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Reciprocity and mutuality: people with learning disabilities as carers

Nicki Ward

in Ethics of Care: Critical advances in international perspective

Like other binary divides, the division between care giver and care receiver tends to render invisible the realities of caring relationships. Those traditionally seen as vulnerable and in need of ... More

Like other binary divides, the division between care giver and care receiver tends to render invisible the realities of caring relationships. Those traditionally seen as vulnerable and in need of care can be subjected to paternalistic and oppressive practices whilst at the same time, the care needs of the person seen as the ‘carer giver’ can become obscured. People with learning disabilities have traditionally been seen as care receivers, whilst their parents and other family members have been seen as their care givers. Utilising and developing the concepts of mutuality and reciprocity, this chapter draws on examples from research with people with learning disabilities who are carers and uses a critical ethic of care as a framework to explore these experiencesLess

The Learning Disability Mess

Ruth Colker

in Disabled Education: A Critical Analysis of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

This chapter examines how children with learning disabilities can be eligible to receive special education and related services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). It begins ... More

This chapter examines how children with learning disabilities can be eligible to receive special education and related services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). It begins by reviewing the legal and psychological literature on what constitutes a learning disability and how such a disability should be diagnosed. It then considers the disagreement that continues to exist on whether there must be evidence of a psychological or neurological impairment, and whether the discrepancy model should be part of the diagnostic model. It also discusses the wide range of definitions of learning disability used by the various states despite the fact that the IDEA is a national statute, along with the implications of the learning disability classification for college admissions testing. The chapter concludes by suggesting how the learning disability mess may be solved.Less

Teaching Foreign Languages to Students with Disabilities: Initiatives to Educate Faculty

Rasma Lazda-Cazers and Helga Thorson

in Worlds Apart?: Disability and Foreign Language Learning

This chapter discusses issues involved in accommodating and teaching students with learning disabilities in the foreign language classroom. Addressed here are four questions that may help faculty to ... More

This chapter discusses issues involved in accommodating and teaching students with learning disabilities in the foreign language classroom. Addressed here are four questions that may help faculty to make decisions about departmental priorities, mission, curricular goals, and teaching methodologies that would address the needs and challenges of today's increasingly diverse student body: Is there a unique foreign language learning disability? In what ways is the teaching of a foreign language to students with disabilities different from teaching other academic disciplines in a student's first language? What is meant by “reasonable accommodations” in terms of teaching foreign languages and cultures to students with learning disabilities? Are there specific teaching methodologies or techniques that facilitate the foreign language learning process of students who have a learning disability?Less

Including Students with Learning Disabilities

Fuk Chuen Ho

in Learning Diversity in the Chinese Classroom: Contexts and Practice for Students with Special Needs

This chapter discusses the learning difficulties of Chinese students in regular classroom contexts. Since disabilities in the subject areas of reading and mathematics influence all areas of school ... More

This chapter discusses the learning difficulties of Chinese students in regular classroom contexts. Since disabilities in the subject areas of reading and mathematics influence all areas of school achievement, and are often experienced by students with learning disabilities, these two areas are the chief focus of discussion. In addition to elucidating various issues concerning the definition of learning disabilities, some pertinent assessment approaches and specific strategies for supporting students with learning disabilities to acquire reading and mathematical skills are expounded.Less

Loss for children with learning disability

Linda McEnhill

in Brief Interventions with Bereaved Children

This chapter discusses the concept of ‘resilience’. It is not completely clear what this might look like in bereaved people and especially in children with learning disability (LD). This chapter also ... More

This chapter discusses the concept of ‘resilience’. It is not completely clear what this might look like in bereaved people and especially in children with learning disability (LD). This chapter also includes an attempt to define learning disability and clarify what it ‘is not’, especially in relation to bereavement. Issues related to bereavement and disability and considerations about how to help children with LD enhance their personal identity and their ability to manage the crisis of bereavement are presented in this chapter as well.Less

Transitions for young people with learning disabilities

Gillian MacIntyre

in Managing transitions: Support for individuals at key points of change

Young people with learning disabilities can expect to make transitions that involve local education authorities, children's social services, adult social care, and in some cases paediatric and adult ... More

Young people with learning disabilities can expect to make transitions that involve local education authorities, children's social services, adult social care, and in some cases paediatric and adult health services. This transition is a complicated process that occurs at different ages and involves different eligibility criteria, depending on which organisations are involved. This chapter explores the nature of transition from childhood to adulthood for young people with learning disabilities. It outlines their experiences of transition and examines policy responses in relation to these experiences. The chapter shows that young people with learning disabilities are often particularly vulnerable to the varying age limits and eligibility structures of different support services. They are also very much at the heart of changing expectations in terms of social inclusion, with the aspiration for exercising wider choices and accessing employment.Less

