Welcome to Holland

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel.  It is like this....

When you are gong to have a baby, it is like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy.  You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans.  The Coliseum.  The Michelangelo David.  The Gondolas in Venice.  You may learn some handy phrases in Italian.  It is all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives.  You pack your bags and off you go.  Several hours later, the plane lands.  The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say.  "What do you mean Holland??  I signed up for Italy!  I am supposed to be in Italy.  All my life I have dreamed of going to Italy."

But there has been a change in the flight plan.  They have landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease.  It is just a different place than you planned.

So you must go out and buy new guide books.  And you must learn a whole new language.  You will meet a whole new group of wonderful people that you would have never met otherwise.

It is just a different place.  It is slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy.  But after you have been there a while you catch your breath, you look around.....and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips.  Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy....and they are all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there.  And for the rest of your life, you will say, "Yes that is where I was supposed to go.  That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever go away....because the loss of that dream is a very, very significant loss.

But.....if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things.....about Holland!!

By:  Emily Perl Kigsley

Habits of Effective Students

1. BE PROACTIVE - You always have the freedom to choose!  Rather than reacting automatically to a situation, take a moment to decide how you want to respond.  Realizing what you're in control of and focusing on those things can empower you.

2.  PUT YOUR BIG ROCK FIRST - It is okay to say no sometimes in order to focus on your highest priorities.  What matters most to you?  Tackle those things first.  You'll manage your time better and feel more fulfilled at the end of the day.

3.  BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND - Start each day, task, or project with a clear vision of the end result.  You might realize that what you're striving for is a it unrealistic or maybe too easy to accomplish.  Setting SMART goals can help guide you in this process.

4.  BECOME A GROUPIE - Get more involved in groups.  Everyone stands to benefit when people bring different experiences and expertise to the table.  If a group is hard to find, a partner will do just fine.  This applies not only to academics, but also to organizations and extra-curricular activities.

5.  FIND A BALANCE - To stay happy and healthy, it's important to balance various areas of your life.  Whether it's joining an intramural soccer team, seeing a concert with friends, or making a biology study group, all students have their own ways of getting physical, social, spiritual, and mental fulfillment.  Finding an equilibrium among all your interests can be hard, but it will keep you from burning out.

Math Test Tips

Here are a few tips to help with your math exams

Glance over the entire test before you begin.  If you don't have extended time, this will help you estimate how quickly you will need to proceed.
Answer questions out of order.  Begin with the questions you know how to do.  Tackling the easy questions first will build your confidence.  Check the problems off as you go along, so you don't miss any.
If you get stuck on a problem, move on to the next one.  You can always go back later.
If a problem has more than one part and you can't do the first part, proceed with the second.  Often, partial marks are awarded for what you do.
Read the questions carefully, and make sure that you don't omit any parts to the problem.  You don't want to miss the opportunity to receive full credit.
Verify that the final answer makes sense.  You may catch a lost decimal point.
Take extra time to check your basic calculations.
Before the test, avoid hanging out with classmates who tend to make you worry or cause your stress levels to rise.

Musical aptitude relates to reading ability

http://www.psypost.org/2011/10/musical-aptitude-relates-to-reading-ability-7588

Great write up.  Check it out

National Learning Disabilities Awareness Dy

Today is National Learning Disabilities Awareness Day across our country. 

- 1 in 10 people have a learning disability
- Having a learning disability doesn't mean that the person is lazy or dumb
- People with learning disabilities have average to high average IQ's
- More children in Canada have a learning disability than all other types of disabilities combined.
- All people have wonderful qualities if we take the time to see them.
- Respect and treat all students with dignity.
- Celebrate every success!
- Knowledge and understanding are the most important aspects of addressing learning disabilities and ADHD.
- People with learning disabilities are as unique from one another as are people without learning disabilities

Learning Disabilities Association of Saskatchewan runs many programs to help those with learning disabilities achieve their dreams and goals.  Please contact us for support at 306-652-4114

October is Learning Disabilities Awareness Month

October is Learning Disabilities Awareness month.

Interesting material on LD:

What do these people have in common:  http://www.businessinsider.com/ceo-learning-disabilities-2011-5?op=1

LD experience: http://www.ldexperience.ca/

What Unions have to say:  http://specialneedsproject.ca/en/about-us/news/latest-news/91-october-is-ld-awareness-month.html

Canadian Supreme Court Case on behalf of Jeffery Moore:  http://www.ldac-acta.ca/en/component/content/article/85.html

 LD Awareness month poster:  http://www.ldao.ca/

Please forward this information to all of your contacts.  Together we can make a difference.

CogMed Offered at LDAS

Learning Disabilities Association of Saskatchewan is now offering the CogMed Program.

Cogmed Working Memory Training is an evidence-based program for helping children, adolescents and adults sustainably improve attention by training their working memory.

The program is based on strong scientific research, is delivered under the supervision of a qualified Cogmed Coach, and can be done either in the convenience of the client's home or at a designated healthcare facility.

The complete program includes:

• Initial interview
• Start-up session
• Five weeks of training with weekly coach calls
• Wrap-up meeting
• Six month follow-up interview
• Access to the Cogmed Training Web
• Cogmed Extension Training (12 months)

Provided by a national network of attention specialists, all qualified by Cogmed.

Computer-based training, using a PC at home or at a designated healthcare facility.

Software adjusts complexity level for each exercise, in real time, for maximized training effect.

25 training sessions of 30 - 40 minutes each, done over 5 weeks.

Supported by a Cogmed Coach who leads the training, tracks results, and gives support and motivation.

User/family sets the training schedule with the Cogmed Coach, with plenty of flexibility.

Cogmed Training Web gives all users online access to their own training results and progress status.

Cogmed Extension Training allows the user to further sharpen the acquired capacity and to verify how the results hold over time.

Please contact us for further information at (306) 652-4114 ext 4

A Day in the Life

Try this game with your Grades 3 - 5 children

Photographer Rick Smolan has published a series of books called A Day in the Life....showing 24 hours in the life of an astronaut, a country, a state.  Now it's your child's turn to create a similar book.  Buy your child a disposable camera.  Show her/him one of the Smolan books and explain the concept.  Then talk about documenting one day in your child's life (or her pet's or sister's or friend's or whomever he/she wants).  Start the day by photographing your child asleep just before you wake him/her.  Then let him/her take a photo every hour of the entire day.  (Mom, a timer set to an hour will help you remember).  Finish by taking a last shot of him/her asleep.  When the photos come back from the developer, paste each one on construction paper.  Help your child write the details that explain each picture - why he/she picked the subject, why it is important of his/her day, and who was nearby buy not shown.  Make a title page by writing "A Day in the life of [your child]," with the date she photographed.  Punch three holes in the left margin and tie the pages together with yarn or dental floss.  Keep the book forever, and show it to everyone.  Talking about your child's ideas is a crucial part of writing.  It helps your reluctant writer capture those elusive details that sometimes scramble in his/her bran.

Rights and Responsibilities for Academic Accommodations

http://youth2youth.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=189&Itemid=234&lang=en

Please click on the link above to read all about your Rights and Responsibilities for Academic Accommodations.

Chores

Chores are also a part of every one's life. A child needs to know that she is a part of a whole and that everyone in the family has certain expectations. Make sure you are realistic with time, ability and age appropriateness. By doing this, a child sees that her contributions are valued and necessary. It also teaches her responsibility, a big academic success tool.

Keeping communication open between you and your child is essential to your child's academic success. This needs to be updated daily sometimes, as your child's life evolves and grows with each academic year. During dinner or before bed, ask every member of your household, one at a time, "What is the best thing that happened today?" "Nothing" is not an acceptable answer. You will be surprised at what you hear and what you learn from that one simple question. Parents participate as well!

Whatever the makeup of your family, mom, dad, child, grandparent, aunt, uncle, or cousin, academic success depends on everyone in our daily lives. Academic success isn't just tied to our child's classroom. While that should be a main focus during the academic year, it is also what our child learns outside the classroom, in their everyday life, that helps them to succeed.

Lead by example. Care. Be involved.

By: Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes (2011)

Activities

By:  Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes (2011)

While it is essential that your child focus on something else besides school work, it is just as important that he is not over-scheduled.  Discuss with him, at the beginning of the school year, what it is he would like to do after school for fun.  Let him pick one or two activities per semester.  Make sure he is doing it because he wants to, not because you want him to!

