Seabrook Mc Kenzie Centre Parenting Course Introduction What

Seabrook Mc. Kenzie Centre Parenting Course Introduction: What is SLD?

Overview of the course Introductions and discussion Group introductions - Why you are here? - Talk about your child - What do you find particularly difficult? (e. g. at home/school) - Impacts of SLD on family/coping skills/parents - What do you like about your child? What’s special? - What are your expectations of the course?

More! Other support services available at the Seabrook Mc. Kenzie Centre Overview of the Course What is SLD?

Outline of the introduction Session One: Introductions and overview of the course What is a Specific Learning Disability? Session Two: Stress and coping Session Three: Social skills and self-esteem Session Four: Communication and social skills

Also… Session Five: Reasons for Misbehaviour and parenting strategies Session Six: Parenting strategies Session Seven: Advocacy and support Review

Other support services available at the Seabrook Mc. Kenzie Centre: • Parent information meetings: A range of meetings are sometimes available for parents providing information on what is SLD, how it affects a child’s development and behaviour and practical suggestions on how to cope with some of these problems. Videos by R Lavoie. • Counselling: Short-term counselling is available by appointments to parents of children with SLD, or to adults with SLD. • Advocacy: A psychologist or teacher may be available to come with you to meetings with the school or other agencies to act as an advocate for your child.

More! • Behavioural intervention: Psychologists and Intern Psychologists are available to discuss any behavioural, emotional, or social problems encountered by your child/family, as well as intervention options. • Social skills group for children: This course is run for children who have been through the centre.

What is a Specific Learning Disability? • SLD is a general term that refers to a range of learning problems. • SLD is believed to be due to Central Nervous System dysfunction/ neurological • SLD can affect the following areas: delays in early development, attention, memory, reasoning, coordination, communication, reading, writing, spelling, calculation, social competence, and emotional maturity.

Description continued… • SLD is intrinsic (part of) the individual and can affect learning and behaviour • Children with SLD are of average to above average intelligence. • Learning difficulties are not due to visual, hearing, motor, or intellectual disabilities • SLD can arise from genetic and biochemical factors. As well as due to events during pregnancy and birth.

Summary from F. A. T. City Workshop Video by Richard Lavoie • 6 to 10% of children have learning disabilities • They do not choose to have the problem • Children with SLD are often seen as lazy or dumb • Parents or teachers can have a bias/belief- “if I push and motivate the child, they can learn… they just choose not to” • Anxiety affects performance • “I don’t know”- the child has given up thinking of a response

1) Processing • Children with SLD have difficulty processing language • Teacher delivers instructions, but the pace of the instructions is too fast • Child with SLD has to process the question itself as well as answer (twice the processing load) e. g. Who? (a person) Was? (probably dead) First? (at the beginning) • By the time the child with SLD has got the answer, the class has moved on

Processing Difficulties continued…. • Often the child with SLD is busy processing the first question, and hasn’t noticed that the class is onto the second question. Can be subject to ridicule • Child needs to focus energy on processing the lesson. Only ask a question the child with SLD can answer

2) Risk taking • Child with SLD does not like surprises • Learns not to take a chance/volunteer • Gets no positive reinforcement for a good answeroften nothing is said if the answer is correct • If the child gets the answer wrong, often receives negative comments/gets embarrassed. So why should I volunteer?

3) Visual perception • What doesn’t work? ? “Look at it harder” Give them something/bribe Begin taking things away Blame the victim • Problem with motivation? WRONG! • SLD has very little to do with motivation and more to do with perception (how we perceive things)

Visual Perception continued • Difference between vision and perception (you can see it but you cannot bring meaning to it until the child is taught what it is) • Child with SLD needs a teacher with direct instruction (but we expect children with LD to teach themselves) • Child with SLD- experiences being the only one in the class who can’t do the exercise

4) Reading Comprehension • Most teachers comprehend through vocabulary. They assume the child will be able to understand a story if you taught the words the child doesn’t know • Theory= if you understand every word you should understand the passage • Comprehension has much more to do with background training than vocabulary

5) Effect of perception on behaviour • Children with SLD get into trouble but do not know what they did wrong • They respond to what they perceive (based on their interpretation)

6) Visual motor coordination • Visual perceptual problems (e. g. the hand doesn’t go where the brain tells it to go) • Exercise - write letters in the mirror • Visual-motor integration problem= receive mixed messages from the eyes (visual system) and their hand ( motor system) • Exercise- tracing paper • Writing process is extremely difficult

7) Oral Expression • Dysnomia= word finding problem • Brain function: 1) storage 2) retrieval • Child with SLD = problem between storage and retrieval • Retrieve information, use it, then store it in the wrong place, can’t find it later • Most things in life are either: – Associative (e. g. doing two ore more things at a time, like driving) – Cognitive (e. g. one thing at a time)

Oral Expression continued… • For children with dysnomia, speaking is not an associative process, it’s a cognitive process- they can only speak or listen at the one time • Example- Tell a story one person after another, making up one sentence each by expanding and adding more detail (associative process) → retell same story but not allowed to use words that contain the letter “n” → this “rule” makes the story telling a cognitive process (e. g. retrieval system goes into storage, finds words you want, realise that you can’t use them, say phrases that you can’t finish).

Also… • People start to “dob” each other in when mistakes are made • Anxiety levels increase when attempting to talk this way • Children with SLD need time to process

8) Reading and Decoding (reversals) • p d b q (rotate around / are the same shape) • when wristwatch is rotated it is still the same (i. e. the object does not change because it moved) • Spatial orientation does not dictate object identification (you learn that no matter what way around you move an object, it is still the same). • However, at school, you learn that orientation changes what something means!

Reading and Decoding continued… • Energy is therefore used to decode the material and not to understand content • At school, you learn that orientation changes what something means • Energy is therefore used to decode the material and not to understand content

9) Auditory and Visual Capabilities • Child with SLD needs to hear instructions before it makes sense (needs auditory input before material makes sense) • Through favourite modality, the child is able to understand it • E. g. Put books onto tape, because the child does not understand it through their eyes

10) Fairness (Critical Value) • Lawrence Kohlberg (Theory of Moral Development) • Children learn morals by what they see us do, not by what we tell them to do (e. g. lying about age to buy a movie ticket- example of dishonesty) • Morals DO develop • Fairness does NOT mean everyone getting the same thing but everyone gets what he or she needs!!!

Fairness continued… • Some teachers may say: “it’s not fair to the other children”= it’s got NOTHING to do with the other children, THIS child NEEDS it. • In order to be fair, we have to treat them differently

Learning Disabilities The real challenge is educating those who don’t have one