Students
Who Learn Differently Overseas
LACK OF RECOGNITION
FACTORS
THAT MIGHT COMPLICATE RECOGNITION
Because
learning-differently students look just like any other students, you can
sometimes hear their problem referred to as a "hidden
disability." And because it
is hidden, it often goes undiagnosed.
Sometimes
the symptoms of both dyslexia and ADD/HD are just a part of the maturation
process and are something that children will naturally outgrow as they become
older. But if the symptoms persist, if you and/or
your child are feeling uneasy for any length of time, you should consider
getting an assessment done. Sometimes well-meaning teachers will attempt to
reassure you that there really isn't a problem - it's just a case of growing
up. Other teachers might give you
the feeling that you are over-reacting and are an overanxious parent. But you know your children best. You know when they are thriving or
not. Follow your instinct.
It
could be possible that one or both parents might not recognize or deny that there is any
problem. There is clear
evidence that both dyslexia and ADD/HD tend to run in families. Therefore, it could be quite natural
for the parents not to think that there is any problem because the child is
acting and/or developing in more or less the same way that they did. One FAWCO mother recounts:
He was
the brightest kid in the class and kept discussions going but his daily work was
incomplete and messy and we were told that he wasn't working up to
potential. This worried my
husband, who'd always heard the same, but was sure that his very dysfunctional
family was to blame . . . Then my best friend came to visit. She's a student counselor at our old
high school, specializes in learning disabilities and has ADD - it runs in her
family. She spotted it right away;
that kid's ADD. We talked a lot
about it, also with our husbands.
Hers knew about his ADD, for mine it was a revelation.
Sometimes
problems arise in families when one parent thinks or recognizes that there is a
problem, and the other parent can't see it. It is not unknown for students themselves to recognize that they have
a problem. One of their
hardest tasks can be to convince their parents.
Another
factor that might prohibit early recognition can be the superior intelligence of the
student. Often many of our
learning-differently students are able to cope in elementary school, only to
find that the different teaching methods and different requirements of the previous six
grades do not permit them to succeed in the next six. Because they were successful before, very often parents and
teachers begin to label the student lazy or inattentive, epithets that are very
counter-productive. Learning
differences are neurological problems over which students have no control, and
yet they are blamed for them.
Problems
are sometimes blamed on the fact that the student is living overseas or is a member
of a dual-cultural family. Therefore, learning difficulties are
sometimes seen as being caused by:
· Adjustment to moving away from friends and
extended family.
· The shock of adjusting to a new culture.
· The possible necessity of having to learn
a new language.
· The fact that the child is being brought
up bilingually.
The
following is from a first person account of a FAWCO mother:
When my
son began to read in the host country language, I was concerned by his
reluctance to read and his difficulties parsing words when he did read. New to
the country and unable to speak much of the host country language myself, I
wasn't exactly sure how to proceed within the school system. My son was suffering from hearing
difficulties, culture shock and reading difficulties in Kindergarten and also
in the first and second grades. My
husband attributed his inability to read well to the foreign language and to
our son's hearing loss. As I had
studied some linguistics and am a language teacher by training, I felt the
problem was dyslexia.
Subsequent
assessment found this to be the case, and eventually the child did receive the
help he needed.
The
very first conference I attended on dyslexia was held at the Brussels
British School in Belgium shortly after our daughter was diagnosed as being
severely dyslexic. At the very
beginning, the organizer asked the audience to raise their hands if they were
parents. Then if they were teachers.
The split was about 50 / 50.
As he was about to introduce the speakers, a young man in the audience,
about 16 or 17, raised his hand and said, “I’m not in either of the two groups
you have mentioned. I’m a student,
and I think I have some of these problems. But my parents don’t think so, so they’re come along
here with me today to learn more about it.”
CONSEQUENCES
OF IGNORING THE FACT THAT STUDENTS LEARN DIFFERENTLY
Lack of success in recognizing that there
is a problem can lead to:
· Frustration, which could lead to
behavioral problems.
· Lack of self-confidence.
· Low self-esteem.
· Depression.
· Fear of isolation, of being different.
· Bullying by peers.
· Inappropriate demands by parents and
school personal resulting in ridicule of the student.
· Engaging in inappropriate or harmful
activities to compensate for lack of success in school, at home and eventually
in life.
As has been previously stated, it is now
thought that between 15% and 25% of the world population learn differently to a
significant degree. But this
percentage is not reflected in prison populations or in the populations of substance
abusers. Excerpts from the
following article by Seth Linder reveal some troubling statistics:
For 12 years, Andrew, a heroin-user now in
his thirties, was in and out of prison for drug-related offences. Desperate to break the cycle, he tried to
enroll for a literacy course. He
was lucky - a perceptive tutor suspected he was dyslexic. Four years later, having received
specialist tuition, Andrew is now a drugs counselor and a part-time college
student. [1]
Recent research
in the US found that 52 % of a sample of prisoners were dyslexic. These findings have been mirrored
in other countries, and indeed the percentage of learning-differently prisoners
has been shown to be as high as 90% in other studies:
A related concern is that prisoners have a higher proportion of
learning disabilities than the general population. Estimates of learning
disability are as high as 75-90% for juvenile offenders. Low literacy levels
and high rates of learning disabilities have contributed to high dropout rates.
