People

The Burden & Blessing of Learning Disabilities

by PARVEEN KAUR DHATT-SANGHA

 

 

Sitting in my office, I could see "Jefferson" - it's a name I have given him for the purpose of this article - pacing restlessly outside, from the corner of my eye; I knew he wanted to share some information, probably for the sixth time today.

Jeffery calls me, leaves voicemails and e-mails sometimes with the most mundane details and questions I have answered many times over. I begin to wonder about my own complicity and think to myself if I should just allow him to wait, to learn to be patient, but his eagerness grabs my attention and I wave him into my office.

Before taking a seat he excitedly told me he just got an A+ on an assignment for a class he had been struggling with.

"Wow!" I exclaimed, "good for you, I knew you could do it".

While this type of conversation, albeit a bit clichéd, is commonplace for educators, this particular student's academic success depended on this positive reinforcement.

Jefferson, you see is not just any student; he has a learning disability ("LD") and has struggled with reading and writing all his life. The tasks that many of us have acquired with relative ease are daunting, anxiety provoking and purposeful and most of the time all-consuming for students with LD.

What is a Learning Disability?

This was exactly the question I sought to answer all those years ago in preparation for a job interview for working with students in a community college. Prior to immersing myself in this world, my understanding of LD was very limited and probably a very stereo-typed  one.

Certainly, learning disability is not a term we often hear in our community, nor is it a prevalent word used in most immigrant communities that I know of. However, learning disabilities do exist without racial, ethnic and gender boundaries. Regardless of socio-economic status, languages spoken or exposure to a formal education. Students who are underprepared or come from a different language background may have some of the same surface problems with spoken or written language that LD students have, however, the underlying causes are different.

What we do know about LD is that they are lifelong, neurological in nature, and are diagnosed by a psychometrist or psychologist. Individuals must also be within the average/ above range of intelligence to meet these diagnostic criteria. The bare bones definition is 'difficulty processing language, whether in the written or verbal form'.

Dyslexia is a common type of learning disability which is widely recognized but least understood. Persons who are dyslexic often omit words, transpose letters and sounds. For example, while reading, they see the letter ‘s' as the number ‘5' or see the ‘p' as a ‘q'. While this perceptual difficulty will always remain, there are many compensatory strategies that people with dyslexia can use. Tom Cruise is one really good example; he has dyslexia and learns his script by listening to a tape recorder.

While some of these errors or omissions in reading are common amongst those just beginning to read in the primary years, their persistence into high school and college are indicative of an underlying problem.

I have been working as a Learning Strategist at Centennial College in Toronto for the past 8 years. All of my experience and knowledge has been gleaned through listening to student's challenges and triumphs in the academic world. Their stories of being labeled ‘dumb', ‘lazy', ‘stupid', etc., by some educators and parents who, lacking knowledge of the topic, have also offered very little support. The emotional baggage that then goes along with the label can sometimes take a lifetime to unravel because some students have learned to internalize their failure in school to life itself.

This is one of the challenges of LD. It is important to bring these issues to the fore, but it is easier to discuss all the success stories that I have heard within the confines of my office.

Last week a student came in, showed me his police badge and offered me his business card. He had previously been enrolled in two different college programs and unable to get through some of the reading intensive courses required to graduate. When I took the badge, I instinctively held it up to my nose, the smell of a newly minted police officer! It is these moments that I relish my job; tears of joy flowed from my eyes.

The student who tried to follow the model route through college tried and tried again, found success in a different manner!

Jefferson, as I affectionately called him, has now graduated from his program after spending 5 years in college. He usually calls me every week to 'check-in' and update me on his successes in finding a job. I think I will rest easier when he is able to do just that, our journey together is not over yet!

In relaying these stories, I think about the notable and celebrated ‘failures' in life:

Thomas Edison.

Einstein who learned how to read at the age of 9 was considered slow by his teachers.

Walt Disney.

Winston Churchill.

Ingvar Kamprad - the founder of IKEA - developed his empire around his dyslexia.

Would we have light today if not for Edison, would Mickey Mouse/ Disney World exist if not for Walt, and finally, would the Theory of Relativity be known!

The commonalities amongst these varied personalities are that they all succeeded because - not inspite - of their LD, they learned to adapt and think in different ways to overcome their challenges. So my work with students is to help them bring out their ‘inner' Einstein, capitalize on their strengths to compensate for areas that need more work.

 

[Parveen Kaur Dhatt-Sangha, M.Sc., is a Learning Strategist at The Centennial College in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.]  

February 20, 2010

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