23 January 2009
New Year, New Dreams, New Ideas. This year I decided to commit to indepth work on multisensory teaching for students. My passion for the field has been assessment-driven and writing focused, but only after I had worked in schools and with families was I reminded of the value and need of direct instruction (and the reward of helping kids learn). That which I had been trained in soooo many years ago, has grown in meaning for me, and has now become an important focus for my work.
There is also my fascination with the resurgence in family therapy and my particular interest in the effect learning issues have on family communication and harmony. What challenges do families face and confront when learning or school issues arise? What conflicts and fears surface? How do learning issues affect other siblings, parents, childcare issues???
There is little to no research, writing on this: your thoughts and ideas are crucial for understanding. Please share....
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The multisensory instruction topic has been growing in the foreign language arena; Lorin Pritikin's workshop last spring for Bay Area teachers was followed by a workshop last Friday by Karen Miller. I didn't attend the second one, but in the first, it seemed like all of the Lindamood-Bell/Orton-Gillingham training was simply being co-opted for foreign language teachers.
ReplyDeleteYou're definitely right, the need for direct instruction (both for student and practitioner) is easy to forget (and just as easy to remember when you start it up again).
As for family issues around LDs, I feel like I've seen books or heard of lectures on that topic. Maybe PEN (Parents Education Network) is where I saw those? I'll try to look it up and find some links to share.
-Julia
"Dyslexia" has become anachronistic: now anyone who doesn't like reading is considered dyslexic! And here's an observation about the actual incidence of "learning disorder" dx: apparently in the general mental health population the frequency of this dx is "rare" (Morrison, 2006). Hmm, Mrs. Morrison hasn't come across the mountains of evals on our desk, eh?
ReplyDeleteMore to the point: I'm troubled by how limiting a dx is and in fact how it can prevent people from getting help from the community or from more organic resources, b/c of the focus on medical treatment as the only hope. (Just go over to Glide to see a full array of mental health dx who are becoming productive and fulfilled outside the mental health system).