Understanding students with learning disabilities

B.

By Mince Meat
EDI 600 Psychological Foundation of Education

School of Education
Long Island University, C. W. Post
February 19, 2010

The movie “How difficult can this be” was very interesting and gave me a lot of insight about students who struggle with learning disabilities. There are many learning disabilities and some students may be misdiagnosed because some teachers may not know what to look for. Also, teachers who are not aware of the signs overlook that particular student and the child could fail as a result. It is amazing how we laugh and make fun of students with disabilities and such as myself not realize how much damage to that child’s self esteem. I thought it was an excellent idea for the professor to show the video because not all of the graduate students are majoring in special education and probably will not be able to pin point disabilities immediately.
 

The instructor in the video reminded me of a few teachers I had in elementary, junior high school and high school that would embarrass the students not knowing they had a learning disability. I felt bad for the students who were humiliated by the teachers because it was obvious the students did not comprehend the work.
 

As the instructor stated when students are anxious and feel under pressure they shut down. I can speak from experience and I don’t have a learning disability but when I feel under pressure I shut down. For example, the instructor would ask the demonstrator “What animal is that in the book?” The demonstrator would respond I don’t know. The instructor would make an embarrassing comment such as “What do you mean you don’t know, come on!” The instructor talked about students who have learning disabilities take a long time to process information in their head and spoke of teachers pushing students to try harder but expressed they could not because they did not understand the work. I think it is very important for teachers to be able to detect learning disabilities because the school can provide the student with services to assist with their disability.
 

This video will forever change the way I view children with disabilities. I think this video should be used at all staff development meetings to remind teachers of what not to do and when to observe there a problem. This video is not only for teachers but parents as well who become impatient and not able to observe a disability.