Nationwide, over 70% of all people entering state correctional facilities have
not completed high school, with 46% having had some high school education and
16.4% having had no high school education at all. Since there is a strong
link between low levels of education and high rates of criminal activity, it is
logical to assume that high dropout rates will lead to higher crime rates.[2]
Wally Morgan, a
probation officer and one of the originators of the Dyspel Project, a pilot
scheme to identify and assist dyslexic offenders, tells that the most moving
moment is when an offender discovers the reason for his learning difficulties:
I've seen tough, macho men in their
forties, armed robbers, drug users, shoplifters, burst into tears of
relief. 'All my life I've been
told I'm thick, lazy, ignorant, and I've known I'm not,' is a typical response.
This is the first step in recovery from this kind of life. [3]
Morgan has also
screened residents at a drugs and alcohol rehabilitation center where he found an
astonishing 91% to be dyslexic. The resulting feeling of inadequacy and rejection is, he
feels, the underlying cause of their addictions:
If we can give dyslexia a much higher profile, if judges and
lawyers, prison officials and teachers can acquire a better understanding of
it, if people would realize that dyslexia in not an excuse but a reason, we
would quickly see a significant reduction in offending.
Think of the
savings if we could cut the prison population in half. Think of the additional savings if we
could help prevent drug addiction and alcoholism. And think how these savings would not only be financial.
ADDITIONAL SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF LEARNING
DIFFERENTLY
Jeffrey H. Gallet, a judge in Family Court
in the State of New York, is a learning-differently person. He was asked to write about his
experiences for a special supplement to Newsbriefs (1996) called "Learning Disabilities and
Juvenile Justice." Below is
reprinted of part of this article, which gives Judge Gallet's thoughts about
the juvenile justice system:
. . .
Almost every week I see a learning disabled child who,
undiagnosed or untreated, is venting his or her frustrations in anti-social
ways. I could have stood in that same spot. If not for loving, caring, involved
parents, my frustrations at not being able to keep up in class, and to some
extent in the play yard, could have burst forth in the same self-destructive
way.
The schools and the courts have not met
their responsibilities to LD children. When I was young, they simply did not
recognize the problem. Now, they
can diagnose and deal with LD but have not allocated the resources to do what
must be done.
. . .
It is the schools that hold the key to avoiding the type of conflict we see in
the family courts. An early diagnosis
of the problem and an integrated treatment plan, including not only help for
the child, but, also, counseling for the parents, would save many children from
going astray. Unfortunately, too
many schools have not focused their attention and resources on the problem and
research proposals to find methods for early diagnoses of LD are going
unfunded.
There is improvement. As education programs such as the FCLD
grants for handbooks for lawyers and judges make more and more people aware of
the problem and the terrible waste it creates, more LD children are being
identified and helped.
Unfortunately, the process is painfully slow. [4]
According to an
article in the Times Educational
Supplement:
. . 90 per cent of
young offenders who come out of prison re-offend within two years. They believe the cost of child
imprisonment - amounting to more than 25,000 pounds ($36,891) per head per year
- should be invested in more effective community-based schemes to support
children. [5]
The United States
National Institutes of Health have reported the following:
· Children with both dyslexia and ADD are at
dramatically increased risk for
substance abuse and felony convictions if they do not receive appropriate
interventions.
· Dyslexia is the leading cause of reading
failure and school dropouts in our nation.
· Reading failure is the most commonly
shared characteristic of juvenile justice offenders. [6]
Time reported in March 2001 the following facts
in their feature called "Numbers:"
The World Health Organization Ministerial Conference on Young
People and Alcohol in Stockholm last week revealed some disturbing facts:
o 55,000: Young Europeans who died from alcohol-related causes in
1999. One in
four deaths of European men aged 15-29 is related to alcohol.
o $195 million: The estimated annual social costs of alcohol consumption in
the E.U. 70% of the total
represents earnings lost through heavy drinking. [7]
The Coordinated
Campaign for Learning Disabilities has prepared a press kit, available in five
languages, to be used to help educate people as to what exactly learning
disabilities are. The
following points are given to show what happens when learning disabilities go
untreated:
·
People
with learning disabilities that have not been diagnosed or properly addressed,
or who are deemed 'ineligible' for treatment can experience serious, life-long
negative consequences. The results
can include loss of self-esteem, delinquency and illiteracy. The individual, as well as our society,
is harmed.
·
Thirty-five
percent of students identified with learning disabilities drop out of high
school, contributing greatly to the nation's school drop-out
rates. (This does not include the
students who drop out without ever being identified as having learning
disabilities.)
·
Fifty
to eighty percent of adults with severe literacy problems have undetected or
untreated learning disabilities.