Do make sure that you can fit the chosen activities into your schedule, and if not, make other arrangements.  Activities might include drama, music, sports, art or volunteering at a local non-profit.  Having something else to focus on and include in his day helps to teach him time management, working with others, and leadership; all life-skills that spill over into academic success.

School/Homework

It is your child's "job" to go to school.  It is your job, as a parent, to work both inside and outside the home environment.  As with every job, there are certain expectations, and if they are not met, there are consequences.  Let your child know from the beginning what is expected of her.  Plan study times with a schedule and make sure you look ahead to see what is coming up.

Help organize your child's backpack the night before so that it is ready to go in the morning.  If you start with this simple task when she is young, by the time she is in the upper grades, she will be doing this on her own.  If your child takes a lunch to school everyday, perhaps making it the night before is easier than rushing in the morning to make it.

Make sure the space for homework has good lighting, is clutter free and comfortable.  Distractions should be avoided during this time, including loud music, television, telephones, text messaging, and electronic games.  Supervise her schoolwork.  Don't just take her word for it that it is done.  Look at it.  Give her positive feedback.

Finally, keep communication open with your child's teacher.  Encourage your child to talk to her teacher.  If your child needs help on how to ask something, rehearse it with her.  Enabling your child can be a powerful thing.  If this proves unsuccessful, make an appointment to talk to your child's teacher yourself.  Problem solve with your child.  This is a life-long skill that can be "taught" at a very young age.  Practice with your child.  All of these suggestions can be applied to every stage in a child's academic career.  They help her to become independent and self-confident.

Health

The importance of sleep, diet, exercise, and down-time cannot be stressed enough.  As a parent, it is our job to make sure our family stays well.  Put a bedtime routine in place and stick to it.  As your child gets older, this can be a bit more flexible.  Make sure your child has access to healthy snacks and well balanced meals.

Of course, we all know the importance of daily exercise.  Make sure everyone in the family participates in this.  It can be as simple as taking the family pet for a walk everyday.  Finally, it is important to make sure your child has some down-time everyday.  This can include recreational reading, talking on the phone to friends, watching television, playing with friends, running errands with a family member, playing a board game, or going to a movie.  The focus should be on having fun and relaxing.

By:  Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes (2011)

Preparing Your Child for a Successful Academic Year

It is time to sit down with your family and talk about the coming school year.  Coming off the last lazy days of summer, it is the discussions you have now as a family that will help to define a successful transition back into the realm of academia and less flexible schedules.  By clearly defining, from the beginning, your expectations for each of your children, hopefully there will be less frustration and more joy for everyone.

A Child needs to know what is expected of him and why.  It helps him to understand that he is a part of a family and that everyone has jobs to do, both outside and inside the home.  By including him in the planning, he knows that he has an important role in the family unit.  As parents, we need to be able to communicate to him, in an age appropriate manner, just what his individual roles are to be.  That is not to say, that roles cannot be modified as time and circumstances change.

It is essential that children are re-evaluated as the academic year progresses and that changes are made where needed.  the best laid plans all have an element of flexibility built into them.  That is life.  Begin preparing your child for it now.

Some areas that should be discussed are health, family, school, activities and chores.

We will be talking a look at all these areas over the next few days.

By:  Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes (2011)

Try This Game with Grades 3-5

Fortunately/Unfortunately

The writer Remy Charlip wrote a classic children's book called "Fortunately", in which one good even happens, followed by its unfortunate opposite.  The book opens with, "Fortunately one day, Ned got a letter that said, 'Please Come to a Surprise Party,' But unfortunately the party was in Florida and he was in New York."  You do not need the book to play this game, but it's more fun if you first read it together.  Each person playing the game receive one sheet of paper.  Write in large letters at the top of a sheet of paper "Fortunately."  On the reverse side, write "Unfortunately."  Talk with your child about a trip he or she has always wanted to take like Disney World, across Canada by bicycle, to the moon, etc.  Help your child think of a first sentence about the trip, starting with something like, "Fortunately, we won the lottery.  Our whole family decided to buy bicycles and ride across Canada.  Mom quit her job."  Write the "Fortunately" sentences.  The pass each paper to the other player.  Turn it over and write the "Unfortunately" part.  For example, "Unfortunately, it rained every day, and our bicycles rusted."  If your child wants to play more, you can either make new Fortunately/Unfortunately sheets or you can draw a line under the first part and continue the story.  Number each part on the front and back, so you can read the finished stories out loud more easily.  Remember, this is not the time to fuss about spelling.  If it's easier for your child with LD, let her/him dictate to you.  Your role is to help your reluctant writer communicate his/her ideas to the world.

Try These Games for Grades K - 2

Eat Your Words

The reluctant writer of any age often needs to return to the word level.  Make it fun by baking dinner rolls or cookies in the shape of words that mean something to your child.  For example, if he/she loves comic books, bend purchased dough into "Pow!" or "Shazam!"  If it's his/her birthday, bake his/her wish, like "Gameboy II."  (And if all this is too messy, use Play Dough or craft clay for words - but don't eat it.)

Survival

Pretend you are stranded on an island somewhere in your apartment, house, garage, or local park.  You need to write "Help!" so you will be rescued by planes that are searching for you.  You don't have a pencil or paper (and if you did, the writing would be too tiny to be read from the air).  Tie towels around your head and take water (it's hot on the island).  You and your child must survey your surroundings and invent non-pencil ways to write HELP!  If you're in the bathroom, you might make giant letters out of toilet paper (and hope there's no wind).  If you're in the garage, you might find paint and brushes.  If you're in the park, you can always write with your toe in the sand.  Suggest as little as possible, unless your child needs prompting.  This game allows the child who balks at writing to experience the power of a single word when it is used for a reason.  And if your child's imagination is fertile, don't stop at the first idea.  Find as many ways as possible in each room or location.

Flying Messages

You'll need a ball or Frisbee, some tape and paper cut into six 1-1/2 - 2" - wide strips the long way.  Both you and your child should write three commands, one on each strip of paper, that tell the other person to do something physical.  For example, you might write, "Hop on your left foot six times" or "Squeak like a mouse."  Try not to see each other's commands.  Go outside and stand as far apart as your child can toss the ball or Frisbee.  You start the game by taping your first strip to the ball or Frisbee.  Toss it to your child.  He reads the message and follows the instructions.  Then he tapes his first strip to the ball or Frisbee and returns a flying message.  If you don't have a place to play outside or the weather won't cooperate, you can stuff the message in a sock, ball it up, and toss it inside.  (Hint:  Don't play this game on a day when you're pooped.)  In school, a child with learning problems may not connect why ideas in his head need to land on paper and be read.  But when messages fly through the air, affect the other person's behaviour (and especially make him/her look silly), writing makes sense to the child.

Help Your Reluctant Writer at Home

Your struggling writer needs practice at home, but you don't want to make it seem like another school chore.  The answer is to sneak writing into play - and vice versa.

As Joseph Pearce says in The Magical Child, "The child can never learn to play without the parent playing with the child.  Play.....is a huge creative potential build within the child, which never develops unless it is stimulated by the adult model, the parent."

Remember that your role as a home writing coach is to have fun and to honour your child's imagination.  You don't have to be the drill sergeant in charge of spelling.  In fact, research shows us that in the long run, it's far more important to encourage the communication of ideas than to hamper a child's style for the sake of correct spelling.

The root of the word "communication" is "to commune" - in other words, to coax the ideas in your child's brain down through the paper and up into your brain.  You can help by:

• Saying, "Let's play a game."  There's no need to mention "writing game" if your child is a reluctant writer.
• Choosing subjects your child loves, like brontosauruses or monster movies or soccer or shoes.
• Talking through ideas, asking questions, and listening carefully to answers.
• Making drawings, notes, and story maps together, if your child can't remember ideas.
• Taking dictation or having your child use a computer.
• Praising honestly and liberally.
• Keeping games short.
• Posting written work on the wall or refrigerator, or sending it to family members and friends.  Writing is meant to be shared.
• Quitting if it isn't fun for your child or for you.

Make Writing a Game, Not a Chore 

• Writing has many stages before it reaches paper - generating ideas, noticing likenesses, deciding on one main idea, eliminating others, choosing appropriate words, and putting them in an order that readers can follow - not to mention problems with the physical act of writing.
• Your child with learning disabilities may struggle anywhere along the path.  Bur if he or she writes for reason and an audience, half the battle is won.  Incorporate writing naturally into play and it need not be a chore for your child or for you.  Let those ideas flow into print and sparkle.

