Thursday, December 3, 2009

Kaitlin Baker's Misunderstood Minds

When reviewing all of these simulations, I definitely experienced some difficulty in some of the areas and I felt some frustrations and slowness when trying to accomplish accuracy in my attempt at each simulation category. By putting myself in the position of these young kids who deal with these different issues on a day-to-day basis made me truly see how difficult it really can be for them. These simulations showed me how difficult the experiences and lives can be for these kids with learning disabilities, especially in Writing and Mathematics. These two subjects’ seem to be the most difficult and time consuming for these kids because of the length of time each paper or problem(s) may take. Also, within these two subjects it shows how the child's memory can be trying to do and figure out many different things at once, clouding the memory from performing different types of math problems, understanding how to do something, and even blocking out their creative memory. The experiences of there kids with Attention and Reading difficulties makes me realize just how bad and hard it can be to even follow a long with, or to even just understand or remember something from a short time ago. We always hear about so many people having attention problems, but you don't seem to realize the extent to which some may have this learning disability. These LD's may seem minor to some, but to those child with these difficulties it is a challenge and struggle just to get through the day.

Some implications for teaching that these simulations have, could be; allowing the child to be in a area of their own with less distractions, allowing more time for the LD child to read, write, and do math problems, and suggesting that we may not always know or realize a child has a learning disability but we must be and stay aware and work with them to get through the things they need too.

3 comments:

  1. I agree with the overwhelming thoughts of putting yourself in their shoes. After processing everything this weekend and coming back into my class I was able to take a less overwhelmed look. I used some of your ideas as well. These are things you learn over and over but somehow get overlooked because its the simplest solution! We had foresight testing today and I took my more obvious LD students and gave them seats by themselves and used a lot more proximity. This helped them calm down immensely. It made my life and more importantly theirs easier. I am actually thinking about moving around my entire classroom based on that thought and its results. They will not be isolated but more spread apart. Overall it is nice to see progress after being so frustrated and after doubting my ability to help them.

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  2. In your reflection you stated, "Also, within these two subjects it shows how the child's memory can be trying to do and figure out many different things at once, clouding the memory from performing different types of math problems, understanding how to do something, and even blocking out their creative memory." this is a very important point. We need to understand the implications of these disabilities across academic areas. Nice job!

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  3. Okay, so I posted a comment last week BUT it never showed up? I have no idea why... I will fix this

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