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 Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2010 11:44 pm
This is kinda a big topic with me, because on my mom's side of the family is littered with them, while my dad doesn't believe in them. I hate my dad's attitude because I have Asperger's, but he thinks me thinking that means I'm thinking less of myself. It doesn't. I take my mom's view on LD's, which is that they don't have to hold you back, and that sometimes it's really just a different way of thinking. It can cause a lot of difficulties, but there's a lot of famous people in history who have had them, so I actually think there's times when an LD can have benefits. Don't get me wrong, I've also seen cases where it really makes things hard on someone (like my best friend who has ADHD, and a girl at my church who definitely has some sort of problem. She can't seem to stop trying to get attention [at the age of 16] and when she found out someone in the church smoked she was completely flabbergasted and said something along of the lines of 'But he seemed so nice!' rolleyes ). I just think that too many times people let it limit them when it doesn't have to.
Anyway, I wanna know:
1) Do you believe in LD's? If you don't, why not?
2) Does anyone besides me have an LD/or know someone who does?
3) Do you think people with LD's should be cut some slack? (Edit to clarify: How much help do you think they should be given? Should it ever be accepted that they're 'limited'?)
4) Do you know of anything positive that comes comes from having an LD?
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Posted: Sat Aug 14, 2010 12:04 am
xxEverBluexx 1) Do you believe in LD's? If you don't, why not? yes Quote: 2) Does anyone besides me have an LD/or know someone who does? My fiancee's friend had dyslexia. Quote: 3) Do you think people with LD's should be cut some slack? Not sure what you mean by this. If you mean treating a person with LD as if they are a person while taking into consideration their disability then yes. Quote: 4) Do you know of anything positive that comes comes from having an LD? I don't know, maybe having a personal understanding of what having a disability is like? That's the only thing coming to mind. I really don't know much about LDs.
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Posted: Sat Aug 14, 2010 12:35 am
I used to work with people who had learning disabilities, and I came to the conclusion that people with LD's usually make up for it somehow in some other aspect of their life. Kind of like people with physical disabilities. Where one part, sense, or function is lacking, other parts, senses, or functions attempt to compensate.
I worked with a woman who had AS and she found it really hard to express herself to other people. She seemed really awkward and kinda clumsy. She was one of the sweetest people you would ever meet, if she gave you the chance to get to know her. Despite all that, she could dance. She was all clumsy until you put in Tchaikovsky, she would be the whole ballet troupe.
She knew a whole lot about all music, too. She retained that kind of information like an unlimited MP3 player. She ended up getting a pretty good job when the local Barnes and Noble opened their music wing of the store and she ended up making Manager there in 6 months.
She also got a part-time job helping to demonstrate dance techniques at the community college for awhile. I'm not sure if she still does that.
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Posted: Sat Aug 14, 2010 10:28 am
I believe in learning disabilities, but I think the way our culture handles them is reckless.
It's become normal in our culture to drag kids off to a psychiatrist at every situation that would require the slightest effort from the parent. And what's the psychiatrist going to do? Send the kid home? Not when there's a parent handing them a check and a pathetic amount of trust.
And it's pretty easy when the symptoms of ADD match the normal behavior of just about every nine-year-old on the planet.
I think it's all too common for a kid to be having a rough time at school. And the mom thinks: "It can't be a problem with my perfect child. And it certainly can't be my fault! And what am I supposed to do? Help him with his homework? Talk to him?! No, let me get a professional to handle this."
The professional then decrees that the child's short attention span is a psychological problem that can only be cured by behavior-altering medication and years of therapy.
And while the teacher, the parent, and the psychiatrist are tossing responsibility back and forth like it's a hot potato, the one who suffers is the child.
That's definitely not to say that ADD, and all other learning disabilities for that matter, don't exist. I have friends who have ADD, Dyslexia, and Asperger's. And I see how it affects them.
What I'm saying is that it's too easy to get a kid diagnosed with a learning disability that he doesn't have, ultimately making it harder on the kid.
I say that because I also think that our school tends to coddle students with learning disabilities. For example, at my old high school, students with learning disabilities were allowed extra time on tests. I think that's a good thing because someone with, say, dyslexia reads slower and might need the extra time. It's a poor approach because what it ultimately teaches dependence. It teaches students with learning disabilities that they can't perform as well as the other students. That's not true. It will often be harder for them, but they can still do the work. A better solution, I think, would be teaching students with learning disabilities how to approach problems in different ways and use their strengths, rather than highlighting their weaknesses. That's not to say the school shouldn't offer those students a crutch. But teaching them to not be dependent on it will help them more in the future.
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Posted: Sat Aug 14, 2010 4:22 pm
brainnsoup I believe in learning disabilities, but I think the way our culture handles them is reckless.
It's become normal in our culture to drag kids off to a psychiatrist at every situation that would require the slightest effort from the parent. And what's the psychiatrist going to do? Send the kid home? Not when there's a parent handing them a check and a pathetic amount of trust.
And it's pretty easy when the symptoms of ADD match the normal behavior of just about every nine-year-old on the planet.