Great Ways to Encourage Kids' Writing

Spark your child's interest in writing at home with engaging, fun activities.

It's natural for your children to bubble over with ideas, schemes, and jokes.  Unfortunately, capturing those ideas on paper is not so natural for many kids with learning disabilities.  They may freeze up, forget their ideas, or fight the pencil. 



Summer Reading & Fluency: Tips for Parents from Reading Rockets

You've got the reading lists.  You've got the books.  But what else can you do to make your children better readers this Summer?

Help them read more quickly and accurately.  Schools call this reading fluency.  Fluent readers understand what they're reading.  When they read aloud easily and with expression this makes reading a lot more enjoyable.  When their attention is focused on sounding our each word their comprehension and motivation can suffer.

Here are four things parents can do to help their child continue to develop reading fluency:

1.  Choose the right books

Help your child choose books that she/he can comfortably read.  The "five-finger test" is a useful guideline for beginning readers.  As your child reads, count the number of words he cannot read per page.  In general, there should be five words or fewer that give him trouble on each page.  If a book contains several pages on which you count more than five words that he can't read, consider reading that book to your child until he develops more reading skills.

2.  Listen every day

Once you've found a collection of books that your child can read, listen to your child read every day.  Be patient - new readers often read slowly!  Offer help when your child gets stuck, and always give lots of praise and encouragement.

3.  Read it again, Sam

Encourage your child to reread favourite books, and make it fun!  Repeated readings improve children's fluency and comprehension.  They also provide opportunities to practice reading with expression.  Children will enjoy giving the wolf a scary growl or using a squeaky little voice for a mouse.

4.  Read to your kids every day

Model your own fluent reading as you read and reread books with your child.  Even though your child may be able to read on her/his own, continue to find time each day to read books to her/him that are just beyond her/his reading level.  She/He will enjoy listening to more advanced stories, and she/he will hear a great example of fluent reading.  Cool summer reading is the perfect antidote for those hot summer days!  Enjoy.

Rediscover Your Public Library

For families with young children, the public library is a great place to find entertainment, valuable information or educational and cultural enrichment.  Here are the top 9 reasons to go visit your library.

Free Programs and Activities - From author visits to puppet shows to family films, libraries offer programs with kid appeal after school, on the weekends, and during the summer.  Ask your librarian for the schedule of upcoming events.

Story Times - There's nothing like hearing a good story read by someone who loves to read aloud.  Libraries are terrific settings for story times which often include finger plays, games, songs, and crafts that can be learned and enjoyed again at home.

Workshops - Many libraries offer workshops that can help enrich your life as an adult and support you as a parent.  At many libraries, it is possible to learn to knit, prepare your taxes, update your resume, gain computer skills, or improve your parenting skills.

Books - Librarians are happy to make recommendations and most public libraries have a special section just for children's books.

Audio Books - Listened to a good book lately?  Most libraries have a collection of popular adult and children's titles available for checkout on tape or CD.

Movies - Your public library is a great source for free access to the latest blockbusters, family movie classics, documentaries, or favourite TV shows.

Music - Want to introduce your children to Beethoven or the Beatles or new children's songs?  Check to see if your library has a collection of music on CD.

Magazines and Newspapers - Introduce your child to some of the magazines designed just for children.  With bold photographs, poems and a joke or two, magazines are another reading choice for beginning readers.  Or catch up on the news in your community and share a smile over the comics.

Computers - Most public libraries offer free Internet access, computers with educational games for kids, and valuable online resources for teenagers.

Libraries are also working to get more of their own resources online.  Your local library may have its own website with links to other resources within your community.

Summer Reading Strategies for children with Reading Difficulties

Here are some simple strategies to help your children keep the academic skills they learned during the school year.  Support them as they read.  Give them material that is motivating - and some of it should be easy.  Help them enjoy books and feel pleasure - not pressure - from reading.  The summer should be a relaxed time where their love of learning can flower.

As a parent you play a critical role in your child's education during the summer - especially if your child has trouble reading.  Without your help, kids are more likely to forget what they learned last year.  Encourage them to read for pleasure without the pressure they experience in the classroom.

Here is some summer reading strategies to help your child see that reading can be useful and enjoyable:

- Give them material that motivates them to read.  Try comic books, directions for interesting projects, and mystery stories.  Have them read information on possible activities as you plan your summer vacation.  Let them decide what they want to read.
-  Support them as they read.  Read their book aloud to them, help them decode, and make it easy for them to get the meaning.  Even if a question is asked again and again or if you feel irritated, act happy that they asked.  Show them that reading is a way to find out what they need to know, or even to entertain themselves.
- When you read with them, make it your goal to enjoy the book together.  You don't have to make them read perfectly!  Avoid too much correction.  In school next year, the teacher will help them improve their skills.
- Let younger children "pretend" to read.  Read the story aloud together.  Let them follow your voice.  Have them look at the words as you point to them, even if they aren't actually reading.  When they say the wrong word, say the word correctly and cheerfully while pointing to the word.
- Read aloud to them as you do daily chores, sight see, or sit on the beach.  Read an instruction manual with them as you try to fix something.  While visiting a museum, read the interpretive materials.  If you see the slightest sign they want to read aloud to you, let them!
- Use technology.  If you have a computer, equip it with software that reads aloud.  Let them load books into their electronic devices and listen to them at the same time as they read the printed book in their hands.  Use recorded books.
- Be a model of reading.  Bring books to the beach and read them.  If you are travelling, find a book for the whole family to read and discuss.  If you are dyslexic, "read" your taped books on vacation, letting your child see you or give them their own tapes.  Show and tell them how you overcame your own difficulties.
- Have reading matter conveniently available.  You might carry small children's books and magazines with you and have them ready when you must wait in line for those crowded amusement park rides and popular sightseeing destinations.

Children can discover the joys of reading and other academic skills in the relaxed summer season.  If nobody tells them they must read to get good grades, they might just pick up a book and enjoy it.

Fun things to do this Summer

Step 1:  Take summer field trips

Go to the park, the zoo, the aquarium, a sports event, a historical landmark, or a children's museum.  Go on a hike or to a natural attraction in your area.  When you're indoors, watch a TV program about volcanoes or the rainforest or marsupials, or use the web to take a virtual trip to a faraway place.

Step 2:  Talk about it

Talk about the plants and animals you see, or the rules of a game, or the history of your town, or the new things you learned.  Ask questions that get your child to talk, like "If you could be one of those animals we saw today, which one would it be?" or "Why do you think those boulders were shaped like that?"

Step 3:  Follow up with a book

Find out what interests your child, and visit the library to get more information.  Check out books about butterflies or basketball players or whatever caught your child's attention.  Encourage their learning with comments like, "That was cool to see the inside of a computer at the museum today.  Let's learn more about that."

You could even have your children create their own book, with photos or illustrations of your activity and their own commentary.  This is great writing practice and makes a wonderful summer memory book.  Building background knowledge isn't just fun, it's also a great way to spend your summer!

A great article on how the NFL works with learning disabled players

http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/NFP-Sunday-Blitz-3461.html

Arrowsmith Students Say......

Here are a few things some student's who have been in the Arrowsmith Program are saying.

3rd Year Male Student - Grade 8
I have seen strengths in many things.  I have gotten better at reading, writing, spelling, speaking, grammar, social skills, and most importantly better memory.  Due to my improvements I can now think faster and my writing is more legible.  I am now at a Grade 10 reading level and at grade level in math and English.  My improvements have helped me dramatically and I can now understand why people do things that are mean or nice.  I can tell why a person makes an action that may be troublesome or helpful.  Using my knowledge of the person I can tell what they may do next or how they may react to an action I may make towards them.

3rd Year Male Student - Grade 9
I have seen changes in my written output.  My spelling is also getting better.  Math has gotten easier and I find that I can do more complicated equations.  My awareness of time and distance has also gotten better.  My reading speed is faster and I can remember more from what I read.

3rd Year Female Student - Grade 7
Where I have seen changes in myself is not getting frustrated with myself and not getting upset.  I have also seen changes with writing and reading.  I don't skip words and I can now create spaces between words when writing.  I have seen changes in my Math and with understanding thinks like body language of people and how they feel.  I have seen changes with my speech.  I have seen changes in my understanding of time and what is going on in life around me.  I have seen a change with my ability to stay focused and in my understanding of math problem solving.  There is a change in my remembering where I put things or where I had left them.  I have seen changes in all my cognitive exercise and I hope I can go far in life with this great experience.  Thank You Arrowsmith Program!

