Not All Great Minds Think Alike: Advising students with learning difficulties

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Not All Great Minds Think Alike Advising
students with learning difficulties

• By Julie Hunt
• Special Thanks to
• Andrea Blair M.Ed
• E. Ann Knackendoffel, Ph.D.
• and the AS Deans Office Advisors
• at Kansas State University

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Understanding Learning Disabilities

• In one way or another, all minds have their
  specialties and their frailties.
• Hopefully, we discover and engage in good matches
  between our kind of mind and our pursuits in
  life.
• Mel Levine (2002) A Mind at a Time

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Famous People with LD

• Albert Einstein
• Jay Leno
• Greg Louganis
• Whoopi Goldberg
• Robin Williams
• Nelson Rockefeller
• Ted Turner
• Thomas Edison

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More Famous People

• Orlando Bloom
• Bruce Jenner
• Walt Disney
• Henry Winkler
• Tom Cruise
• Charles Schwab
• Pablo Picasso
• Leonardo Da Vinci

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Types of Disabilities

• Dysgraphia
• Dyscalculia
• Dyslexia
• Non verbal Learning Disorders

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Four Step Accommodation Decision-Making Model

• What does the task/assignment require?
• What physical, sensory and cognitive skills are
  needed?
• What components of the task require
  accommodation?
• What accommodation options exist?

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Make their own plan of attack

• What skills does the class require?
• What services are available for all students on
  campus?
• What technological help is available for all
  students?
• What help do I need to arrange when I enroll in
  the class and after the first day of class?

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Typical Classroom Accommodations for LD

• Note-taker and/or audio-taped class sessions
• Audio books
• Test-taking accommodations
• Adaptive technology

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Help available for all students

• Inspiration or Microsoft Words Notebook
• Microsoft word reader program
• Idea Generation
• Palm Pilots or low tech planners
• Note-taking collaboration

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More Help

• Inquire if the professor posts a copy of his/her
  Power Point presentation or lecture notes
• Highlighters, post-it notes, talking calculators,
  a Franklin Electronic Spell checker

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What can I do to help students with learning
disabilities or learning difficulties?

• Im just an academic advisor.

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Step one

• If the student has current documentation, send
  him or her to work with disability services.
• They are the experts.
• Disabilities handout

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BUT..

• What if the student does not have documentation
  and can not afford to be tested.
• The students disability is not severe enough to
  warrant disability services.
• The student chooses not to use disability
  services
• The student has learning difficulties

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If a student cant learn the way we teach him,
we had better teach him the way he learns!

• Weiss Weiss, (2003) Raising kids for fun and
  profit

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Read/Write
Visual
Multi-modal
Aural
Kinesthetic
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Math Phobia

• Students may not be able to visualize the
  important factors in the problem
• Problems may stem from understanding the language
  of math
• Do they understand that certain words mean that
  you must perform certain specific math operations?

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Reading Difficulties

• Obtain a reading program to read out loud
• Read with a friend
• Set aside reading time everyday

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Writing phobia

• Purchase an organizational writing program like
  Inspiration or do a story web to organize your
  thoughts
• Read what you wrote aloud to correct grammar and
  sentence flow.
• Make sure the story contains Who? What? When?
  Where? and Why?

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Organizational strategies

• Get a planner and use it
• Take time to assess what is the most important
  task of everyday and do that first.
• Make lists and cross progress points off your list

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WARNING!!

• Test taking strategies are worth little if you
  dont study for the test!

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Suggestions from members of KAAN

• Earplugs for student with distraction issues
• Create a Master calendar
• Create a mini index for each chapter
• Jot down clues before starting the test
• Make diagrams and put them on the back of the
  test while you wait

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More Suggestions from members of KAAN

• Use a childs puzzle to organize information
  (make the information fit together according to
  topic/theme, etc)
• Make a PowerPoint of the information to study for
  the test
• Summarize on one page

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Suggestions from NACADA Region 7 Conference

• Basket of toys for kinesthetic learners who
  listen better when their hands are busy
• Exercise while studying headphones on with
  books or notes on tape
• Color code notes

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More Region 7 suggestions

• Study with a dictionary handy
• Whisper-phone
• Three dimensional hands on models
• Use association more than rote memorization
• Attend EVERY class

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Listen
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Depression

• Depression can also cause a student to have
  difficulty learning.
• When a student has a learning difference, it can
  contribute to depression.
• The Counseling Center is a good resource

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Encourage
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Treat people as if they were what they ought to
be and you help them to become what they are
capable of being

• Goethe

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Bibliography Levine, M. (2002) A Mind at a
Time. LD Online www.ldonline.org   Office of
Disability Employment Policy of the U. S.
Department of Labor, (2004) Work-site
accommodation ideas for people with learning
disabilities and or attention deficit
disorder   Muskingum Colleges Center for
Advanced Learning (2004) http//www.muskingum.edu/
cal/database/content/   Santrock, J. Halonen,
J. (2004). Your guide to college success. Thomas
Learnng, Inc.   Weiss, H. Weiss, M. (2003)
Raising kids for fun and profit. Helen Ginandes
Weiss M.A. and Martin S. Weiss, M.A.
publishers   VARK - http//www.varklearn.com/engli
sh/page.asp?pquestionnaire Office of
Disabilities Services at Kansas State
University Kansas State University Counseling
Services