Organizational Learning Disabilities and Organizational Amnesia

Sandra L. Bloom and Brian Farragher

in Destroying Sanctuary: The Crisis in Human Service Delivery Systems

This chapter has a wide focus, covering many of the cognitive problems that are secondary to chronic organizational stress. Stress interferes with organizational learning, organizational memory is ... More

This chapter has a wide focus, covering many of the cognitive problems that are secondary to chronic organizational stress. Stress interferes with organizational learning, organizational memory is lost, organizational amnesia affects function, and service delivery becomes increasingly fragmented. The organization has developed learning disabilities. Decision-making becomes compromised and reactive so that short-sighted policy decisions are made that appear to compound existing problems. Stressed groups are frequently unwilling to perceive and discuss problems that the group denies and are more likely to actively and dangerously silence dissent.Less

Specific Learning Disorder

James C. Raines

in Evidence-Based Practice in School Mental Health: Addressing DSM-5 Disorders in Schools

Students with specific learning disorder (SLD) account for 35% of all students receiving special education services. In the DSM-5, SLD combines four previous diagnoses into one. The Individuals with ... More

Students with specific learning disorder (SLD) account for 35% of all students receiving special education services. In the DSM-5, SLD combines four previous diagnoses into one. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) agree that children should be excluded from being diagnosed if the disorder is primarily due to environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage. They differ on the DSM-5’s exclusion for the lack of proficiency in the language of instruction. Schools can screen for SLD using the testing or the dual-discrepancy model of response to intervention (RTI). Assessment requires a comprehensive evaluation by the school. Students with SLD often suffer from poor social skills and low self-esteem. Intervention may be titrated according to the student’s level of need using multitiered systems of support. Collaborating with teachers, parents, and community providers is especially important for these students. A case example illustrates how an ecological approach can help students grow and learn.Less

High Roads and Low Roads to Disability

Colin Ong-Dean

in Distinguishing Disability: Parents, Privilege, and Special Education

This chapter examines how disability diagnoses and parental practices are distributed across different groups of parents and what kinds of arguments about parents' involvement can initially be made ... More

This chapter examines how disability diagnoses and parental practices are distributed across different groups of parents and what kinds of arguments about parents' involvement can initially be made based on this distribution. The findings reveal the shift in the number of learning disability (LD) diagnoses from the privileged to the less privileged children. This chapter also considers other disabilities such as mental retardation and autism spectrum disorders and compares the diagnoses of these disabilities with that of LD.Less

Making a Difference: Evaluating, Modifying, and Creating Inclusive Foreign Language Activities

Teresa Cabal Krastel

in Worlds Apart?: Disability and Foreign Language Learning

This chapter describes the outcome of a teaching methods program entitled “Technology for the Twenty-first Century,” held at Springfield Technical Community College in Springfield, Massachusetts in ... More

This chapter describes the outcome of a teaching methods program entitled “Technology for the Twenty-first Century,” held at Springfield Technical Community College in Springfield, Massachusetts in 2002. During the course, participants—foreign language teachers—used journals to reflect upon and transform their teaching to better meet the needs of diverse learners in their classes. Participants explored various activities that aim to accommodate the diverse needs of students in an inclusive foreign language classroom and are also especially effective for students with learning disabilities. In general, a learning disability is defined as “a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia.” .Less

Specific Learning Disabilities

Kimberly A. McCord

in Teaching the Postsecondary Music Student with Disabilities

Specific learning disabilities are high-incidence disabilities. Subtypes include dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, and dyspraxia. Learning disabilities can make reading music notation a challenge ... More

Specific learning disabilities are high-incidence disabilities. Subtypes include dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, and dyspraxia. Learning disabilities can make reading music notation a challenge and can impact academic success. Students may struggle with reading comprehension, writing skills, organization and math. Strategies such as using special fonts that make reading easier, using multiple learning modes when teaching, and offering class notes on a website for all students, keeps the student from becoming frustrated and overwhelmed.Less

Specified Learning Disabilities and Music Education

Kimberly McCord

in Exceptional Music Pedagogy for Children with Exceptionalities: International Perspectives

Specified learning disabilities are the most common disability. Currently, the National Center for Educational Statistics estimates that 41% of children in the United States receiving special ... More

Specified learning disabilities are the most common disability. Currently, the National Center for Educational Statistics estimates that 41% of children in the United States receiving special education services are diagnosed with one or more specific learning disabilities. Dyslexia is the most common learning disability, but others include dyscalculia, dysgraphia, and dyspraxia. Children with learning disabilities frequently struggle with organizational skills, fine or gross motor control, and short- or long-term memory difficulties. This chapter provides information about each of these disabilities and includes strategies for music educators to provide appropriate accommodations and modification couched in a universal design for learning approach to music education.Less

Learning disability nursing: surviving change, c.1970–90

Duncan Mitchell

in Mental health nursing: The working lives of paid carers, 1800s-1900s

This chapter explores the challenge to learning disability nursing in the period 1970-90. Learning disability nursing has its roots in the institutions that were built for the care and control of ... More