I think it's all too common for a kid to be having a rough time at school. And the mom thinks: "It can't be a problem with my perfect child. And it certainly can't be my fault! And what am I supposed to do? Help him with his homework? Talk to him?! No, let me get a professional to handle this."
The professional then decrees that the child's short attention span is a psychological problem that can only be cured by behavior-altering medication and years of therapy.
And while the teacher, the parent, and the psychiatrist are tossing responsibility back and forth like it's a hot potato, the one who suffers is the child.
That's definitely not to say that ADD, and all other learning disabilities for that matter, don't exist. I have friends who have ADD, Dyslexia, and Asperger's. And I see how it affects them.
What I'm saying is that it's too easy to get a kid diagnosed with a learning disability that he doesn't have, ultimately making it harder on the kid.
I say that because I also think that our school tends to coddle students with learning disabilities. For example, at my old high school, students with learning disabilities were allowed extra time on tests. I think that's a good thing because someone with, say, dyslexia reads slower and might need the extra time. It's a poor approach because what it ultimately teaches dependence. It teaches students with learning disabilities that they can't perform as well as the other students. That's not true. It will often be harder for them, but they can still do the work. A better solution, I think, would be teaching students with learning disabilities how to approach problems in different ways and use their strengths, rather than highlighting their weaknesses. That's not to say the school shouldn't offer those students a crutch. But teaching them to not be dependent on it will help them more in the future. this
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Posted: Sat Aug 14, 2010 9:43 pm
brainnsoup
I say that because I also think that our school tends to coddle students with learning disabilities. For example, at my old high school, students with learning disabilities were allowed extra time on tests. I think that's a good thing because someone with, say, dyslexia reads slower and might need the extra time. It's a poor approach because what it ultimately teaches dependence. It teaches students with learning disabilities that they can't perform as well as the other students. That's not true. It will often be harder for them, but they can still do the work. A better solution, I think, would be teaching students with learning disabilities how to approach problems in different ways and use their strengths, rather than highlighting their weaknesses. That's not to say the school shouldn't offer those students a crutch. But teaching them to not be dependent on it will help them more in the future.
I completely agree. I know at least a few people who are having a hard time getting along, including my best friend who is having a hard time getting a job or moving out of her house. I didn't really get the extra help for most school because I had a skewed profile, and they really thought I could get along because I had a high school reading level at least as far back as middle school, and my vocabulary has always been at least two years ahead. I couldn't really do the social or the organization for school though, so despite the fact concepts came easy, things like homework brought my grade down. It would've been really nice if they could've helped me on my weak areas, so it wouldn't have brought everything else down...
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Posted: Sat Aug 14, 2010 9:49 pm
Benefits doesn't really just mean compensation, though that's part of it. By benefits, I mean that I have a high reading level. It's not just compensation, it's just part of how my brain works. My grandfather probably has ADHD (my mom probably had it too, but she says she remembers deciding she was going to sit until she stopped acting out...it worked, I guess because I really don't see signs of her being ADHD [though maybe ADD]) and because of that he can still work much longer then a man his age should be able too. He's just starting to slow down, and he's in his 80s.
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Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 10:40 am
xxEverBluexx 1) Do you believe in LD's? If you don't, why not? xxEverBluexx 2) Does anyone besides me have an LD/or know someone who does? xxEverBluexx 3) Do you think people with LD's should be cut some slack?
I don't know about cutting slack.... But getting them help would certainly help them get along better in life. I don't believe that people should wear their problems as a shield, or have them hanging over their heads like the sword of Damocles (sp?), but that they should be able to have help when it is required for them to function properly in society. xxEverBluexx 4) Do you know of anything positive that comes comes from having an LD?
My sister was told in grade school that she should just drop out of school as that she would never amount to anything. They actually told my mother that she was retarded (their words) and that she should be put in an institution for people with sever retardation. My mother sent my sister to a boarding school (where she eventually sent all the rest of us) and my sister graduated 4th in her class and went on to college to graduate an RN.2 of My brothers graduated and went to college in animal science majors. They are all doing well, and while they sometimes lapse into the unrecognizable handwriting of dislexics, they are fully functioning citizens of the tribe and the US. My youngest brother, who actually had a worse diagnosis than my elder sister, is a Respiratory Therapist like me. When his school counselor asked him what he wanted to do with the rest of his life, he said he wanted to go into medicine because he is a severe asthmatic. She laughed at him and told him that there wasn't any way he could do it with his dislexia so bad. Well, he did, and he sent that counsellor a copy of his diploma and his graduation notice from the newspaper. He didn't accept the help that was available for him in college, wanting to prove to himself that he could have done it. (He does regret that now, saying that he probably should have taken advantage of the offer for someone else to type out his papers and read him his tests for the finals.)
