Articles

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Article 1:

Every day these students sit unhappily in class, losing hope of ever realizing their dreams. Students are living in pain and shame. They are not learning to be successful students. Their parents are frustrated in their attempts to find suitable education for their child. They’ve tried working through the public schools. They have hired tutors. Parents are calling for real solutions. In order to thrive, these students need special educational methods that address their unique profile of strengths and needs. But even more importantly, these children require a new mindset of success. Educational therapy offers help and hope to children and adults with learning challenges such as ADHD, autism, dyslexia, and learning disabilities. Educational therapy is an appropriate and highly successful approach to helping students of all ages achieve their maximum potential. Educational therapists use state of the art educational programs and methods that have been proven to teach students with learning problems the skills they require to be successful. Educational therapy shows students how to overcome their learning problems and lead successful lives. All throughout the school years, foundations for future success are laid down. Not only are students learning essential skills such as reading, they are also learning to value education. But most importantly, they are learning to believe that they are successful students! When students experience repeated frustration and failure, they develop self-doubt along with dislike or distrust of educational experiences. These negative views influence how much students can learn, at every level from elementary school through college!

Teachers and tutors use the same methods for every child. Children are unique and each learns in his or her own way. Teachers and tutors usually do not understand how to modify their approach to address different learning styles. Teachers and tutors only teach subject matter. Students who experience repeated academic failure lack the underlying foundational skills to be successful students. They often don’t know the best study methods, how to manage their time, or what the real secrets are to academic success. Teachers and tutors do not address the root cause of continued academic failure—learned helplessness. When students experience failure after failure, they develop a mindset that they are “stupid” and “can’t learn.” They give up on ever being a good student! But, when students believe they can succeed, they begin to try. When they believe they can learn, they begin to study. When they believe they can have impressive futures, they make powerful choices. Students have the right to believe in their innate intelligence and skill!

Article 2:

As an expert in teaching children with dyslexia, the author follow these debates with great interest, but was dismayed to see that yet again, the real issue isn't being addressed here. In his experience, the central issue isn't whether dyslexia exists or not, it's about how the individual learning needs of children are being addressed by the school system. Mr. Stringer wrote; "To label children as dyslexic because they're confused by poor teaching methods is wicked." He thinks this generalization about teaching methods is misleading in this latest dyslexia debate. Is it possible for a system that needs to teach children in large groups to match teaching style to each child's learning style? The answer is inevitably no. This is not about teachers failing - it's about the fact that all children are different and schools cannot accommodate individual learning styles. So where does this leave the thousands of parents who know that their child is struggling to flourish in a system that cannot cater for their needs? Many go down the route of getting their child formally assessed and labeled as having a learning difficulty, which can create other problems. He believes instead that a different approach is required, one that is at the centre of his attitude towards every aspect of a child's education and development: avoid labeling. In his experience, and those of the private tutors that work for his agency, when one adapts the teaching style to the needs of the child, the 'need' for that label disappears.

I think if these children are taught in such a way that these strengths can be capitalized upon, with techniques that make any difficulty with the written word simply irrelevant, then they develop into students with more resources for learning. There are also psychological benefits as they form a self-perception that is untainted by any negative labels. To me, that is the most important result and I will use that in my classroom.

Article 3:

There are several methods through which we learn: Through seeing (visually) Hearing (auditory), Touching or manipulating an object (kinesthetically or 'hands-on' learning). An example of these would be, looking at a picture book or reading a textbook, this would be visual learning. Listening to a c.d., or going to a lecture this would be learning through hearing…and pressing buttons to determine how to operate a DVD involves learning kinesthetically, through touch and feel. Mostly we learn through two or more of these learning skills. How we learn will determine how ELL we do at school. Most mainstream school adopt all of these learning methods, we visually learn through reading books and texts, we learn through listening to our teachers and we practice tasks to learn. With autistic children they will nearly always be visual learners. Some autistic children will also be kinesthetic learners and may well benefit from their teacher or helper actually guiding their hand while they undertake tasks. Therefore, it is important that a teacher assess each autistic child in the class to determine which kind of learning skill they prefer. The teacher can then adapt the teaching style to suit the autistic child's needs and build on their strengths. However one very important thing to remember when assessing an autistic child is their need for repetition and sameness. Keeping this in mind when setting lessons will be of benefit. A visual timetable should always be in place for the autistic student to refer too. As with a normally developing child autism learning skills, can be enhanced by following these simple rules. Another good idea is to set up autism social skills stories. I feel these help keep the autistic child on task, and work as an excellent tool in helping teachers explain why, what and how to their autistic students, I will incorporate this in my classroom. Using autism social skills stories will benefit the autistic student as they will encompass all autism learning skills, they can be read, auditory, they have appropriate pictures and images plus some text, visual and they can be handles kinesthetic, or used as a visual aid with attachable pictures.