Learning Disabilities Association has openings at our Arrowsmith Program beginning in late August/beginning of September.  Please call for further information:  652-4116

Description of 19 Learning Dysfunctions - Primary Motor/Supplementary Motor

Primary Motor:  This problem interferes with the speed, strength and control of muscle movements on one side of the body or the other.  This results in some degree of awkwardness of body movement and some degree of less articulated movement of the affected side of the body.

Supplementary Motor:  A problem in this area impairs a person from carrying out internal sequential mental operations such as doing mathematics inside his head.

The person can be so impaired that simple counting processes break down.

The person has difficulty calculating change.

If this dysfunction is at a moderate level of severity it means that the person is unable to sufficiently hold numbers inside his head to stably learn the addition and multiplication tables.  The person cannot make progress in mathematics beyond a grade 4 level.  The person resorts to finger or stick counting when solving math questions.

If the problem is less severe the person may be able to eventually learn his math tables but since he cannot do even relatively simple mental operations he cannot carry out the more difficult aspects of dealing with fractions at a grade 4 to 6 level.

At a mild level a grade 10 student was not able to factor algebraically due to the difficulty of not being able to imagine all the possible combinations of factors that could be multiplied together to lead to the algebraic trinomial he was trying to factor.

Anyone interested in a career involving mathematics requires the supplementary motor capacity for mental operations at an above average level to succeed.

'Arrrowsmith Program's Description of Learning Dysfucitons'
Reprinted with permission from www.arrowsmithschool.org

Description of 19 Learning Dysfunctions - Mechanical Reasoning and Abstract Reasoning

Mechanical Reasoning:  A person with a mechanical reasoning problem has difficulty in imagining how machines operate and in effectively handling and using tools.

Abstract Reasoning:  A person with an abstract reasoning problem would be impaired in being able to carry out in proper sequence a series of steps in a task such as in computer programming, using tools or in cooking.  The person does not understand the sequences as they need to be set up to get the correct outcome.

'Arrowsmith Program's Description of Learning Dysfunctions.'
Reprinted with permission from:  www.arrowsmithschool.org

Description of 19 Learning Dysfunctions - Spatial Reasoning

Spatial reasoning is the capacity to imagine a series of moves through space inside your head before executing them.  The following are examples of weak functioning of this capacity.

The person has difficulty visualizing a pathway of movements inside his head.  This would result in some difficulty in finding his way through space because the person cannot work out a map inside his head of how to get from one place to another.  As a result the person frequently gets lost or takes much longer to get from one place to another.  In some cases the person becomes phobic and avoids going anyplace new because of a fear of getting lost.  This difficulty applies even to small spaces like tracing out pathways on circuit boards.

When map reading the person has to rotate the map to orient towards the direction he is going.  He cannot rotate the map inside his head.

The person does not have a map of how space works inside his head.  Several people with this problem report that they cannot imagine how streets connect with one another.

The person forgets spatially where he has left objects resulting in loss of the object or spending extra time trying to find objects.

The person's workspace tends to be messy and disorganized with material stacked in various piles within line of sight.  This is because the person cannot imagine how to organize his space.  If he puts something away in a filing cabinet or drawer he later has trouble imagining in his head where it is.

The person has more trouble navigating in crowded space because he cannot map a plan on how to get around obstacles ahead of time.

In driving a car the person has trouble planning moves ahead of time and also has difficulty anticipating the future movements of other cars on the road.

A person with this problem is poor at imagining moves ahead in a game such as checkers or chess.  They tend to react to the other person's moves as they happen rather than developing a series of planned moves.

In any sports activity requiring spatial plan movements (e.g., planning how you are going to ski from the top of the hill to the bottom, anticipating the movement of the tennis ball and planning where to place yourself on the court to hit it) the person is at a disadvantage.

There is difficulty imagining inside the head different ways to arrange furniture in a room.  The person has to physically move the furniture in order to find the best arrangement.

There is difficulty in constructing geometric figures.

'Arrowsmith Program's Description of Learning Dysfunctions'
Reprinted with permission from:  www.arrowsmithschool.org

Social Thinking - A Social Skills - Problem Solving Group for Children

Based on the work of Michelle Garcia Winner, this group will teach children to become successful social thinkers.  They will learn to consider the points of view, emotions, thoughts, beliefs, prior knowledge and intentions of others before acting or reacting.

This group also has an important one class per week parent participation component.  Parents will learn the language to help their child apply skills in real life situations.

Facilitator:  Mary Ann Coulter, Registered Psychologist.  Ms. Coulter has a number of years experience as a teacher and school counsellor.

Co-Leader:  Barb Popoff.  Ms. Popoff is a Certified Teacher and ADHD Coach at LDAS.

For:  8 - 11 year olds

8 Week Program

When:  Tuesday & Thursday evenings
Starting:  Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Time:  6 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Where:  LDAS
             3 - 701 Second Ave N
             Saskatoon
Cost:  $250 per child
Some Subsidies may be available

To register call Karen at the Learning Disabilities Association of Saskatchewan (LDAS) at 652-4114 ext 4

Spots are limited so register soon!!

Description of 19 Learning Dysfunctions - Object Recognition

This is the capacity for recognizing and remembering the details of visual objects.  A weakness in this capacity is indicated by the following characteristics.

A person with this problem takes longer to visually recognize and locate objects that he is looking for.  There is difficulty finding items when shopping.  The person walks by an item several times before he recognizes it.  The person also has trouble locating something in a refrigerator.

A manager of a drugstore with this problem had great difficulty learning to recognize his products and remember their locations in the store.

The person has trouble remembering visual cues such as landmarks to help in the process of remembering the location of places.

The person has trouble recognizing and remembering faces and will miss details in facial expressions both of which cause social and interpersonal problems.

The person has trouble remembering the visual details of pictures.

'Arrowsmith Programs Description of Learning Dysfunctions.'
Reprinted with permission from:  www.arrowsmithschool.org

Description of 19 Learning Dysfunctions - Narrow Visual Span

This is the capacity responsible for the number of symbols or objects a person can see in one visual fixation.  When the span is restricted to below four symbols the following problems occur.

The person cannot see whole words in a single visual fixation.  He must make three to ten times the normal number of fixations to read a line of printed material.  This causes severe eye fatigue when reading and in severe cases can result in temporary blindness from overworking the eyes.  People with this problem report that they cannot read for more than 30 to 60 minutes without taking a break to rest their eyes.  The eyes become bloodshot as they eye muscles are overworked from making visual fixations.

Reading is experienced as jerky and errors occur when the eyes become fatigues and miss fixations.  These types of errors also occur in clerical work.

Reading speed is slowed down due to the extra time required to make the increased number of visual fixations.

Navigating in the dark is difficult, e.g., finding a seat in a darkened movie theater or driving in the dark.

'Arrowsmith's Description of Learning Dysfunctions'
Reprinted with permission from:  www.arrowsmithschool.org

Descripton of 19 Learning Dysfunctions - Artifactual Thinking

This capacity is necessary for the coordination, modulation and interpretation of emotions.  The following problems occur when this capacity is impaired.

The person has difficulty registering and interpreting his own emotions.  The person's emotions are less refined and differentiated.  The person's capacity for being emotionally reactive or responsive is impaired.

The person cannot interpret non-verbal information such as facial expressions and body language and as a result he can't change his behaviour according to the signals people are sending him.  For example the person cannot read his boss so he is unaware of whether the boss thinks he is doing a good job or not.  Similarly the person is unable to interpret a teacher's reactions which can interfere with the learning process.  Also the person does not always act appropriately in social situations because he does not perceive the significance of the non-verbal information.

The person tends to talk about something excessively not picking up the cues that other people are not interested in listening and want him to stop.

The person has trouble resisting impulses and can become dominated by them.  One example is excessive impulse buying.

There is a lack anticipatory planning and of developing long term strategies to deal with situations.

The person does not get worried in situations when he should worry.

There is a failure of active surveying of visual details to get the allover picture of a situation.  The person prematurely stops looking before taking in all the visual information and hence comes to the wrong conclusion about the situation.

'Arrosmith Program's Description of Learning Dysfuctions'
Reprinted with permission from:  www.arrowsmithschool.org

Descripton of 19 Learning Dysfunctions - Kinesthetic Speech

This is a lack of awareness of the position of the lips and tongue.  It results in slurred speech.  A person with this problem will have difficulty with rapidly repeating such tongue twisters as "which wristwatch" or "one runway".