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Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2010 6:34 pm
xxEverBluexx This is kinda a big topic with me, because on my mom's side of the family is littered with them, while my dad doesn't believe in them. I hate my dad's attitude because I have Asperger's, but he thinks me thinking that means I'm thinking less of myself. It doesn't. I take my mom's view on LD's, which is that they don't have to hold you back, and that sometimes it's really just a different way of thinking. It can cause a lot of difficulties, but there's a lot of famous people in history who have had them, so I actually think there's times when an LD can have benefits. Don't get me wrong, I've also seen cases where it really makes things hard on someone (like my best friend who has ADHD, and a girl at my church who definitely has some sort of problem. She can't seem to stop trying to get attention [at the age of 16] and when she found out someone in the church smoked she was completely flabbergasted and said something along of the lines of 'But he seemed so nice!' rolleyes ). I just think that too many times people let it limit them when it doesn't have to. Anyway, I wanna know: 1) Do you believe in LD's? If you don't, why not? 2) Does anyone besides me have an LD/or know someone who does? 3) Do you think people with LD's should be cut some slack? 4) Do you know of anything positive that comes comes from having an LD? I will answer all 4 of your questions with one sentence: As it just so happens, I have an LD, specifically NLD(Nonverbal Learning Disability). Yeah. NLD. look it up. It's basically the close brother of the Autistic Spectrum Disorder called Asperger's Syndrome. Practically indistinguishable, in fact. Actually, my psychologist, my psychiatrist, and my dad(who is also a psychologist) still disagree sometimes about which one I have. But I see my Psychologist most often and she is MY psychologist, unlike my dad who can't treat me himself, so I say that I have NLD because that's what she calls it.
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Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2010 7:03 pm
1) Do you believe in LD's? If you don't, why not?
Yes. I definitely do.
2) Does anyone besides me have an LD/or know someone who does?
I believe I am slightly dyslexic, although I have never been tested. I read over things and get some words mixed up then have to read over it a few times. I also think I have a bit of a comprehension thing. Like with talking, it takes me a little bit to understand what a person is saying, some times.
3) Do you think people with LD's should be cut some slack?
Yes. It's not their fault they can not keep up with others. They may only require a little bit more time.
4) Do you know of anything positive that comes comes from having an LD?
Hm... Well my husband has ADHD {not really a learning disability, more like a behavioral one} and since my brothers and dad had it I know how to deal with it better than most people. Not sure if that's a good thing XD And my daughter is showing slight signs of having either ADD or ADHD, but it is still too early to know for sure, but if she is I will be prepared.
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Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2010 9:41 pm
Lumanny the Space Jew xxEverBluexx This is kinda a big topic with me, because on my mom's side of the family is littered with them, while my dad doesn't believe in them. I hate my dad's attitude because I have Asperger's, but he thinks me thinking that means I'm thinking less of myself. It doesn't. I take my mom's view on LD's, which is that they don't have to hold you back, and that sometimes it's really just a different way of thinking. It can cause a lot of difficulties, but there's a lot of famous people in history who have had them, so I actually think there's times when an LD can have benefits. Don't get me wrong, I've also seen cases where it really makes things hard on someone (like my best friend who has ADHD, and a girl at my church who definitely has some sort of problem. She can't seem to stop trying to get attention [at the age of 16] and when she found out someone in the church smoked she was completely flabbergasted and said something along of the lines of 'But he seemed so nice!' rolleyes ). I just think that too many times people let it limit them when it doesn't have to. Anyway, I wanna know: 1) Do you believe in LD's? If you don't, why not? 2) Does anyone besides me have an LD/or know someone who does? 3) Do you think people with LD's should be cut some slack? 4) Do you know of anything positive that comes comes from having an LD? I will answer all 4 of your questions with one sentence: As it just so happens, I have an LD, specifically NLD(Nonverbal Learning Disability). Yeah. NLD. look it up. It's basically the close brother of the Autistic Spectrum Disorder called Asperger's Syndrome. Practically indistinguishable, in fact. Actually, my psychologist, my psychiatrist, and my dad(who is also a psychologist) still disagree sometimes about which one I have. But I see my Psychologist most often and she is MY psychologist, unlike my dad who can't treat me himself, so I say that I have NLD because that's what she calls it. XD I know about yours Lumanny, it's right in your sig and I have the same. And there's some slight differences (I think I read kids with Asperger's often have musical ability, for instance) but they basically amount to the same thing. @ Aakosir~My mom is a little dyslexic too, but not enough that anyone's diagnosed it in her. My sister and I have a really easy time reading upside down and backwards because of it. biggrin тнιѕ ωσяℓ∂ ∂σєѕи'т мαттєя тσ мє...иσт αт αℓℓ...
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Posted: Fri Sep 10, 2010 1:14 am
1) Do you believe in LD's? If you don't, why not?
I believe they exist. I have been misdiagnosed (and had an interesting experience or a million with LD programs) as LD, then later in life assisted them.
2) Does anyone besides me have an LD/or know someone who does?
Like I said I was misdiagnosed and instead diagnosed with a language disorder.
I have a cousin who is LD and developmentally disabled as well.
3) Do you think people with LD's should be cut some slack?
Ultimately, a little accommodation should be provided. I don't know if this is what you mean by cutting them slack, though.
4) Do you know of anything positive that comes comes from having an LD?
I feel that depends on many factors.
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