When remediation is not enough

1
When remediation is not enough

• Technology for Younger Learnerswith Learning
  Disabilities
• Presenters
• Kristen OHare, Nipissing Student
• Elaine Beckett-Albert, Nipissing Student
• Mark Giddens, Adaptive Technology Technician
• Mike Walker, Learning Strategist
• Presented to Michelann Parrs AQ class, March 2003

2
Presentation Outcomes

• Create a context for this presentation
• Why need we accommodate students with LDs?
• Accommodation, Modification Remediation
• Describe living and learning with a LD
• Student stories meet Kristen and Elaine
• Social, emotional and academic aspects of LDs
• Describe learning disabilities from IP
  perspective
• A new definition from the LDAO
• Impact on diagnosis and accommodation
• Describe how YOU can help your students succeed
• Conditions and strategies for success
• Briefly review technology for students w/LDS
• The Big Three
• Other Tools

3
Our Context the Premise

• Our Desire - we want all of our students to be
  able to master the Three Rs and to develop
  normally physically, mentally and emotionally.
• The Reality approximately 9.4 of our
  elementary and secondary students are
  exceptional (MET, 1997).
• The Result - many of our students will not read,
  write or perform other academic tasks
  efficiently, despite our best effort and intense
  remediation.

4
Some Stats . . .

• learning disabilities impact the lives of
  approximately 10 of the population
• approximately 4 of Ontarios school aged
  population is formally identified with LDs
• of Ontarios identified exceptional population
• approx. 48 of elementary students are LD
• approx. 54 of secondary students are LD
• 25 to 30 of those with LDs have AD/HD
• 75 to 80 of those with AD/HD have LDs

Sources Weber and Bennett, Special Education in
Ontario Schools, Fourth Edition and LDAC
National, Spring 2000
5
Consequently

• In order for many of these exceptional students
  to be successful their
• skills must be remediated and/or
• learning either modified or accommodated
• Remediation may be needed for the student to
• overcome performance deficits (reading, writing,
  speech, motor)
• consolidate skills for future learning
• Modification may be needed for the student to
• experience academic success
• maintain motivation to learn
• Accommodation may be needed for the student to
• maintain grade level standards
• broaden future learning opportunities

6
However

• Modifications are not an option at the
  post-secondary level.
• Nor are modifications eligible for high school
  credit.
• Therefore, accommodation for severe disabilities
  may become more challenging and solutions, by
  necessity, more sophisticated.
• Technology has provided many new tools which may
  be used to accommodate students with LDs.

7
Remediation

• Should
• provide direct intervention and instruction
• build skills in areas of deficit
• teach strategies to cope in areas of deficit
• But may involve
• withdrawal creating gaps in class learning
• constant repetition and extra work leading to
  frustration and fatigue
• low-level material leading to low self-esteem
• stigmatization (retard room) leading to
  emotional and behavioural issues

8
Modifications

• Should
• change curriculum outcomes
• lessen expectations
• make work easier
• shorten assignments
• But
• can lead to learned helplessness
• may be ineligible for high school credits
• do not exist at college/university level

9
Accommodations

• Should
• meet learning outcomes/objectives
• keep expectations at grade level
• allow for similar work
• allow for alternative presentation of info,
  assignment completion, test taking
• Can or Are
• build self-esteem
• eligible for high school credits
• available at colleges and universities

10
Meet Kristen

• a student witha Visual Processing Disability

11
Meet me and my bisadility

• See WhatI See

12
Why cant you read this?

• Nigissinq Univeristg in North GaG miqht de
  detite, dut it is gugging with dotential.
• It specialises in training today to be the
  teachers students of of tomorrow.
• Set among mature, the tool offers a beautiful few
  for mutants while they are in mass or while they
  are sat launch indoors.
• Is this clearer?

13
Average StudentAptitude vs. Achievement- normal
scatter (normal differences)
14
Student with a LD (Reading)Aptitude vs.
Achievement significant differences
15
My Profile - Visual LD (Dyslexia) Aptitude,
Achievement Info Processing
16
Welcome to elementary school

• Learning with dyslexia and dysgraphia

• She has great ideas for stories but must take the
  time to recheck her work for careless mistakes in
  spelling and sentence structure. (Gr. 4 teacher)

17
My elementary school experience

• How I was perceived
• - the lucky one
• How I performed
• - the remedial accommodations
• How I learned
• - accommodations at home
• How I was identified as LD (grade 4)

