAWCO members and the members of the U.S. Congress regarding the situation faced by students, parents and overseas educators when students learn differently. Often very little provision, if any, is made for many learning-differently students in English-speaking, international schools. As they are private institutions, they can refuse to admit whomever they wish. Other students of FAWCO members attend host country schools, and often the thinking there is years behind the States regarding special education. In some cases, provisions are nonexistent.
In August of 1999, the FAWCO mailing did not include the 1999 questionnaire for the Educational Support Committee, but rather it indicated that the questionnaire was available on the FAWCO website (http://www.fawco.org). It encouraged the reps to download it and pass it out to their interested members. This was the first time that a FAWCO questionnaire was made available in this manner. In the past, a hard copy of the form was mailed to each club for the rep to photocopy and distribute. Judging from responses to questionnaires distributed in the old, hard copy manner and the response to the 1999 questionnaire, the old manner seems at this time to remain a more effective method of reaching our membership.
SOME QUESTIONNAIRE RESPONSES
Was the diagnosis that your student learns differently made before or after the overseas move? Is your student attending a private, international or host country school? Is school attendance a legal requirement in your host country? Did your host country sign the declaration of human rights? Did you need to seek additional help outside of the school? Do you have to pay for this help yourself? Do you receive any host country or US tax deductions for this additional help? About how much, per year, must your family pay for this extra help? Do you think the U.S. and/or the host country should help with this expense? What are/were your student's special needs?
- "small classes, help with organization, tutoring in math, writing, note taking (he is ADD & dysgraphic)"
- "dominate, right-brain hemisphere function, possible ADD"
- "significant motoric dyspraxia (motor planning difficulties), low muscle tone, very mild tremor. Educational needs include input from physical therapist, occupational therapist, learning specialist - particularly for math and handwriting."
- "learning disability in visual perception, visual processing and organizational skills"
- "varied, but mainly reading and spelling difficulties"
- a child with Down Syndrome
- central auditory processing deficit
- "speech therapy"
- "some auditory processing difficulties - is a visual learner; vocabulary and spelling are mediocre; has been diagnosed as dyslexic, and as we all know that covers a wide range of disabilities"
What accommodations were made at school?
- "none, will help with editing written assignments if asked"
- "when in 2nd and 3rd grade, given therapy for fine motor skills"
- "She attends [this particular] school because it has a special needs department. That said, the specialist teacher is able to see her for 45 minutes per day, which is enough to address only one subject, math. She also needs special seating, and allowances in PE, art, and so forth. Lunch can be an issue since she eats more slowly."
- "[the school is] helping me to find a tutor. There are no accommodations in high school. Learning help is through the middle school only." [This student's learning needs were only discovered when he was a senior in high school.]
- "International school has resource room for grades 1-6; European School had one special needs teacher for English section; [host country] school was a case of 'sink or swim'"
- one family placed their child in an English-speaking, host country special needs school and found the accommodations to be very good
- "not a whole lot, although understanding; they permitted us to design a curriculum (IEP) and offer speech therapy by paying for this ourselves"
- "allows my son to be late for classes to attend speech therapy sessions"
- "We have two sons and each attends a different school. This is due to the fact that the American International School refused our special needs son admission. When we initially moved overseas, [that school] too initially refused our one son admission. This was based on the fact that he was on an IEP (Individual Education Program) through the public school he attended. The administrators said they had no resources/staff to service our son, so therefore we would have to find some other school who might admit him. After much begging on our part and after many conversations between the educators of the public schools he attended and the private school, he was admitted on a trial basis. He was successful there and he did better than they thought he would. We tried unsuccessfully for many months to get our one son admitted to the American school where we are living currently. They would not budge from their position. They stated our son did not possess the capabilities to be a success under their highly academic curriculum and they too did not have the resources to support his needs. We were honest with the administrators during the admission process and showed them our son's records. This was a mistake. It is regrettable that he is not permitted to learn from an American curriculum with his fellow Americans. This discrimination without merit is most alarming to us especially when you consider our son works extra hard and receives good to excellent grades in most subjects. Our son now attends another international school here, where they are not aware of his disabilities. He was admitted based on his prior school records and test results during the admission process. We were afraid if we were honest again, then they would refuse him admission also."
How adequate have these accommodations been?
- "needs more structured, ongoing help. [This] has been difficult to find privately."
- "School inadequate in proper diagnosis or treatment. We were forced at our own expense to seek help outside of school."
- "They have been reasonable, but do not entirely address her needs."
- "I have not been able to find anyone to help my son."
- "good for what we have put in place; not too adequate for general special needs"
- "not great" none have been made
What sort of additional help was required?