'Arrowsmith Program's Description of Learning Dysfunctions'
Reprinted with permission from:  www.arrowsmithschool.org

Neuroplasticity - Do you want to outsmart your brain?

http://margiewarrell.com/blog/neuroplasticity-to-outsmart-your-brain/

A great site.  Check it out!!

Description of 19 Leanring Dysfunctions - Kinesthetic Perception

Kinesthetic Perception

This is the capacity for perception of where both sides of the body are in space.  The following are features of a problem in this capacity. 

The person has limited awareness of where one or both sides of his body are in space.  He has a tendency to bump into objects, doorways, etc. with the affected side of the body.

When driving a car the person is less aware of one side of the car than the other.  This can result in scratching the car more frequently on one side, taking corners too wide and driving too close to either the right or left side of the road.

The person is less aware of where his hands and fingers are when cutting with a knife or using tools and as a result may injure himself more often than other people.

If the problem is severe the person may hurt himself on the impaired side and be less aware of where the pain is coming from.

If the problem occurs in the writing hand there is uneven pressure and the person wanders on and off the line when writing.

In more severe cases there is an inability to recognize objects through a sense of touch.  A person can not distinguish between his keys or lighter when feeling in his pockets.

There may be some degree of awkwardness of body movement.

There is also less articulated mouth movement which results in some speech slurring.

"Arrowsmiths description of Learning Dysfunctions.'
Reprinted with permission from:  www.arrowsmithschool.org

Description of 19 Learning Dysfunctions - Lexical Memory

This is the capacity necessary for remembering several words in a series.

A person with the problem has trouble remembering more than three unrelated words in a series.

Auditory acquisition of new words is impaired.  The person has to hear the word associated with its meaning several times before he remembers it.  The person has trouble recognizing and remembering that one word is a synonym for another.  This significantly impairs the reading process.

The person has trouble following oral information due to the limited holding capacity of his memory.

Reprinted with permission from:  www.arrowsmithschool.org
'Arrowsmith Programs Description of Learning Dysfunctions'

Description of 19 Learning Dysfunctions - Symbol Recognition

This is the capacity to recognize and remember a word or symbol visually that has been seen before.  The following problems occur when this capacity is weak.

The person has to study a word many more times than average before he can visually memorize the word and thus recognize it and say it correctly the next time he sees it.  The person literally does not recognize the word "house" as the same word he has seen before.  As a result learning to read and spell words is a slow process.  A person with this problem has trouble visually recognizing his spelling errors.

The person's word recognition level (i.e., words he can see and say immediately) is low.

Reading speed is slow because the person has to rely on sounding out words that he should be able to recognize.

The person has great difficulty visually memorizing symbol patterns in mathematics (e.g., patterns in algebra) or in chemistry (e.g., chemical equations).

Reprinted with permission from:  www.arrowsmithschool.org
'Arrowsmith Program's Description of Learning Dysfunctions'

Description of 19 Learning Dysfunctions - Symbolic Thinking

The symbolic thinking capacity is responsible for developing and maintaining plans and strategies for action through the use of language.  It is the capacity for mental initiative in symbolic tasks.  Problems in this capacity are reflected in the following ways.

The student has great difficulty developing strategies for studying.  If shown a study method he will follow this but he cannot develop his own study strategies.  This applies to other situations as well; if shown a strategy the person may be able to implement it, but could not originate it.

The person has trouble keeping his attention focused on a language related task to completion.  The person is easily distracted from a task and frequently labelled as having a short attention span.  The person cannot maintain the focus of his attention in a school, job or social situation.

The person cannot work out an active plan to organize himself so his behaviour is disorganized.  There is a central lack of self-directed organization.

The person is not self-correcting of his mistakes and is frequently unaware that he has made mistakes.  The person has difficulty learning from his mistakes due to this lack of awareness.  Along with this there is a general lack of worry or concern about his performance.

At a milder level of impairment the person can worry to some extent about something but does not pull in all the facts and keeps hammering away at one or two things until distracted again.  After it has been pointed out, the person becomes aware of the foolishness of his behaviour, but can't work out strategies to prevent it from happening again.

The person cannot work out long term goals and plans for himself.  He tends to respond to the immediate situation in a 'live for the moment' fashion.  Other people may view him as untrustworthy or flighty because of the lack of stability in long range planning.

The person's choice of friends may be based on how 'fun' they are with no consideration of the long term consequences of the friendship.

If a person does not know the answer to a question immediately he will leave the question.  There is no process of active probing or searching for the answer, no mental initiative.  The person is mentally passive.

There is difficulty in seeing the main point or overall idea of a symbolic activity (e.g., a discussion, a story, a movie, a math question) and a tendency to get sidetracked by irrelevant details.

The person fails to take into account all the existing elements in a situation before acting and therefore behaviour is inappropriate to the specific situation; he cannot look before he leaps.

The person reduces a situation to a stereotype of an already known situation so there is a lack of differentiation between situations and a response that is appropriate in one situation is applied in another where it is not appropriate.  For example, the person may think that a strategy developed by a character in a television program is an appropriate strategy to deal with a real life situation.

Reprinted with permission by:  www.arrowsmithschool.org
 'Arrowsmith Program's Description of Learning Dysfunctions'

Description of 19 Learning Dysfunctions - Auditory Speech Discrimination

This is the ability to discriminate between similar sounding speech sounds (e.g., fear - hear, doom - tomb).  A problem in this area results in the following difficulties.

The person mishears words in a conversation, discussion, lecture, TV program or series of instructions and therefore misinterprets some of the information he hears.  He also has to use active attention in order to discriminate some of the words he hears which can result in his becoming fatigued due to extra effort required to listen and this can lead to his tuning out of the conversation.  It can also lead to serious misunderstandings if the person interprets what he hears as an insult.

While taking notes the person mishears some words and writes down the wrong words.  When he tries to study from these notes he is unable to because the notes do not make sense.

There is difficulty discriminating foreign language speech sounds which makes learning a foreign language through hearing difficult.

A person with this problem has more trouble understanding someone who speaks with an accent.  One girl with a severe auditory speech discrimination problem dropped out of grade 13 because she became embarrassed with having to ask the teacher to repeat himself so frequently.

A person with this problem tires in speech listening situations because he has to use extra attention and energy to interpret the words that he cannot clearly hear, even though his hearing for loudness and pitch is normal.

Reprinted with permission from:  www.arrowsmithschool.org
'Arrowsmith Program's Description of Learning Dysfunctions'

Description of 19 Learning Dysfunctions - Broca's Speech Pronunciation

This is the ability to learn how to pronounce syllables and then to learn how to integrate the syllables into the stabilized and consistent pronunciation of a word.  A weakness in this capacity leads to the following difficulties.

The person feels uncertain as to how a word is pronounced.  The pronunciation of words does not achieve stability or consistency hence the person thinks of several ways to say the same word not being certain which is correct.  The person mispronounces words or may avoid using words he knows and understands because of this uncertainty about pronunciation.  This may restrict the spoken vocabulary to simpler words.

It is difficult to learn and enlist phonics skills in the reading process.  The person's silent reading vocabulary is often several grades higher than his oral vocabulary because he recognizes the meanings of words that he can't pronounce.

The speech process requires more concentration than normal so the person has trouble thinking and talking at the same time.  The person must concentrate on pronouncing the words and as a result can lose his train of thought.  This results in shyness (quietness) in new situations involving talking with people, and a tendency to get drowned out by people who find it easier to speak.

There is great difficulty in public speaking unless working from prepared text.

The speech tends to be flat and monotonous with a lack of rhythm and musical intonation.  There is a tendency to mumble.

This impairment also interferes with the ability to learn the spoken aspect of a foreign language.

Reprinted with permission from:  www.arrowsmithschool.org
'Arrowsmith Program's Description of Learning Dysfunctions'

Description of 19 Learning Dysfunctions - Predicative Speech

This is the capacity for the sense of how symbols (words and numbers) interconnect sequentially into fluent sentences and procedures.  This occurs in thinking, speech and writing.  Following are examples of problems caused by weaker functioning in this capacity.

The ability to rehearse and recode information and actions through speech inside one's head (internal speech) is impaired.  In any learning situation this impairs the person from being able to actively recode information through internal speech in order to retain the information solidly in memory.  Thus the information that can be memorized immediately, breaks down over time with a significant loss in long term retention due to an inability to recode the information.  In other words, the person may show an inability to recapitulate or 'put things in his own words'.