18
My Elementary Years

• My school experience
• Never trying hard enough
• She tends to try to guess what is written instead
  of slowing down and trying to discriminate the
  different sounds. (Gr. 5 teacher)
• Having no free time
• Krissy has used the tape recorder and the
  computer to help improve her spelling skills.
  The weekly test results with the class are very
  positive. (Gr. 6 teacher)

19
My Elementary Years

• My school experience
• Walls of frustration
• Getting the right answer
• Always being alone
• All day, every day
• she finds written work a real chore. Her
  grammar, spelling and handwriting are still weak
  however, many errors could be avoided if she were
  to take the time to recheck her work carefully.
  (Gr. 5 teacher)

20
My high school experience

• I was cured!! (not but de-identified)
• How I was perceived
• I thought you were smart?
• How I performed
• the exam accommodations
• How I learned
• accommodations at home

21
My learning context then...

• Previous assessment (wasnt shared with Kristen)
• weakness in
• letter word identification
• reading comp
• writing skills
• diagnosis - specific learning disability

• Previous accommodation
• progress monitored
• Spec Ed assistance
• removed from regular French program
• periodically removed from regular class for
  remediation

22
My university experience

• Has the perception changed?
• deafness
• How I perform
• the exam accommodations
• How I learn
• using my learning strengths
• accommodations for learning

23
My learning context now

• New assessment greater self-knowledge
• 4 page to 20 page assessment
• Im now part of the IEP process (shut out before)
• Access to Resources
• Special Needs, LOP, Assistive Devices Tech
  Learning Strategist
• Increased self-confidence
• ability to explain self-advocate
• More efficient learning
• reading, writing, organization test-taking

24
In addition, I now know

• new assessment information
• poor visual memory
• visual tracking problems including reversals
• poor visual decoding
• poor phonetic decoding (phoneme/grapheme
  awareness)
• auditory memory is weak although this is my
  strongest learning modality

25
Current Accommodations

• Kurzweil 3000 (text to speech)
• Dragon Naturally Speaking (speech to text)
• textHELP Read Write (editing reads back,
  dyslexic spell checker, homophone checker)
• Pocket PC keyboard organization, note taking
  in class reading
• Study carrels in library
• Exams above tools and extra time if necessary

26
Life Today

• Im not broken
• Self-advocate
• Purse full of technology
• DONT or CANT or NOT ABLE are not words I use
• Work Free money any one?
• Advocate for others who dont have a voice

27
Meet Elaine

• a student with
• Working Memory Deficit

28
What is Working Memory?

• Analogies

29
WM has been compared to

• A computer with limited RAM (one too many
  programs and the computer stalls)
• A chalkboard (info is erased before more can be
  written down)
• A measuring cup (fill it with info but it will
  start to spill out when more is poured in)
• An average persons WM is like riding a bike with
  large wheels but my WM is like riding a bike with
  very small wheels. I cant go as fast and I use
  more energy and tire more quickly.

30
The Memory System

• Where does Working Memory fit in?

31
Memory System
Weiten, W. (1998) Psychology themes and
variations, fourth edition. Pacific Grove
Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.
32
Sensory Memory

• Sensory input is the information we receive from
  our eyes, ears, nose, and hands.
• When sensory input is attended to it enters
  working memory from sensory memory.

33
Sensory Working Memory

• Working memory has to block out other sensory
  input to attend to the specific stimuli.(
  i.e.blocking ears, turning off radio, testing
  environment)
• Blocking out uses some of the Working Memorys
  capacity

34
Working Short-term Memoryincludes

• a rehearsal loop or (short term memory) has, on
  average, a limited capacity of 7 chunks.
• If information is rehearsed long enough it is
  organized into long term memory.

35
Working Short-term Memoryincludes

• a visuo-spatial sketch pad holds and manipulates
  mental images (visual image of a word or number)

36
Working Short-term Memoryincludes

• an executive function handles a limited amount of
  information while manipulating it (hold 56 and 17
  while subtracting 17 from 56)

37
Long-term Memory

• Very simply, rehearsal is needed to retrieve a
  list of words from long term memory.
• The more rehearsal the easier it is to retrieve.

38
Working Memory Learning Disabilities

39
WM and learning to read

• Consider the process as a child
• I read a sentence and come to a word that is
  unfamiliar
• I must decode (sound out) the word and in doing
  so
• I lose the context of the sentence, so I reread
• I come to the same unfamiliar word, my memory
  fails me and I begin the process again.