- "math, chemistry tutoring, private instruction at LD school on Saturdays and counseling"
- "We have had to hire a teacher to provide help with handwriting during writing periods - she is too tired after school for tutoring then. She has also received consultation from PT through the National Health Service who went to the school; this is probably similar to what she would have gotten in the U.S. She also sees an OT privately, since the NHS, though admitting that her major needs are in the realm of an OT, is able to provide only 6 sessions of group OT therapy every 6 months; grossly inadequate. In addition, I have had to be the primary liaison between the therapist and the school; in the U.S., this would have been integrated."
- "the therapy is not provided by the school; we found it and we pay for it"
- private tutoring
How can governments help?
- "tax deduction"
- "By recognizing and accepting that students do have different ways of learning and often brilliant kids are led to believe they are "stupid" because they don't "fit the mold." More diverse teaching methods and educating the teachers to know how to deal with different learning types. Offer support through information to the parents who are also often left feeling guilty and inadequate."
- "Though the host country wants to evaluate our daughter periodically (a statement of special needs), they have not offered us adequate aid in the form of appropriate school placement and physical and occupational therapy after these evaluations. It is not because we are foreign nationals; it is simply how the educational and health systems work. As a taxpayer in both countries, I feel we are due a break in our U.S. taxes, since we receive no services in the U.S. As a taxpayer here, I wish that more of the tax money was distributed toward specials need and health, with a particular emphasis on hiring more trained professionals to provide the services."
- "Grants to schools to hire teachers for students in high school who have special needs."
- "American citizens living abroad are most often U.S. taxpayers, yet they are not counted in the census, they are not given PX privileges, their children are not always regarded as citizens. It would be a great help if the U.S. government were to accord access to ESL materials (sold at a PX perhaps?) and recognize the educational needs of taxpaying families abroad. Foreign countries seldom provide facilities/programs for disabled children. The private American and international schools do much better but are outrageously expensive. Subsidies for citizens?"
- "Grants for help in professional searches, materials (i.e. books, testing materials, computer programs), and courses for professionals and parents."
- "Yes, I feel strongly that one or the other [host country or U.S.] should assist. My company pays my foreign taxes, which are excessive, and we receive no benefits from the country we live in. I pay U.S. Federal taxes and . . . state taxes and receive no benefits because I don't live in the U.S. This in effect is "taxation without benefit or representation" when it comes to a child's education. Some host country schools have programs and services for the special needs student, but are taught in the language of the country, and therefore are of no benefit whatsoever to an American student. The American school here teaches an American curriculum, yet it is allowed to use discrimination in the admissions process to ferret out students who learn differently, and refuse them admission."
Personal experiences
- "Our son was diagnosed in the U.S. as ADD & dysgraphic about 8 years ago. Even there, it was challenging getting him appropriate services through the public school, but private tutoring & counseling was abundant and convenient. Here in [our host country], where the understanding of learning disorders (especially ADD) is less advanced, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to get those services. The school is very understanding, but there is no LD program or teacher for his age. For counseling he has to go into the city (a 2-hour trip by train). Private tutoring in subject areas is available for private tuition, but help in broad problem areas (writing, organization, note-taking and study skills) has been nearly impossible to find."
- "As a parent of a child with learning difficulties, living in a foreign environment, dealing with a foreign language, one often feels overwhelmed and just as inadequate as the child. It's not just the language, but the whole mentality of another culture to deal with. The structure of the school system is also completely different to that which I experienced as a child. It's often difficult to get any direct and straightforward feedback from the teacher or school authorities. The learning difficulties of your child may not be clearly defined or simply not recognized as such. It becomes a guessing game of who really knows what they are talking about. Your child is easily labeled with something that totally misses the mark. As my son's self-esteem sunk lower and lower and he thought he was stupid, we sought help outside of the school. With testing it was found that he in fact was of above average intelligence. Of course, although the school was shown to have been inadequate, we were stuck with the cost for supportive lessons and counseling."
- "I have 2 older children who do not have special needs and have attended host country schools; they are bilingual as a result and [have] benefited from the experience. With each child, the decision to place a child in a host country school requires a number of considerations; the age of the child, the length of time one plans to be in the host country, the commute to the school, the cost, and most importantly, the child's ability to cope with such an experience. If it's possible, there are many advantages: learning a second language, culture, and living close to your friends and classmates being the primary ones. However, with a special needs child, you are dealing not only with a different set of abilities, but also a culture that may deal with those special needs quite differently from your home culture. For example, some cultures believe in mainstreaming everyone for every subject (sometimes because of cost, sometimes because it's a philosophy), and support services may be quite different. I think the bottom line with this is that unless you are planning on having the special needs child reside in the host country for the rest of your lives, it takes some extra funding to strike a happy medium and find the support services that the expat special needs child requires. A tax break of some kind would certainly be a start; ultimately someone will be paying for the remedial services if the children are not given the opportunity to achieve what they can. In the case of an expat child who moves back to the U.S., it will be the issue of the U.S. educational system that he or she returns to."