The person tends to have stereotypic speech (e.g., a store of memorized or cliched phrases) because he has trouble elaborating or extending speech.  The person tends to speak in short sentences.  Written expression is similar.  The person does not have a sense of the appropriateness of where words go positionally in a sentence.  The sentences used often are incomplete and do not make sense even when complete, e.g., "I would ask a loan fro the bank."

There is difficulty in following long sentences.

The person lacks tact in what he says and may appear to be rude because there is a failure of active internal mental rehearsal of what he is going to say and what the consequences of this would be.  An example:  a girl receives a cassette of a rock group for a birthday present and hands the tape back to the giver saying, "I don't like this group."

Procedures in mathematics can be learned with some extra effort but there is a breakdown of the steps of the procedure over a relatively short time.  A common example is that the steps in a long division question fall apart.

The person does not work out inside his head using internal speech the significance and consequences of doing something before acting so behaviour can appear impulsive or ill considered.

The person has very limited ability to say things to himself inside his head to control his behaviour.  He cannot go through a process of active internal rehearsal of what he should do in various situations.  He may feel 'parachuted' into an experience and not be able to develop an effective response to his environment.

The "ASK BEFORE YOU DO" syndrome:  Parents report that their child tries to be helpful and goes ahead and does something without asking before he does it.  The person is not capable of thinking out the possible consequences of the action beforehand.  For example the child washes his father's car which has just been waxed or the child trims the tree in the front yard almost cutting it down.

Reprinted with permission from:  www.arrowsmithschool.org
'Arrowsmith Program's Description of Learning Dysfunctions'

Description of 19 Learning Dysfunctions - Memory for Information or Instruction

This is the capacity for remembering chunks of information such as instructions.  A weakness in this capacity results in the following symptoms.

There is difficulty remembering verbal information or instructions.  The person has trouble remembering and therefore following lectures or extended conversations or instructions.  Instructions often have to be repeated several times before the person is certain of what he is supposed to do, and this certainty doesn't last.  The person is often aware that he has forgotten and is too embarrassed to ask again, after having had it explained so many times, and may decide to 'muddle through'.

One example is not being able to follow a radio program because the person could not remember enough of the information as she was listening.  When she improved on this capacity she was able to follow the radio to the point that she even won a radio contest.  This can also happen when watching TV or a movie - the person can't remember parts of the newscast or movie.

People with very poor memory for instructions/information tend to smile a great deal and not participate in any conversation or discussion because they can't remember enough of the information to follow.  They also tend to tune out in lectures, conversations and job situations because they get tired due to the extra effort required to retain the information.

Parents often think their child is stubborn, irresponsible or lazy because they ask him to do something and it doesn't get done because the child forgets.  If the child is told to do something and then gets distracted, for example by answering the telephone, the instruction will be totally forgotten, to the point where he may insist that the request was never made.

The child may get home after school and forget what the teacher asked him to do for homework.

When a person with this dysfunction studies there is a gradual degradation of the information he is trying to memorize.  The person may memorize information for history, finding it hard initially, and he may have to go over it 10 times, but he feels that he knows a fair amount of the information by the end of studying.  An hour later he's got 3/4 of it, a couple of hours later he's got about 1/2 and by the time he writes the exam he is in trouble.

One boy with a severe memory for instruction/information problem did not realize songs had stories in the lyrics because he could never remember the lyrics.  This came as a revelation to him when he improved on this capacity.

One man who flies an airplane has trouble remembering the information from the tower (fortunately it is repeated several times) and reported some near misses due to this problem.  This same man would be sent out to the grocery store with a verbal list of 4 or more items and would invariably forget several items.

People with this problem tend to compensate by taking notes in order to help them remember information or by developing rigid habits without which their lives fall apart.

Reprinted with permission:  www.arrowsmithschool.org
'Arrowsmith Program's Description of Learning Dysfunctions'

Description of 19 Learning Dysfunctions - Symbol Relations

This capacity is involved in understanding the relationships among two or more ideas or concepts.  A weakness in this capacity may result in the following difficulties. 

In more severe cases the child reverses the letters b-d-p-q.

The child has some trouble learning how to read a clock (an analog clock).  The relationship between the hands are mixed up with the hour hand being read for the minute and vice versa or the minute hand being misread by 5 or 10 minutes.

The person does not understand math concepts.  The person can learn math procedures but has no idea of the meaning or "why" of the procedure.  Mathematics is mechanical or procedural rather than conceptual.  The person does not understand formulas such as distance = rate x time and therefore has trouble figuring out the formulas for rate and time.

The person has trouble understanding cause and effect relationships or the reasons why events happen.  This has implications for learning in school, on the job and in social situations.

The person has trouble understanding grammar and doing grammatical analysis.

The person has to read material over and over again and is never certain as to whether he has understood what is being said.

The person has great difficulty figuring out word problems such as "Sally is shorter than Jane who is taller than Mary.  Who is tallest?" because he can't see the relationships.

The person sits in on a seminar and is not able to comment on the points being made because he does not fully grasp the meaning at that moment.  After he leaves the seminar he plays the ideas over inside his head, comes to understand what was said and then is ready to comment but the situation is no longer available.  This is a very frustrating experience.  This can also happen in a discussion in a social situation.

The person can't grasp the logical inconsistencies in what some body is saying, which may leave him prey to destructive friendships or con artists.

There is often personality rigidity or stubbornness associated with this learning dysfunction because the person has difficulty considering several alternatives logically at the same time in order to plan and make decisions.  Once the person has made up his mind it is very hard for it to be changed because he has so much trouble holding two or more alternatives in his head simultaneously and looking at the advantages and disadvantages of each.  He can't see the relationships between two or more positions.

The individual often has trouble understanding and communicating his own thoughts and feelings to others due to this problem.  This can lead to feelings of anger and frustration on the one hand and helplessness, alienation and depression on the other.

The most salient feature is a sense of uncertainty - of never being able to verify meaning but only guess.  There is a general difficulty in interpreting the meaning of any symbolic information whether spoken or written and the person is left with a constant sense of uncertainty as to whether he has correctly grasped the meaning intended.

Reprinted with permission:  www.arrowsmithschool.org
'Arrowsmith Program's Description of Learning Dysfunctions'

Description of 19 Learning Dysfunctions - Motor Symbol Sequencing

This capacity is involved in the process of learning and consistently producing a symbolic sequential motor pattern (e.g., writing out the alphabet, or numbers).  All sequential symbolic processes involving input through the eye (e.g., reading), output through the hand (e.g., writing) and mouth (e.g., speaking) are impaired when there is a weakness in this capacity.  Following are some of the features of this problem.

Misreading - Words are misread due to poorly developed patterns of eye fixations.  The person reads "step hall" for a road sign that says "steep hill".  A truck driver misreads road signs and bills of lading thus ending up in the wrong locations and taking much longer to do his job than expected despite superior intelligence.

Handwriting is messy and irregular.  People with this dysfunction frequently print rather than hadwrite.

Writing is not automatic.  The person has to concentrate on the process of writing and as a result has less attention to focus on the content of what is being written.  This also slows down the speed of writing so written assignments and tests often take longer to complete than the allotted time.

Copying material from one location to another (i.e., from the blackboard or a text into a notebook) is slow and often inaccurate.  Clerical work is painful and tedious and the person may have a tendency to put it off.

Spelling - The person can spell the same word several different ways on the same page. 

Speech - The person tends to ramble and have difficulty getting to the point.  There is a tendency to leave out chunks of information which are necessary for the listener to understand what the person is talking about.  The person has this information in his head and thinks he ahs said it but it does not get expressed in speech.  It is difficult to get ideas out in the order of their importance in speech, and the person may go back and forth over several subjects, making his speech difficult for others to follow.

Mathematics - This problem affects accuracy in mathematical computations.  The person makes what appears to be careless errors but which are really motor slips.  For example the person thinks one number in his head and writes down another number.

This is 1 of the 19 dysfunctions that the Arrowsmith Program deals with.  We will be looking at the other learning dysfunctions over the next number of days.

Reprinted with permission:  www.arrowsmithprogram.org
'Arrowsmith Program's Description of Learning Dysfunctions'.

Arrowsmith Program

Arrowsmith Program - A Cognitive Program
Change your brain.....Change your life!