40
Working Memory Deficit

• Holding some information is possible until
• Holding and manipulating occurs then the process
  fails
• Holding the image of the word failed
• Therefore, elaborate rehearsal was not achieved
  so long term memory retrieval failed or was never
  really engaged

41
Working Memory Deficits

• These failures will happen to all young children
  learning to read because learning to read is so
  demanding on working memory however,
• Children with working memory deficits have
  extreme difficulties and need to be accommodated
• Average child reads their first novel at age 8.
  I was 14.

42
Working Memory Deficits

• People with working memory deficits have great
  potential.
• It is like an athlete confined to a wheel chair.
  The potential is still there but part of the
  system has made the implementation more
  difficult.
• I need you to believe in the potential of people
  with learning disabilities.

43
How WM deficit affects my life

• The elementary school years were humiliating for
  me.
• High school was better because I mastered reading
  even though it was at a slow pace, but writing
  was painful.
• There are so many rules for spelling, punctuation
  grammar that I have never been able to process
  them efficiently enough to depend on them when I
  need them.

44
How WM deficit affects my life

• I worked extremely hard in high school and got
  As and Bs, but my health suffered
• I finished college with As
• I rarely finished a test in high school or
  college.
• Currently I still cant trust my working memory
  to get by on tests so I compensate by being very
  prepared

45
WM and Me

• I must study very hard and self-test to be in
  complete control.
• This is an attempt to keep anxiety low (anxiety
  also taxes WM) to avoid overload from too much
  information
• This control is physically draining and effects
  my health

46
Parent of a Child with L.D.

• My child has a Non-verbal L.D.
• very strong verbal skills
• weak visual and spatial skills
• affects coordination of gross and fine motor
  skills
• affects the ability to organize
• affects understanding facial and body language
• depends on working memory to compensate for
  non-verbal weakness which overloads WM
• similar characteristics as my deficit in learning
  but at a lesser extent

47
Working Memory

• Has a powerful role
• If you can understand and respect the role of
  working memory in the learning process, you will
  be an effective teacher for children with
  learning disabilities and also the average child.
• Quiet time and extra time are a must during the
  learning process

48
Parent of a Child with L.D.in the school system

• A good experience (but this rare)
• Grade 1- excellent teacher picked up the signs
  (identification process began)
• Parent open to hearing their child is L.D. (rare
  or school system is not open to parents concerns)
• Grade 2- psychological assessment
• Grade 3- Learning Skills classroom (quiet
  setting, consistent skilled teacher, with smart
  kids just like him)
• early help was extremely beneficial he did not
  get discouraged and still likes learning and
  school

49
Child with L.D. in School System

• Grade 4 - integrated into a regular class with no
  difficulties.
• Now he gets As and Bs.
• anxiety is a problem
• depends heavily on rules in social situations and
  doesn't adapt well to the dynamics of social
  interactions
• may fail to pick up social cues
• but considering how far he has come, I am so so
  very pleased

50
A brief overview . . .

• What is a Learning Disability?
• Ministry of Education definition

51
A learning disorder

• evident in both academic and social situations
  that involves one or more of the processes
  necessary for the proper use of spoken language
  or the symbols of communication, and that is
  characterized by a condition that

52

• a) is not primarily the result of
• impairment of vision
• impairment of hearing
• physical disability
• developmental disability
• primary emotional disturbance
• cultural difference and

53

• b) results in a significant discrepancy between
  academic achievement and assessed intellectual
  ability, with deficits in one or more of the
  following
• receptive language (listening, reading)
• language processing (thinking, conceptualizing,
  integrating)
• expressive language (talking, spelling, writing)
  
• mathematical computations

54

• c) may be associated with one or more conditions
  diagnosed as
• a perceptual handicap
• a brain injury
• minimal brain dysfunction
• dyslexia
• developmental aphasia.

55
What is a Learning Disability?

• A new definition
• from the LDAO

56
In brief "Learning Disabilities"

• refers to a variety of disorders that affect the
  acquisition, retention, understanding,
  organization or use of verbal and/or non-verbal
  information.

57
These disorders

• result from impairments in one or more
  psychological processes related to learning in
  combination with otherwise average abilities
  essential for thinking and reasoning.

