LD Resources

Photo by Alessandra Sanguinetti / Magnum

It appears that the risk for having a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) when you already have a child with ASD is quite a bit higher than previously thought.

In this article from Journal Watch, a physician edited site, a large size study (664 infants) is discussed.

Apparently previous studies have indicated that if a family has an older child with ASD, the chances of a subsequent child having Autism of some type were thought to be between 3 and 10%.

This new study shows that the number is 19%. I don’t like being an alarmist, but that is a big difference. The difference is because of the larger sample size and the fact that it’s been done over a longer period of time.

From Good.is This is a tantalizingly exciting teaser article and video (TED.com) about a radical reshaping of what we used to consider vocational schools, in England. It’s spreading there quite rapidly and I for one, can’t wait to hear and see more.

The founding group has attempted to wrestle with and address two fundamental problems in education and society: 1. Many teens are bored and tuned out from school. They’re failing and disinterested and they don’t see any relation between school and the real world. Further, they’re disenfranchised because they don’t see jobs at the end of their school story. 2. The second problem is that employers feel too many kids come looking for work with a lack of skills, including their attitudes towards work and fitting into a team.

Studio schools operate by having 80% of the schooling take place out from behind desks. The idea of a studio is a place where learning and real work happen together and gets integrated. Working on real projects on small teams in areas such as engineering, creative and media industry, tourism and health care are some of the examples they cite.

From the sounds of it, they’re getting great results.

We need something different.

“Living to Our Complete Potential”
March 26 & 27, 2012

Hawaii Convention Center

1801 Kalakaua Avenue
Honolulu, HI 96815-1513

The 28th Annual Pacific Rim International Conference on Disability & Diversity (Pac Rim) will bring together a diverse international gathering of academics, community leaders, self-advocates, specialists and officials to Honolulu, Hawaii on March 26-27, 2012. The conference aims to inspire, educate and illuminate – with over 18 topic areas, 200 presentations and several institutes, the programs is fertile ground for dialogue and exchange while ‘pushing the envelope’ to ensure all human beings can live to their complete potential. Each year the conference hews to its traditional areas which have bread much of the interdisciplinary research and educational advances of the last three decades. But each year new topics are introduced to foment discussion and change. The intent is to harness the tremendous synergy as generated by the intermingling of these diverse perspectives, thus, creating a powerful program which impacts each individual participant in his or her own unique way. We invite you to visit our website and find out more about the topic areas, registration and the call for proposals at www.pacrim.hawaii.edu
This event is hosted by the Center on Disability Studies (CDS), at the University of Hawaii.

The Pacific Rim International Forum on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

March 24 & 25, 2012

Hilton Hawaiian Village
Honolulu, HI

Charmaine Crockett
Center on Disability Studies
1776 University Ave UA 4-6
Honolulu, HI 96822
www.pacrim.hawaii.edu
prinfo@hawaii.edu

Second Nature Wilderness Program (SNWP), with locations in central Oregon, northern and southern Utah, and Georgia, is one of the best Wilderness Therapy programs for struggling teens in the world. I’ve personally visited in an in-depth way all of their locations except Georgia (Footsteps program).

Even though Second Nature is not specifically designed for kids with learning disabilities, it stands head and shoulders above many in its capacity to deliver a highly effective and individualized therapeutic intervention program for many teens with specific learning disabilities who are also struggling behaviorally.

What stands out most of all is the staff. Besides possessing the requisite outdoor leadership and clinical and relational skills, virtually every staff member I’ve met there, from the leadership team and out to field staff, shows great desire and willingness to continue learning. As it applies to connecting and reaching struggling teens who also have learning disabilities, staff have repeatedly engaged me in spirited discussions about best practices and seem to genuinely desire to add to their tool box. When you study organizational behavior, the term “learning organization” is used to signify an organization that doesn’t rest on laurels but challenges itself to be better and more responsive to its customers and clients. SNWP is that. It’s more than a catch phrase. When real, it means everything.

