 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
116
BOOK II
PART IV
LONGER READING
LEARNING THE HARD WAY
How to Help Children Triumph
Over Learning Disabilities
by Melinda Blau
(1) By the time she was in the twelfth grade, Jessica Dupont* thought she was retarded. In the early
years, she had fooled teachers by memorizing the lessons her classmates read aloud. When she was twelve
and her parents separated, she began to pull out her hair — literally. She was labeled emotionally
disturbed. Her divorced parents argued over who had done the most harm, and Jessica continued to fail —
and suffer.
* The names of all of the parents and children in this article have been changed
10
(2) At fifteen, Jason Leigh had retired — from school, from his classmates, from the basketball team.
Withdrawn, angry, he turned to drugs. When his school suggested he go elsewhere, his parents grounded
him and said he'd better start working harder — or else. They felt guilty and frustrated, not to mention
15
angry at the expensive private schools and tutors they had paid over the years to correct Jason's «reading
problem».
(3)Michael Elliott was a sickly child who had been in and out of the hospital more times than his mother
could count. When Pamela Elliott began taking him around to various kindergartens, every interviewer told
20 her the same thing: «He's bright, but»... At the end of first grade it still took Michael fifteen minutes to read
c-a-t, his school said that was the fault of his parents and advised them to see a psychiatrist.
(4) Nicholas Sandford was a failure by the time he was in nursery school. He couldn't draw an X or
25 pronounce words correctly or run down the block without tripping over his feet. He was the sandbox bully,
always hitting other children or taking their toys. His mother blamed herself and eventually sought
psychological help for Nicky.
30
(5) Jessica and Jason and Michael and Nicky are among the millions of American children who find
themselves labeled slow learners, retarded, emotionally disturbed. Their parents and teachers often call
them difficult, frustrating, even bad. Yet all of these children are of average or above-average intelligence,
35
they are considered psychologically normal, and they have normal sight and hearing. But they just aren't
like their peers, and they never will be: their brains are structurally different. Recent research utilizing
brainscanning devices points to an underlying neurophysiological basis for their problems.
40 (6) The fashionable abbreviation for their condition is «LD», which stands for «learning disability»,
«learning disorder», or «learning difficulty», depending on one's orientation. Some therapists prefer
«learning difference», which implies not so much a disorder as a condition that needn't be stigmatized.
45
(7) Last year, 70,000 New York City public-school students were classified as learning disabled. But
there are probably 50,000 to 290,000 more children with LDs in this city who were not counted because
they haven't been diagnosed or because they are in private or parochial schools: There were 1.2 million
50 students in kindergartens through twelfth grade in the city during the 1986-1987 school year, and most
experts estimate that from 10 to 30 percent of the school population has some form of learning disorder.
55
(8) Parents of children with LDs are often confused, guilty, angry, and isolated. They don't understand
why their Jane or Johnny isn't learning, especially if they have shelled out $5,000 to $10,000 a year to make
sure he or she does. The fact that some of the greatest minds in history (Einstein and da Vinci, for instance)
60
have triumphed over this «hidden handicap» is of little consolation to the mother who sees her eight'year
old straining to put his right shoe on his right foot.
(9) Not even the wisest parents can eliminate a learning disorder — their children have, simply stated, a
different kind of mind. Nor can parents alter the reality that most schools — even private schools — are
not prepared to teach these children. But parents can make a difference: their nurturing can help their
learning-disabled child function even flourish — despite the disability, instead of growing into a fearful
human being who backs away from life.