58
These psychological processes are

• phonological processing
• memory and attention
• processing speed
• language processing
• perceptual-motor processing
• visual-spatial processing
• executive functions (e.g., planning, monitoring
  and metacognitive abilities)

59
Learning disabilities

• range in severity and invariably interfere with
  the acquisition and use of one or more of the
  following important skills

60
These skills are

• oral language (e.g., listening, speaking,
  understanding)
• reading (e.g., decoding, comprehension)
• written language (e.g., spelling, written
  expression)
• mathematics (e.g., computation, problem solving)
• organizational skills
• social perception
• social interaction

61
What a LD is Not!

• IT IS NOT
• low intelligence/an intellectual disability
• mental illness/emotional disturbance
• autism
• visual or auditory acuity problems
• laziness/lack of motivation
• a way to avoid other issues
• a physical handicap
• the result of a poor academic background

62
A Learning Disability is an Information
Processing Impairment

• It is like having too many bridges out as well as
  too many overlapping pathways along the
  information highways of the brain.
• Dale R. Jordan
• U. of Arkansas

63
A Simple Model of Learning Information
Processing

• Attention
• Sensory Input
• Decoding
• Processing
• May include Storage
• and/or Retrieval processes
• Encoding
• Physical Output

64
Where can IP break down? Dr. Allyson G.
Harrison, Queens University

• 1. Frontal lobe functioning deficits
• - abstract and conceptual thinking
• 2. Memory impairment
• - Short term memory
• - Working memory-mental blackboard dynamic
  process
• - Long term memory
• - Storage vs retrieval issues
• 3. Sequencing deficits (visual or auditory)

65
Breakdown continues Dr. Allyson G. Harrison,
Queens University

• 4. Speed of information processing
• 5. Attention
• - Selective (cannot choose/focus)
• - Sustained (cannot maintain)
• - Divided (cannot shift/hyperfocus)
• 6. Narrow processing style - cant
  simultaneously attend to process multiple
  aspects of a stimulus field

66
Still breaking down Dr. Allyson G. Harrison,
Queens University

• 7. Poor scanning resolution-miss relevant data
• 8. Right hemisphere dysfunction good at details
  but not global picture. Gets lost in details,
  easily overloaded. Cant make sense of
  holistically presented information. Poor ability
  to interpret visual cues.
• 9. Faulty output mechanism - interferes with
  demonstration of adequate information processing.

67
As a result, learners with LDs may have

• Difficulty with Alphabet/Penmanship
• Problems Expressing what is Known and Understood
• Problems in Personal Organization
• Difficulty in Copying/Note-Making
• Problems in Arithmetic
• Problems in Reading
• Slow Work Speed
• Problems with Time and Sequence
• Confusion in Spelling

68
For you visual learners

What does an LD look like? LDs from an
Information Processing perspective.
69
Traditional Aptitude vs. AchievementAverage
Student
70
Traditional Aptitude vs. Achievement Student
with a LD
71
Aptitude, Achievement Info Processing Visual
(Dyslexia)
72
Aptitude, Achievement Info Processing Auditory
(CAPD)
73
Non-verbal LDWAIS Profile
74
The Criteria

• identification is NOT diagnosis
• diagnosis must be made by a psychologist
• based on a discrepancy between ability (as
  measured by IQ) and academic achievement and/or
  information processing
• students at the post-secondary level MUST have a
  recent assessment with a valid diagnostic
  statement in order to get academic accommodation

75
So how might an LD affect a Learner?

• A Couple of Examples . . .

76
Cant you read this?

• Myle arn in gdisa bi LI tyma kesit dif Ficu
  ltform eto re Adi tslo wsm edo wnwh eniha veto re
  AdmYte xtbo Ok sbu twhe nius Eboo kso Nta peo rco
  mpu Teri zedsc ree nrea Din gsof twa Reto lis
  tent Om yte xtbo ok sith elp sal Ot.

77
Cant you see this?

• Cant you see the Dalmatian?

78
Social Emotional Aspects of a Learning
Disability

• From Introducing Learning Disabilities to
  Postsecondary Educators
• The Meighen Centre for Learning Assistance and
  Research, Mount Allison University

79
What does a Learning Disability feel like?

• Ask someone who has one!

80
Possible Academic Problems

• silent reading/reading aloud
• writing/spelling
• learning languages/math
• expressing what is known and understood
• having to re-do school work at home
• having no time off since everything takes longer
• dropping out

81
Possible Social/Emotional Problems

• feeling dumb, stupid, embarrassed, frustrated,
  anxious, lonely, isolated
• being called stupid, lazy being put down by
  teachers, friends, and even parents
• feeling nobody understands
• feeling need of help
• fearing rejection failure
• always having to cover up, act a role

82
Possible Career/Vocational Problems

• lack of basic skills
• lack of social skills
• Its never cured, It never goes away
• having to cover up
• never feeling adequate
• low expectations
• jobs dont last

83
Tough Facts from LDAC

• 35 of students identified with learning
  disabilities drop out of high school.
• 50 of adolescent suicides had previously been
  diagnosed as having learning problems.
• Volumes of research have shown that 30 to 70 of
  young offenders have experienced learning
  problems.