This chapter explores the challenge to learning disability nursing in the period 1970-90. Learning disability nursing has its roots in the institutions that were built for the care and control of mental defectives following the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act. Nurses formed the majority of the paid workforce and in some cases managed the institutions with little or no medical oversight. By the 1960’s the institutions and their nurses were fully integrated within the National Health Service and the training of the nurses was organised by the General Nursing Council. In 1972 the Briggs Report into the future of the nursing profession recommended that what was then known as subnormality nursing would be replaced by a professional grouping based on a model of social care. The 1979 Jay Report formalised the recommendation by advocating a model of social care that would have no room for trained nurses. Both reports seemed to reflect a prevailing mood that nurses in what later became known as learning disability would go the way of fever nursing: an anachronism along with the institutions that they ran. Despite these developments however subnormality nursing, with its revised name of mental handicap then learning disability nursing survived and prospered.Less

Support for people with learning disabilities: promoting an inclusive community

Barbara McIntosh

in Social Determinantsof Health: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Social Inequality and Wellbeing

This chapter considers inclusive communities as a form of support for people with learning disabilities (LDs). There are one-and-a-half million people with LDs in the UK. Many of these people believe ... More

This chapter considers inclusive communities as a form of support for people with learning disabilities (LDs). There are one-and-a-half million people with LDs in the UK. Many of these people believe that a gap exists between UK policy and reality, made worse by recent cuts in public spending. Nevertheless, there has been progress in this area. The chapter first explains what a learning disability is and how it presents before providing a brief historical background on UK government policies aimed at protecting and promoting the rights of people with LDs. It then discusses some of the major challenges involved in providing care and support for people with LDs, focusing on issues relating to health inequalities, employment, mental health, improving decision-making by people with LDs, housing, and financial constraint. The chapter concludes with an assessment of future prospects for services for people with LDs.Less

Cognition: The developmental trajectory approach

Michael S. C. Thomas, Harry R. Purser, and Jo Van Herwegen

in Neurodevelopmental Disorders Across the Lifespan: A neuroconstructivist approach

One emphasis of this volume is on the use of developmental trajectories in the study of developmental disabilities. This chapter focuses on theoretical, methodological, and analytical issues ... More

One emphasis of this volume is on the use of developmental trajectories in the study of developmental disabilities. This chapter focuses on theoretical, methodological, and analytical issues surrounding trajectories, but it is grounded in examples drawn from one aspect of research on Williams syndrome (WS), that of figurative language development. Figurative language is relevant to everyday communication skills, and it is of theoretical interest because it lies at the interface of language, cognition, and social skills. It therefore brings to the fore issues surrounding the uneven cognitive profile frequently observed in WS. In particular, how the development of figurative language fares in WS is considered, given the apparent strengths in language and social skills whereas the overall IQ indicates moderate levels of learning disability. The methods described are more general, however, and could be applied to a variety of neurodevelopmental disorders.Less

Knowledge conflicts: embodiment, inscription and the education of children with learning disabilities in Germany

Alma Demszky

in Knowledge in policy: Embodied, inscribed, enacted

Who knows best? This case study of the legal regulation of schools for children with learning disabilities in Germany pits the embodied knowledge and expertise of parents and teachers against the ... More

Who knows best? This case study of the legal regulation of schools for children with learning disabilities in Germany pits the embodied knowledge and expertise of parents and teachers against the inscribed wisdom of the law. The parents of disabled children have a very special knowledge of the bodies and minds of those children, which sometimes conflicts with the knowledge of teachers or policy makers: we might understand this as a conflict between the embodied knowledge of the parents and the inscribed knowledge of the law. This conflict is managed and settled in practical decision-making in the moment of enactment. The law is interpreted and enacted in the everyday decision-making of the school: this need for enactment makes for the possibility of accommodation or translation between embodied and inscribed forms of knowledge.Less

Life Story: Sara Lane

in Rights of Inclusion: Law and Identity in the Life Stories of Americans with Disabilities

This chapter draws heavily on the life stories of two people: Sara and Jill and presents an approach to the issue of identity in relation to rights. It argues that the sense of self determines the ... More

This chapter draws heavily on the life stories of two people: Sara and Jill and presents an approach to the issue of identity in relation to rights. It argues that the sense of self determines the perceptions of fairness and unfairness that precede any consideration of rights and suggests that the challenges of identity formation differ for persons with physical and learning disabilities. This chapter compares Sara and Jill's experiences to three other interviewees and emphasizes two aspects of identity namely; interactive, inter-subjective quality and its narrative component. These aspects are related to the emergence of an orientation toward rights among interviewees. It reflects on a life story that simultaneously spoke of independence and of helpful interventions by others, of barriers impeding access and of accommodations that facilitated a successful career, of egalitarianism and paternalism, of laws and a legal culture that opened doors at important moments and of laws and a legal system that posed great professional risks and inflicted pain and humiliation.Less