Serving Adults with Special Learning Needs

Letter from the Director

Dear Readers:

Grab a pen and a piece of paper. Now write the italicized text below using your non-dominant hand. You should complete the task within two minutes. Ready. Get set. Go.

Addysgu

Mae gwaith yr Uned Dyslecsia yn ymestyn dros ardal eang Gogledd-Orllewin Cymru, a’r rhan helaethaf ohoni’n wledig. O ganlyniad, nid yw’r Uned yn cynnal canolfan addysgu. Mae ganddi swyddfeydd ac ystafelloedd at ddefnydd athrawon, ond addysgir yn bennaf mewn ysgolion neu leoedd eraill.

Well, how did you do? Not an easy task, right?

I recently attended a presentation on learning differences by one of my doctoral students and one of this year’s TCALL fellows, Stacy Perry Perry (see her article on Emotions and LDs). She had us attempt the exercise above, which is a Dyslexia Simulation Exercise retrieved from: http://jarmin.com/demos/course/dyslexia/09.html. She was presenting to a room filled with graduate students and myself. All of us struggled with the exercise. Stacy pointed out if we knew Welsh perhaps the exercise would have been easier as the text above is the Welsh language. The exercise was intended to simulate for the audience members what it feels like to have a learning difference/disability/difficulty, in essence a special learning need, or what I am beginning to call a learning diversity. I have never been quite comfortable with any of the terms that LD has come to stand for in recent years. I am never quite sure whom I might be offending when I use one term or another. But I am growing increasingly comfortable with the concept that we are all diversified learners with an array of learning needs, hence my impetus to start talking about LDs as “learning diversities.”

I worked for several years administering diagnostic assessments to children and adult learners suspected of having special learning needs, and I have to admit the exercise above connected me to the experience of having a learning difference in a way that I had not previously experienced. After the panic, anxiety, and fear of revealing any hint of subpar intelligence in front of my students wore off, I began to develop a coping strategy for copying the text, which allowed me to make some progress and experience a moment of exhilaration, but it also left me feeling tired and disappointed once the two minutes was up. The gamut of emotions I experienced in those two minutes was exhausting, but I did leave the presentation with a new awareness for what many of my students, colleagues, and family members face with each new learning task. It is this disquieting yet enlightening experience that I hope you will have while you read this edition of Literacy Links.

The edition starts with an overview by Tracy Hendrix of the future initiatives Texas plans to be involved with in an effort to effectively serve the state’s special learning needs students. Joan Grigsby in her article describes how programs in Tarrant County are “building bridges to success” with their learning disability program. If you are looking for resources on LD issues, you will find them in TCALL’s professional development specialist Ken Appelt’s article. He reviews the latest resources on learning disabilities all in the hopes of making you an “able educator.” Go “on the road” with Alex Baez and Carol Speigel to explore the insights they have learned as certified Bridges to Practice trainers. Linda Eastwick Covington provides for us ways to think beyond the limits of learning faced by learning disabled students. TCALL’s Clearinghouse Project Director Harriet Vardiman Smith reviews two of Jenny Horsman’s books on the prevalence and impact of violence on women’s learning, certainly a special learning need worthy of discussion. Christine Goulet Spin in her moving account of one of her students, introduces us to Samuel, a student facing more than just LDs. As Christine’s article demonstrates sometimes it does not matter how many strikes you have against you, you won’t be counted out. Daniel Zamora describes what he has learned about special learning needs in his role as Learning Difficulties Screener at Del Mar College. Also in this issue Beth Thompson and TCALL’s family literacy specialist Jacqueline Gramann co-author an article on the importance of home visits in the practice of family literacy. And in this issue you will also get a chance to meet Brenda Dunlap, the first completer of the Texas Adult Education Credential for teachers. She did it in the unbelievably efficient time of six months. Way to go Brenda!

As always, I hope you will read this issue and take away from it resources to consult, information to refer to again and again, and things that you can put immediately into practice.

Happy Reading,

Dr. Dominique T. Chlup
Director of TCALL &
Principal Investigator on the Clearinghouse Project