SNWP was started in 1998; so they’ve been around long enough to become seasoned and yet young enough to retain a freshness of thinking. SNWP was founded by clinicians, Brad Reedy, Ph.D., L.M.F.T, Cheryl Kehl, LCSW, and Devan Glissmeyer, Ph.D. They remain actively engaged in day to day operations and/or strategic management. The fact that it was started by clinicians may seem obvious but at the time, was part of a pioneering effort to raise the level of clinical sophistication in Therapeutic Wilderness Programs. In interviewing Dr. Reedy, and having also met with the other founders, it’s clear that they believe fully in the wilderness model-one that pushes for psychological impact through nature, with its powerful metaphors and distraction free environment. The founders have implemented a high degree of individuality in its clinical approach delivered out in the field to the kids. For students who learn and process differently, individuality is an important component.

Another striking part of SNWP that I see very clearly, is how well staff are treated and consequently, how long they stay and how well they work. In such a highly demanding profession, helping faculty feel valued and trained, is as important as anything.

Equipped with these attributes, Second Nature has key staff that either embody specific knowledge and training (related to learning disabilities and troubled youth), or possess the perspective of appreciation for different learning styles, and are hungry to seek out new ways to reach their kids. J Huffine, for example is a former school psychologist who is the lead therapist and a partner at SNWP, Cascades. J has a well-deserved reputation for working well with kids with processing differences, perhaps needing a softer approach, and one that’s cognizant of different learning profiles. If you listen to J (and I have) describe how he worked with one kid on the autism spectrum, perhaps Asperger’s Syndrome, in part by providing him with almost a menu of problem-solving possibilities on notecards, you know that he can adjust to nuances of working memory deficits and unique learner needs, at a high and studied level.

Brian Lepinske is a clinician at SNWP who attracts a loyal following among educational consultants and families. What impresses me about Brian and others like him is this: He has a demonstrated gift in reaching hard to reach kids, and yet he continues to be passionate about learning, from me and others, about how to increase his tool chest of skills when it comes to learning disabilities. Don’t get me wrong: while it’s nice to be sought out, this is not about the fact that he sees me as a resource. It’s about his being a living example of a learner without ego hang-ups. There are other staff; Paul Goddard, Ph.D has an affinity to working with girls with learning disabilities, and Devan Glissmeyer, Ph.D, has experience and expertise with kids on the Autism Spectrum and those with NVLD, are examples of others to note.

But Second Nature is not a personality driven group. It’s an organization, and one that in part, because of founding principles, attracts and retains high caliber people. My experience with admissions and tours, exemplified by Lori Armbruster, shows high level attention to detail and heart.

This attention to detail is also reflective of SNWP’s approach to safety and details in general. There is a strong discipline in logistics, policies, follow through and systems excellence concerning all areas of safety and equipment.

Finally, SNWP works hard at keeping families an integral part of the work they do with kids. In addition to family visits to the field, mid-program and at completion, it puts webinars to good use, enabling parents to access knowledge and strategies to be a better parent and treatment team member. Specific to Learning Disabilities, there are some helpful webinars that speak to the relationships between processing and learning differences, school struggle and behavioral and developmental problems.

Second Nature has programs for kids from 11-14 (Footsteps, in Georgia), two locations for adolescents in Utah and one in Central Oregon, and one in Utah designed for adults.

Major Disclaimer:
Seek out the counsel of an experienced educational placement specialist. Do not attempt to find programs based only on what you find on the internet or what you read here. Doing your due diligence and investigation is important, however this is the time to get counsel from outside as well.

From Good.is “How to Break the Cycle of Remedial College Classes”

Interesting slant on the over-reliance and perhaps, misuse of remedial classes at the community college level.

“The proof initially emerged with many students transferring from San Diego’s West Hills High School to their local community college. Like many of their fellow freshmen nationally, a whopping 95 percent of high school graduates from West Hills who received As and Bs in their senior English courses did not “pass” the placement test. Yet when allowed to enroll in college-level courses instead of remedial classes, 86 percent successfully completed college-level English, lost no time in their progress, and stayed on course toward earning a degree.”

Hmm. Something’s not right here.

“It’s time for a serious rethink of where and how we place our trust. K-12 and higher education must trust each other and work together to align what is taught and examine student performance data to address any barriers. If we don’t do this, we’re just guessing, or worse, relying on faulty indicators. That’s not right, and San Diego shows there is a better way to help students, reduce remediation, and save taxpayer funds.”