Statistics on Learning Disabilities. LDAC,
October 2001. Source Online http//www.ldac-taac
.ca/english/indepth/bkground/stats01.htm
84
What About the Kids?3 Tales from the Trenches

• Adam (grade 4) reading disability (pre. board)
• reading at grade 1 level, highly frustrated
  resistant to learning
• resistant to resource, so accommodated in the
  classroom
• up two levels, completed grade level work,
  independent research project, class leader
• end of the year comment to John
• now in Grade 5 back in resource, same phonics
  workbooks, etc. shut down
• teachers, perhaps afraid of technology, but have
  also bought into the myth that if students learn
  differently, they wont make it in the real
  world

85
What About the Kids?3 Tales from the Trenches

• Eve (grade 4) gifted with an LD
• worked very hard but no significant
  ability/achievement discrepancy so parents paid
  for assessment
• performing just below grade level
• works harder than all of her classmates
• remediation every night thru Oxford LC
• principal wont allow identification IEP
  monitoring
• recently caught cheating in spelling in French
• I wanted to get them right just once.
• should she be allowed to experience success?
• strategy Report Card accommodating her
  learning disability according to the
  psychological assessment

86
What About the Kids?3 Tales from the Trenches

• Ruth (grade 4) not yet diagnosed
• problems with math
• probably non-verbal LD problems with drawing,
  visual/spatial awareness, awkward, late reader
• goes to Kumon Math every night
• nightly math sheet (10 20 min) may take 2 hours
  with parents help
• teacher warned not to rock the boat (not to ID)
• so teacher removed classroom accommodation
  resulting failure allowed teacher to contact
  parents parents influential in community and
  parent council
• letters flew testing has begun shook up
  resource team 5 kids will now benefit from 1st
  math program

87
What you can do . . .

• How can a classroom/ resource teacher support a
  student with a learning disability?

88
Be a GREAT teacher

• Use multi-modal teaching techniques, offer valid
  performance and evaluation alternatives, and
• remember . . .

89
We Learn... William Glasser

• 10 of what we read
• 20 of what we hear
• 30 of what we see
• 50 of what we both see and hear
• 70 of what is discussed with others
• 80 of what we experience personally
• 95 of what we teach someone else

90
Or Simply

• Tell me and I will forget
• Show me and I may remember
• Involve me and I will understand
• Ancient Chinese proverb

91
Teach Academic/Learning Skills Topics from
UNIV1011

• How We Learn
• Learning Styles
• Time Management
• Active Listening Notetaking
• Active Reading
• Writing Strategies
• Critical Creative Thinking

• Test Taking Evaluation
• Attitude Motivation
• Self-Determination Self-Advocacy
• Teamwork Rapport
• Energy Stress
• Health Wellness

92
What you can do . . .

• Provide Access to Curriculum and Accommodation

93
Follow the principles of UIDHeli Wynne

• Universal Instructional Design
• . . . curriculum is accessible to all students,
  regardless of their learning style or the
  presence of learning and/or other disabilities.
• or . . .

94
Universal Design for Learning (CAST description)

• UDL shifts old assumptions about teaching and
  learning in four fundamental ways
• Source online Center for Applied Special
  Technology (CAST) www.cast.org/udl/

95
UDL basic concepts (CAST)

• Students with disabilities fall along a continuum
  of learner differences rather than constituting a
  separate category
• Teacher adjustments for learner differences
  should occur for all students, not just those
  with disabilities

96
UDL basic concepts (CAST)

• Curriculum materials should be varied and diverse
  including digital and online resources, rather
  than centering on a single textbook
• Instead of remediating students so that they can
  learn from a set curriculum, curriculum should be
  made flexible to accommodate learner differences

97
For more about UDL see

• CASTs Universal Design for Learning site
• http//www.cast.org/udl/
• Online textbook
• Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age
  Universal Design for Learning. David H. Rose
  Anne Meyer ASCD, 2002
• www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/ideas/tes/