·
Learning
disabilities are one of the most common obstacles to the employment of welfare
recipients.
·
Fifty
percent of young criminal offenders tested were found to have previously
undetected learning disabilities.
When offered educational services that addressed their learning
disability, the recidivism rates of these young offenders dropped to below two
percent. [8]
DEPRESSION
- BE AWARE
"I'm worried about him going into a
depression." This concern comes from a message sent to the then chair of
the FAWCO Educational Support Committee and shows the concern of a mother for
her son who was struggling with the necessity of having to attend a non-English
speaking school.
Childhood depression is a real condition
and should be watched for.
Unfortunately, children with learning disabilities may tend to be prone
to chronic depression.
Older adolescents and adults tend to
become withdrawn. They may be
quiet or become agitated, irritable, and angry; they may also look sad and talk
about their sadness. Young
children, on the other hand, tend to exhibit non-verbal clues and express their
emotional struggles more by their behavior than by talking.
Signs that may indicate depression in children:
- Change in
personality, such as increased anger, irritability, moodiness, or whining;
- Change in
appetite, usually a loss of appetite;
- Change in
sleep patterns, such as difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or
excessive sleeping;
- Loss of
energy, or lethargy;
- Loss of
interest in friends, play activities, and sports. Or an absence of
pleasure derived from relationships;
- Low
self-esteem, frequently expressed through self-deprecating and negative
talk;
- Indecisiveness;
- Difficulty
with concentration (not to be confused with attention deficit disorder);
- Feelings of
helplessness, occasionally expressed through suicidal talk.
What parents can do:
- Be aware of
clues and indicators of depression.
Parents should trust their intuition about their children's
behavior, especially where a family history of depression is present.
- Parents may
want to give serious consideration to the suggestions of others that their
son or daughter may be experiencing depression.
- If parents
suspect depression in a child, they may want to discuss their concerns
with teachers and school counselors. This may ease their concerns if
teachers do not observe similar behaviors, or it may confirm their
concerns if teachers are aware of behavior that may indicate depression.
- Parents
should talk with their family physician. The family's physician may want
to meet with the child to confirm a diagnosis or may refer the child to a
child or adolescent psychiatrist or other mental health professional for
diagnosis.
- Once a
diagnosis of depression has been made, parents should seek professional
help for their child(ren). Many different types
of therapy are available, some of them designed to address specific
thought and behavior patterns. These therapies, and others, include:
movement/art/music therapy, group therapy, and medication. [9]
Another thing
parents can do is to work on their child's self-esteem. Richard Lavoie's excellent video, When the Chips
are Down, gives concrete suggestions for both parents and teachers for
not only improving self-esteem, but also in improving behavior by using
discipline in a positive manner.
It can be bought at http://www.ricklavoie.com/videos.html .
In cases where
sever mental health issues affect the students ability to function in a
classroom setting, the following article from gives some hope possibilities for those affected:
Redirection Through Education (RTE), Canada’s first and North America’s
longest-running supported education program. Housed at
Toronto’s George Brown College, the program has enrolled more than 150 students
with persistent mental health and addiction issues annually since its launch in
1972.
Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Mental%20illness%20teens%20challenges%20educators/4246068/story.html#ixzz1DbWReUSl
Once largely attended by older adults with depression, mood
disorders and addiction issues, there has been a significant increase in
younger students with serious mental health diagnoses of schizophrenia, bipolar
disorder and psychosis over the last five years, Kaur says. The shift “presents
a very challenging situation for us, because students are actually struggling
with symptom presentation in the classroom environment.”
The jump in the number of young people with serious mental health
issues is being noted in other centres. “It is clear that mental health issues
are more common” across Canada, says Dr. Allan Young, a mood disorders
specialist and professor of psychiatry at the University of British Columbia.
The reasons for the spike in numbers are unknown. “Is this because we’re
picking it up better?” he says. “Or is mental ill health more common? Or
[perhaps] we’re incorporating milder states into the rubric of illness.”
Alberta Health Services, to name just one agency, is seeking to
help these youths and children with its Children’s Mental Health Action Plan,
says Brian Malloy, executive director of Access and Early Intervention. Malloy
says with the rise in mental ill-health diagnoses, social and cultural
isolation in Alberta’s migrant worker population and the lack of services in
remote communities, “children’s mental health is very
much under-resourced. It was identified as a priority because ... the more you
use promotion, prevention and early intervention, you minimize the risk
factors.”
With a focus on children affected by mood disorders, attention
disorders, anxiety and suicidal thoughts, the province has implemented a
23-point plan, including a single point of access system with standardized
screening aimed at reducing wait times and speeding access to services. “We
have a good crisis service where we can see kids within 24 hours through a
telephone consultation, a mobile service or an emergency room consult.”
Students
Who Learn Differently Overseas
by Susan van Alsenoy, AWC Antwerp
Email: swl@fawco.org
Page created 10/29/99 EvE. Last updated 03/01/11 SvA.
Copyright © fawco.org. All rights reserved.