Agreed. Local Community colleges and area high schools have to figure out a way to align.

[via Richard Wanderman]

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Let’s assume that you have a middle school or high school son or daughter who is struggling emotionally and behaviorally and thus far, despite trying different therapies and school supports, the situation is not getting better. Your family is most likely in a state of intermittent turmoil. If your acting out or acting in (depressed, cutting themselves) child ALSO has a learning disability, the situation is compounded; any contemplation of an out of home treatment program has to take that piece into account.

In the arena of private and residential programs for struggling teens, there are three primary treatment option types. Bear in mind it is often a combination of a couple of these that becomes part of a continuum of care and treatment plan.

As I’ve written about before, the reason why I’m re-entering into this area of struggling teens and therapeutic programs is because of the high incidence of children and adolescents in treatment programs who have learning disabilities. According to various measures, including Hazelton and the NICHD, upwards of 60% of kids in residential treatment do in fact have learning disabilities.

The other reason I’m writing about all this is because I’ve worked intensively and for a long time, in both the LD world, and the Therapeutic Program world.

I’ve also tried my best to parent my own step-son, now chronologically speaking, a young adult, who has both learning disabilities and significant mental health challenges.

Depression, substance abuse, anxiety and a lack of adult independence skills are too often bad sidekicks to Learning Disabilities. Even though this site contains many examples of people who have learned to thrive despite their school struggles, that is not always the norm.

Back to the three main categories of therapeutic program types.

1. Therapeutic Wilderness Programs
Such wilderness programs are designed to provide clinical services in an outdoor setting. Think NOLS or Outward Bound but specially designed to have high psychological impact on struggling teens. Lasting anywhere from 3-12 weeks in duration, these experiences in remote and generally primitive settings often expose the deeper issues and severity that underly the presenting problems and behaviors. In that way, a good therapeutic wilderness program can be an excellent piece to overall assessment of present and future needs. Many students who go to such a place continue therapy and schooling in either a therapeutic boarding school or a residential treatment center. The best ones are safe sophisticated and administered with great care for children. Parent involvement ranges but is an important component.

2. Therapeutic Boarding Schools
Therapeutic boarding schools are exactly what the name implies. They are boarding schools designed to provide an education along with significant attention to pro-social development and emotional growth. I’ve heard such school described as having a 50% focus on academics and a 50% focus on therapy. I’m sure there’s a range in there and is not that precise. Having worked in a couple and over the years toured close to 80 nationwide, the type and amount of attention on academics ranges. Kids are often enrolled for at least a year and sometimes more. Parent involvement and education are usually strong parts of success.

3. Residential Treatment Centers
Residential Treatment Centers are, as compared to therapeutic boarding schools, designed for a child/teen, whose clinical needs are more complex and perhaps severe and intransigent. While most therapeutic boarding schools have trained clinical staff that have at least a Master’s level education and sometimes Ph.D’s, residential treatment centers carry a higher rate of such clinicians and would also have a strong medical component, both in staff and in orientation. As with the therapeutic boarding schools, parent involvement and education should be important components.

When you’re a parent struggling to figure out how to help your child with behavioral and emotional issues, the stress it brings out and the family issues it sometimes exposes, make the process of figuring out what to do, daunting to say the least.

As I mentioned previously I will be writing about a selection of a few from each category that are representative of a high class of programs that work well with struggling teens who also have learning disabilities.

Major Disclaimer:
1. Seek out the counsel of an experienced educational placement specialist. Do not attempt to find programs based only on what you find on the internet or what you read here. Doing your due diligence and investigation is important, however this is the time to get counsel from outside as well.

Jeremy Snyder and Julie Platt, students at Wesleyan University, are starting a university chapter of Project Eye-to-Eye, a national mentoring project for children with learning disabilities.

In this article from the Wesleyan Argus, the students describe their start-up process this summer and the goals of Eye-to-Eye.

They’re looking for about a dozen high caliber and dedicated Wesleyan University students to serve as mentors to students with LD/ADHD at a local middle school. Mentors meet weekly, engaging in Arts and other projects to build self-esteem and also to raise awareness in the community.