If you have problems with:
Slow reading, word recognition, comprehension
Spelling, letter reversals, writing down ideas
Math facts, reading a clock, solving word problems
Focusing on a task, organizational skills, time management
Understanding oral instruction

You May Have A Learning Dysfunction.

The Arrowsmith Program:
Deals with the cause rather than its symptoms
Builds cognitive processes necessary for learning
Trains visual and auditory memory, attention and concentration
Improves fine motor skills
Strengthens working memory and processing speed
Builds verbal, non-verbal and reasoning skills

For further information about the program please see www.arrowsmithschool.org
Learning Disabilities Association of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon will have openings for the program in September 2011 please call 652-4902 if interested.

Proud to Present - Brain School with Howard Eaton, Ed.M

Learning Disabilities Association of Saskatchewan Presents Brain School with Howard Eaton, Ed.M

When:  May 25, 2011
Where:  Travelodge Hotel
              106 Circle Dr W, Saskatoon
Time:  7 p.m. - 9 p.m.
Admission:  No admission but donations are always welcome and appreciated

In Brain School, Howard Eaton explores how, by applying the principles of neuroplasticity, Barbara Arrowsmith Young developed cognitive exercises, founded the Arrowsmith Program, and opened the first Arrowsmith School in Toronto, Ontario, over 30 years ago.  Mr. Eaton discuss how he gradually moved from traditional remediation methods for learning disabilities to seeing new possibilities because of the brain's ability to change itself.

Howard Eaton, Ed.M., founded Eaton Arrowsmith School in Vancouver and Victoria, B.C., as well as the Eaton Brain Improvement centre (a young adult Arrowsmith program) and Magnussen School.  He is an author of handbooks and DVDs on self-advocacy and transition planning for children with learning disabilities.  He has spoken throughout North America on topics related to learning disabilities, attention disorders, self-advocacy, and transition planning.

The LDAS Arrowsmith School will have openings in September 2011.  Please visit www.ldas.org or call 652-4902 for more information

Work As A Team to Help Your child

If the evaluation shows that your child has a learning disability, your child is eligible for special education services.  If eligible, you will work with a team of professionals, including your child's teacher, to develop an individualized Education Program (IEP).  The IEP is a written document summarizing your child's current educational performance; annual goals and short-term objectives; nature and projected duration of your child's special services; and methods for evaluating progress.

If your child does not qualify for special education, it is still important for you to work with your child's teacher to develop an informal program that meets your child's learning needs.  You are a vital part of your child's education!

Parents and teachers should remember that these children may not pick up the same information from day to day living as others do.  These children have had all the opportunities to learn at home that other children have enjoyed but need more time, and need to be taught in a step-by-step fashion.  Parents can do a great deal to ease the way for such a child from buying loafers or Velcro-fastened shoes to being ever-sensitive to materials and tasks that the child can manage.

What If I See The Signs of a Learning Disability?

Collect information about your child's performance.  Meet with your child's teachers. tutors, and school support personnel to understand performance levels, and attitudes toward school.  Observe your child's ability to study, complete homework and finish tasks that you assign at home.

Have Your Child Evaluated

Ask school authorities to provide a comprehensive educational evaluation including assessment tests.  Tests for learning disabilities are referred to as assessment tests because they evaluate and measure areas of strengths and areas of needs, such as interview, direct observation, reviews of your child's educational and medical history, and conferences with professionals who work with your child.  Either you or the school can request this evaluation, but it is given only with written permission.  Since you are one of the best observers of your child's development, it is important that you be an active participant in the evaluation process.  If you don't understand the test results, ASK QUESTIONS!!

Know You Rights!
Parents need to know how and where to get appropriate information.  Learn about your special education program and services, your rights and responsibilities as a parent of a child with special needs by requesting a summary of legal rights and services from your child's school, district/board.

Common Signs of Learning Disabilities in Adults

Excellent verbal ability, but cannot express thoughts on paper
Mechanical aptitude, but difficulty with reading, writing or spelling
Lacks social skills and has difficulty maintaining relationships or making friends
Learns well when shown, but cannot follow written and/or verbal instructions
Feels constantly anxious, tense, depressed and has a very poor self-concept
Has difficulty organizing belongings, time, activities, or responsibilities

Common Signs of Learning Disabilities in High School Students

Continues to spell incorrectly, frequently spells the same word differently in a single piece of writing, laborious handwriting
Avoids reading and writing tasks
Difficulty with putting thoughts on paper
Trouble summarizing
Trouble with open-ended questions on tests
Weak memorization skills
Difficulty adjusting to new settings
Works slowly
Poor grasp of abstract concepts
Either pays too little attention to details or focuses on them too much
Misreads information/lacks logic, poor reasoning ability
Vulnerable to peer pressure, often the 'scapegoat' in situations
Difficulty organizing and/or concentrating on homework
Rarely relates past events or experiences in sequence or detail

What Are Some Common Signs of LD's in Grades 5-8

• Reverses letter sequences (soiled/solid, left/felt)
• Slow to learn prefixes, suffixes, root words and other spelling strategies
• Avoids reading aloud
• Trouble with word problems
• Difficulty handwriting
• Awkward, fist-like, or tight pencil grip
• Avoids writing compositions
• Slow or poor recall of facts
• Difficulty making friends
• Trouble understanding body language and facial expressions
• Difficulty expressing ideas and relating events in sequence

What Are Some Common Signs of LD's in Grades K-4 Children

Slow to learn the connection between letters and sounds
Confuses basic words (run, eat, want)
Makes consistent reading and spelling errors including letter reversals (b/d), inversion (m/w), transposition (felt/left), and substitutions (house/home)
Transposes number sequences and confuses arithmetic signs (+, -, x, /, =)
Slow to remember facts
Slow to learn new skills, relies heavily on memorization
Impulsive, difficulty planning
Unstable pencil grip, poor printing, writing
Trouble learning about the concept of or telling time
Poor coordination, unaware of physical surroundings, prone to accidents
Difficulty cutting with scissors, colouring and printing inside the lines
Cannot tie laces, button clothes, or get dressed
Reads but does not comprehend
Difficulty playing with more then one child at a time, may prefer to play alone
Difficulty remembering the names of things:  the seasons, the months, streets, etc.
Does not understand the difference between 'up and down'; 'top and bottom', 'in and out', 'front of and behind', etc

Common Signs of Learning Disabilities in Preschool Children

• Speaks later than most children and has immature speech patterns
• Slow vocabulary growth, often unable to find the right words, pronunciation problems
• Difficulty rhyming words
• Trouble learning numbers, alphabet, days of the week, colours, shapes
• Extremely restless and easily distracted
• Trouble interacting with peers
• Difficulty following directions or routines
• Difficulty with dressing
• Fine motor skills slow to develop
• Exaggerated response to excitement or frustration
• Tendency to trip, or bump into things
• Cannot skip, has trouble bouncing and catching a ball

Signs In Infancy

• Trouble with nursing, sucking or digesting
• Resistance to cuddling and body contact
• Lack of, or excessive response to sounds or other stimulus
• Trouble following movements with eyes
• Unusual sleep patterns
• Delays in sitting, standing, walking
• Absence of creeping and crawling
• Little or no vocalization
• Irritability

Tomorrow we will look at the signs of Preschool aged children

What Are Some Common Signs Of Learning Disabilities

Over then next number of days we will be taking a look at some of the common signs of Learning Disabilities.

It is estimated that 10% of Canadians have learning disabilities.  Because of the very nature of the disability and because most children spend at least ten years of their lives in school, the most frequently noted signs are related to school performance.  However, it is important to remember that the disability is not confined to school hours and may be identified during the preschool years.

In most cases, parents rarely realize that anything is amiss until the child enters school.  In the case of children with more severe learning disabilities, the parents may have suspected for some time that something was different about this child.  If parents, teachers, and other professionals discover a child's learning disability early and provide the right kind of help, it can give the child a chance to develop skills needed to lead a successful and productive life.  A recent US Nation Institutes of Health study showed that 67% of young students who were at risk for reading difficulties became average or above average readers after receiving help in the early grades.  All children exhibit some of the following behaviours at times. 

The presence of one or two of these signs may not be significant, but a cluster of these behaviours requires further assessment.

We will look at the signs in separate blogs daily.  Keep Posted.

Should people with dysgraphia use cursive writing instead of printing?