- "The diagnosis was made late for my son - in his Senior year. It is a frustrating process now to find an appropriate person for my son. If he had been diagnosed in the elementary or middle school, he would have received accommodation and Optimal Match program in his school. It has now been 2 ½ months since I started the process to get help."
- "very challenging - depends a lot on word-of-mouth recommendations for finding help"
- "Moving overseas even for a short period of time enables a family to experience cultures other than those they are accustomed to, and has proved a wonderful learning basis for all our children, enlightening them to literally the rest of the world. I would like the U.S. government to know that parents of special needs children face so many challenges in living each day, that education abroad should be made as simple as possible."
- "In [our EU, host country], the idea of special needs does not exist within the school system. All help is given outside the school day (i.e. after school, in the evening, after sports) or on the weekends. The [private, American] school treats each case on an individual basis, but only as each one comes up. This is to say that there is no detailed special needs department with a staff of professionals. You are left to look for your own resources and have to fit them into the daily schedule for your child and according to the staff they hire each year. It is a very lonely and frustrating process. Especially in our case where we have been used to all the help received for two years in U.S. public schools. Personally, I feel that all international schools, private or public, should be chartered to include special needs as a part of their curriculum just as math and science are. We all know that children with learning disabilities need to learn how to learn and the only way to do that is to give them the help they need."
- "Finding adequate services is the biggest problem. I'd pay more money and get the school to adjust its schedule, if these were the problems. But finding a professional English-speech therapist is nearly impossible. Only one is available that we are aware of."
- "If you are fortunate enough to get your learning differently child enrolled in any one of the private, international schools, then finding a qualified tutor who can help them is very difficult. The resources overseas do not exist as they do in the U.S. Frustration soon takes over and fear that your child might not succeed follows. Their disabilities, whatever they are, start to become more visible and their self-confidence dwindles. And all this time, the school may be doing nothing, no intervention. It's all up to the parents, and in a foreign country this can be a daunting task."
Comments from educational professionals
- "I am an English teacher in [an overseas school]. There is no remedial intervention, no special education and no school psychologists in the public school system. Dyslexic students are given more time to complete tests and they can also choose to be tested orally. They are given the exact same test, only orally. Hope other places are more evolved than we are. The only way I can think of making the plight of students who learn differently easier would be to put them in the American schools when available. Please send me any suggestions you have. I can't see the government offering assistance to foreign experts. Perhaps the American schools could offer after school or Saturday intervention overseas, but I seriously doubt they would do it. I really feel all American citizens should have the opportunity to have an American education. I think it would be very good for the United States as they would have so many people to act as ambassadors for American values and ideals."
- "Not enough staff for the overwhelming needs, especially in the local situation with language groups other than English."
CONCLUSIONS
As we can see from these replies, the lives of our learning-differently students in overseas environments is far from perfect in the majority of cases. Our students fall through the crack created when they are unable to avail themselves of the provisions, if any, offered by their host country because of language constraints, and the inability of most international schools to provide adequately for their needs.
The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights states in Article 26 that:
- Everyone has the right to an education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages.
- Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
- Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
The Rights of the Child which was adopted by the United Nations Assembly in 1989 spells out the right of children to an education suited to their needs. In the United States, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) mandates that all children have available to them a free appropriate public education that meets their education and related services needs in the least restrictive environment.
It is interesting to note that in about half the cases, the diagnosis that the student learned differently was made after the international move had taken place.
Most participants in the study felt that some financial assistance should be given by the host country, the U.S. Federal Government, or both, and numerous suggestions were offered on how this could be done.
One person indicated that the company they worked for paid the cost for extra tutoring. This might become more prevalent if the trend predicted in the following article becomes a reality:
In the early part of the next millennium we can hope and expect to see companies that are moving people internationally transform treatment of their expatriated employees. Greater emphasis will be placed on the impact that making an international move has on employees and families. Increasingly we will see services provided to address the specific needs of spouses - working and non-working - children, and elderly family members left at home. Companies will recognize that providing services to address all aspects of transition makes economic as well as emotional sense. Existing technology can allow us to provide face to face counseling to employees and/or family members in far off destinations, where access to direct services is limited.
Perhaps the same technology can provide special education, distance learning for our students.
Another solution might be the establishment of centrally-located English-speaking study centers. These centers could not only provide specialized teaching for learning-differently students, they might also provide an opportunity for host country special education teachers to share information and techniques with guest teachers from the United States or Great Britain. Perhaps such centers could be funded by contributions from multinational companies, the host country and the governments of the countries from which the students come.
As the world daily becomes a more global workplace, more and more families will be moving internationally. It would be a shame if some families are denied this opportunity because of inadequate educational opportunities for their children.
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Students Who Learn Differently
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