Project Eye-to-Eye was started in 1998, by two Brown University students with ADHD and LD. Years later, Project Eye-To-Eye is a national not-for-profit mentoring program “changing the lives of thousands of children and young adults across the U.S. Everyday we give “at-risk” students the feeling of empowerment and connection to a community that is built on understanding and compassion for differences. Project Eye-To-Eye’s program model is designed to build life skills for independence and improve self-esteem through the power of role modeling. Beyond the important work of building self-esteem, Project Eye-To-Eye also gives children with LD/ADHD the concrete skills necessary for independent living and academic success. Project Eye-To-Eye’s research based mentoring model is also designed to improve self-advocacy skills and meta-cognitive abilities, skills proven to be essential to the life success of LD/ADHD adults.”

Darren Murph has written a clear and easy to understand review about Dragon Dictate 2.5 by Nuance for Macs, in this Engadget piece.

I occasionally use this software when I’m writing reports, and when I do I’m very satisfied. I’ve been tracking this speech recognition software (turning human speech into text on a screen) for a long time. Dragon is by most accounts the best there is and I’m glad it’s recently become available for Mac OS.

I still don’t recommend it for the under high school aged student unless they’re very good readers with the ability to slow down and enunciate a bit more clearly than most kids speak.

Go ahead and read this review. He teases it apart really well.

[via Richard Wanderman

Incredible.

This opinion piece in the NY Times, Words Failed, Then Saved Me poignantly reminds us there are different facets of language. To become gifted and talented in one aspect (poetry) and struggle with another (reading) proves again that teachers and parents need to be sleuths of talent as much as they focus on deficits.

Philip Schultz, Pulitzer prize winner for poetry, didn’t begin to learn to read until he was eleven years old. His forthcoming memoir, “My Dyslexia” describes his own journey to literacy.

Yesterday I spoke with LA Talk Radio host Lon Woodbury on his show, “Parent Choices For Struggling Teens.” The show was called “Learning Disabilities or Therapy: You Shouldn’t Have to Choose”. Speaking to the integration of best practices between Learning Disabilities and Therapeutic Intervention, I’m advocating for all the kids in treatment centers, therapeutic boarding schools and wilderness treatment, who also have diagnosed or hidden learning disabilities.

Believe me, this article, “Dyslexia Is the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me” is not some fluffy, syrupy homage to “the gifts of dyslexia.”

The author, an entrepreneur and business consultant, who also wrote a book about communicating in the workplace called, “Surviving Dreaded Conversations,” makes the case that schools must change their approach to education and help kids develop and practice real-world skills, especially the ones that are so desperately needed in the workplace, such as creativity and innovation. As she points out, with so much lock-step and dull emphasis in schools on arriving at the correct answers in only prescribed ways, an appreciation of those who learn differently is squelched. And then as we know, this one-sided, singularly focused approach to fix the deficits of those with learning disabilities, can kill spirit, at least temporarily, and rob us all from the potential of many.

She does however say, “…in some weird, ironic way, my success today is directly tied to my ostensible failures of the past, not because of the scars, but because of what I had to learn in order to survive a system that did not recognize me as a legitimate member.”

Though Ms. Flagg ultimately sounds like the epitome of a glass half-full person, she adds, “I didn’t always feel as though my years struggling in school were the gift that I do now, however. After I was diagnosed in college, I was angry and full of resentment toward the people who were unable to see the truth of what I was, and a system so small-minded that it couldn’t function without labels. But it wasn’t just the labels that angered me; it was the derogatory, demeaning, minimizing, soul-sucking nature attached to them and how they were used against well-meaning and talented kids without even the slightest awareness or concern of how it would affect the child’s view of him or herself.

Right on!

This coming Monday, August 29th, at 12 noon Pacific Time, I’ll be on the internet radio show, “Parent Choices for Struggling Teens,” on L.A. Talk Radio. This interview show, hosted by Lon Woodbury, is on the subject of Learning Disabilities and Mental Health.

Tune in this Monday at 12 noon PST to “Learning Disabilities or Therapy: You Shouldn’t Have To Choose.”