For many children with dysgraphia, cursive writing has several advantages.  It eleminates the necessity of picking up a pencil and deciding where to replace it after each letter.  Each letter starts on the line, thus eliminating anther potencially confusing decision for the writer.  Cursive also has very few reversible letters, a typical source of trouble for people with dysgraphia.  It eliminates word-spacing problems and gives words a flow and rhythm that enhances learning.  For children who find it difficult to remember the motor patterns of letter forms, starting with cursive eliminates the traumatic transition from manuscript to cursive writing.  Writers in cursive also have more opportunity to distinguish b, d, p, and q because the cursive letter formations for writing each of these letters is so different.

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What is the treatment for dysgraphia?

Prevention, remediation and accommodation are all important elements in the treatment of dysgraphia.  Many problems can be prevented by early training.  Young children in kindergarten and grade one should learn to form letters correctly; kinesthetic memory is powerful and incorrect habits are very difficult to eradicate.

Muscle training and over-learning good techniques are both critical for the remediation of dysgraphia.  Specifically designed exercises are needed to increase strength and dexterity.  A specialist can recommend the most appropriate plan of exercises.  For all students, kinesthetic writing, that is writing with eyes closed or averted, is a powerful reinforcer.  Work needs always to begin with the formation of individual letters written in isolation.  Alphabets need to be practiced daily, often for months.

Finally, individuals can benefit from a variety of modifications and accommodations.  One effective method is to teach the use of a word processor, by passing the complex motor demands of handwriting.  Many students may find learning the keyboard by the alphabet method easier than beginning with the home keys.  For many, touch typing offers a whole new opportunity to learn to spell through a different kinesthetic mode.  Students should also experiment with different writing tools; some people with dysgraphia may find pencil grips helpful.  Other bypass methods include allowing a student to answer questions orally or into a tape recorder instead of writing, modifying written assignments so that less writing is required, and allowing extended time to complete tests and assignments.  Copying from the board is an especially difficult task.  Teachers need to provide notes.  Photocopying the notes of anther student is one possibility.  Providing an outline, with spaces left for the student to fill in information, is another.  Writing on a slightly inclined plane may be helpful.

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Who is qualified to diagnose dysgraphia

Dysgraphia cannot be diagnosed solely by looking at a handwriting sample.  A qualified clinician must directly test the individual.  Such a test includes writing self-generated sentences and paragraphs and copying age-appropriate text.  The examiner assesses not only the finished product, but also the process, including posture, position, pencil grip, fatigue, cramping or tremor of the writing hand, eyedness and handedness, and other factors.  The examiner may assess fine-motor speed with finger-tapping and wrist turning.

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What are the different types of dysgraphia?

While dysgraphia may be broadly classified as follows, there are many individual variations that affect both treatment and prognosis:

1. In dyslexic dysgraphia, spontaneously written text is illegible, espceially when the text is complex.  Oral spelling is poor, but drawing and copying of written text are relatively normal.  Finger-tapping speed (a measure of fine motor speed) is normal.
2. In motor dysgraphia, both spontaneously written and copied text may be illegible, oral spelling is normal, and drawing is usually problematic.  Finger-tapping speed is abnormal.
3. In spatial dysgraphia, people display illegible writing, whether spontaneously produced or prepared.  Oral spelling is normal.  Finger-tapping speed is normal, but drawing is very problematic.

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What Causes Dysgraphia?

A few people with dysgraphia lack only the fine-motor coordination to produce legible handwriting, but some may have a physical tremor that interferes with writing.  In most cases, however, several brain systems interact to produce dysgraphia.  Some experts believe that dysgraphia involves a dysfunction in the interaction between the two main brain systems that allows a person to translate mental into written langauge (phoneme-to-grapheme translation, i.e. Sound to symbol, and lexicon-to-grapheme translation, i.e. mental to written word).  Other studies have shown that split attention, memory load, and familiarity of graphic material affect writing ability.  Typically, a person with illegible handwriting has a combination of fine-motor difficulty, inability to revisulize letters, and inability to remember the motor patterns of letter forms

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Dysgraphia: The Handwriting Learning Disability

Over the next few days we will be taking a look at Dysgraphia

What is dysgraphia?

Dysgraphia means difficulty with handwriting.  There are several different kinds of dysgraphia.  Some people with dysgraphia have handwriting that is often illegible and shows irregular and inconsistent letter formations.  Others write legibly, but very slowly and/or very small.  When these individuals revert to printing, as they often do, their writing is often a random mixture of upper and lower case letters.  In all cases of dysgraphia, writing requires inordinate amounts of energy, stamina and time.

Dysgraphia can interfere with a student's ability to express ideas.  Expressive writing requires a student to synchronize many mental functions at once:  organization, memory, attention, motor skill, and various aspects of language ability.  Automatic accurate handwriting is the foundation for this juggling act.  In the complexity of remembering where to put the pencil and how to form each letter, a dysgraphic student forgets what he or she meant to express.  Dysgraphia can cause low classroom productivity, incomplete homework assignments, and difficulty in focusing attention.

Emotional factors arising from dysgraphia often exacerbate matters.  At an early age, these students are asked to forego recess to finish coping material from the board, and are likely to be sent home at the end of the day with a sheaf of unfinished papers to be completed.  They are asked to recopy their work but the second attempt is often no better than the first.  Because they are often bright and good at reading, their failure to produce acceptable work is blamed on laziness or carelessness.  The resulting anger and frustration can prevent them fromr ever reaching their true potential.

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What is Dyslexia?

Dyslexia is a learning disability in the area of reading.  It is included in the category of "Learning Disabilities" in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).  A person with dyslexia is someone with average to above average intelligence whose problem in reading is not the result of emotional problems, lack of motivation, poor teaching, mental retardation or vision or hearing deficits.  The term dyslexia, however, is defined in different ways.  While reading is the basic problem, people include different aspects of reading and related problems in their definitions.  For example:

• Problems learning to translate printed words into spoken word with ease, beginning reading skills (decoding)
• Problems with word identification and/or reading comprehension
• Persons with dyslexia often reverse or mis-sequence letters within words when reading or writing (b/d, brid/bird, on/no)

They may also exhibit difficulties with one or more of the following

• Perceiving and/or pronouncing words
• Understanding spoken language
• Recalling known words
• Handwriting
• Spelling
• Written language
• Math computation

What is reading?

Reading is more than translating print into the spoken word (decoding).  Reading is getting meaning from print.  People who have not developed automatic word recognition skills may have comprehension problems because their energy is focused on identifying words rather than thinking about what they mean.  Many of these children and adults read very slowly, often having to read things more than once to understand.  They may also have trouble understanding spoken language.

What causes dyslexia?

The basic cause of dyslexia is not known, however, much research is being done to determine the problems underlying dyslexia.  Research indicates that, in many cases, dyslexia is inherited and may occur in several members of a family.  Studies are being done to determine whether there are slight differences in the brains of people with dyslexia.  Recent research indicates that many children having difficulty learning early reading skills (decoding) also have problems hearing individual sounds in words, analyzing whole words into parts, and blending sounds into words (phonological processing).

What should be done when dyslexia is suspected?

Individuals suspected of having a reading disability should have a comprehensive psychoeducational evaluation including hearing, vision and intelligence testing.  This evaluation should include all areas of learning and learning processes, not just reading.  The diagnostician(s) should then be able to determine whether there are additional learning disabilities, make recommendations for teaching methods, and specify whether additional services are needed.

In many schools children are not identified as having a reading disability until they have failed for an extended period because of a "formula" used to determine whether a student is "eligible" for special services.  A child should not have to fail for two or three years to demonstrate evidence of a learning disability.

What educational interventions are appropriate?

If a child is diagnosed as having a reading disability (or dyslexia), it is important for parents to ask exactly what the problem is, what method for teaching reading is recommended, and why it was selected.  There are many approaches to teaching children with reading disabilities to read.  Recent research on beginning reading skills indicated that many children having difficulty benefit from direct instruction in phonological processing and a multi-sensory phonics approach to reading.  There is, however, no single method that will be effective with every child.  A change in method should be considered if progress is not seen in a reasonable length of time.  Selecting the appropriate reading method for a child with a reading disability is critical for success.

Widely advertised reading programs that claim to be successful in teaching phonics/reading to anyone should be viewed with caution.  It is highly recommended that before investing in these programs, research documenting their effectiveness with individuals having a diagnosed reading disability (dyslexia) be requested and reviewed.

Source:  LDAO:  http://www.ldao.ca/