98
More about accommodating individual student
differences

• PBS documentary, Misunderstood Minds
• http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoodminds/intro.h
  tml
• Check out the work of Dr. Mel Levine
• His organizations website
• www.allkindsofminds.orq
• A Mind at a Time, Chapter 1
• http//www.allkindsofminds.org/bookExcerpts/aMinda
  tATime.aspx

99
Paul Gerber onwhat you can do . . .

• Promote success through teaching
• self-advocacy
• self-awareness
• self-knowledge
• Dr. Paul Gerber, Pathways 2002

100
Characteristics of Successful Adults with LDs

• Gerber, Ginsberg, and Reiff. Learning to
  Achieve Suggestions from Adults with Learning
  Disabilities. Journal on Postsecondary Education
  and Disability.Source online www.ahead.org/publi
  cations/JPED/jped10-1-b.html

101
Their findings (n71)

• The driving factor underlying the success of the
  entire sample was an effort to gain control of
  their lives.
• Attaining control involved both internal
  decisions and external manifestations.

102
Control

• The issue of control is of special significance
  to individuals with learning disabilities.
• For many, a significant effect of learning
  disabilities was a sense of a taking away of
  control.

103
Control

• Especially in the school-age years, most
  respondents felt that they were not in charge of
  their lives
• instead, because they learned differently, they
  were consigned to special programs or told, in a
  variety of ways, that that they did not measure
  up to expectations

104
Gaining control

• a significant pattern was a high degree of
  preparation that the adults used to be ready to
  face any possible situation.
• A number remarked that they could not afford to
  be caught off-guard and consequently put forth
  extraordinary effort to predict all permutations
  of any situation.

105
Attaining control involved

• Internal Decisions
• Desire
• Goal Orientations (realistic in goal setting
  process)
• Reframing (of the learning disability experience)

• External Manifestations
• Persistence
• Learned Creativity
• Goodness of Fit (between abilities and work
  environment)
• Social Ecologies (use assistance of helpful,
  supportive people)

106
Predictors of Success in Adults with LD

• IQ or Achievement scores are at best MINOR
  predictors of success in adults with LD
• Six other factors were far BETTER PREDICTORS
  (Raskind et al, 1999)
• Dr. Marc Wilchesky, York University
• Pathways 2002

107
Predictors of Success in Adults with LD

• Self-awareness
• Proactivity
• Perseverance
• Goal Setting
• Emotional Stability
• Social Support Systems
• Raskind et al, 1999

108
So in review, you can

• Raise self-esteem by staying positive -- you may
  be the adult who makes a difference
• Include the student in the process
• Allow the student both access to and control over
  his/her learning environment
• Focus on strengths accommodate for weaknesses
• Teach learning strategies
• Use technological aids/software
• Encourage/teach social skills
• Offer positive, realistic feedback
• Fight for funding, assessment technology

109
More Info . . .

• On learning disabilities
• www.schwablearning.org
• www.ldonline.org
• www.ldpride.net
• www.ldao.on.ca
• www.ldrc.ca
• http//specialed.about.com/cs/learningdisabled
• Activities to help understand processing deficits
• http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoodminds/
• Mikes Learning Resources site
• www.nipissingu.ca/faculty/mikew/resource

110
Questions?

• . . . lets take a break!

111
Technology for Students with Learning Disabilities

• Tools to help accommodate for information
  processing deficits

112
What Can Students with LDs Expect?

• Typical accommodations available to students with
  learning disabilities at the post-secondary level

113
Test/Exam Accommodation

• Common
• extra time
• spell checker
• use of a computer
• distraction-free environment
• leniency towards spelling grammar

• Less Common
• reader
• scribe
• e-reader
• voice dictation

114
Classroom/Lecture Accommodation

• Common
• tape recorder
• note-sharer/taker
• use of overheads/ visual organizer
• Alpha-Smart/lap-top computer/Pocket PC

• Less Common
• FM system
• wait time when called upon
• lecture notes on reserve/on web
• lecture outline in advance

115
Personal Study Accommodation

• master notebook
• organizer
• talking spell checker
• texts on tape
• tape/digital recorder
• computer
• scanner
• e-reader/e-texts
• voice dictation
• reduced course load

• study buddy
• study carrels
• mentor
• academic skills
• peer tutor
• professional tutor
• technology training
• learning strategy training based on LD assessment

116
BSWD Bursary for Students With Disabilities

• This year up to 10, 000
• Tied to OSAP eligibility
• For disability-related educational expenses
  assessments, computers assistive software,
  adaptive devices, tutoring, therapy, ergonomic
  devices, etc.
• NOT for tuition, books, residence, etc.