- My Sister
So here in chaotic order are some of the academic problems I struggled with as a child:
1. I wrote letters backwards
2. Could not spell (could not understand the reasoning behind spelling. English is drastically inconsistent when it comes to that)
3. HORRIBLE handwriting (the above 3 lead to no one understanding what I was writing)
4. Stuttering (In addition to the writing issues this made it even more difficult to communicate with others)
5. Did not know right from left (Now there is a Red large scar on my Right arm, telling me)
6. Could not read, or could not read very well for a long time (Learning to read was a combined effort of teachers, my parents, and siblings. Eventually I flourished under strictly whole language approach)
7. Didn't really get along with other kids very well (I was pretty weird, and probably obnoxious)
8. I was very bad at math and had math anxiety. This was the case for YEARS and actually most of my life
9. Could not tell time (now I can, picked it up in middle school looking at the clock hoping 3rd period math would over)
10. Bad hand-eye coordination and basic motor skills
11. General physical awkwardness (why is it every time I went roller skating as a kid, people would run over me or into me? Eventually I started skating with other people and realized this didn't happen them, or me when I was with them. Soon I realized, that I tend to travel in patterns others don't. I have trouble finding the path I guess)
Having worked with many different types of learning disabilities I have come to some understanding about people with them. People often diagnosed with learning disabilities usually just have their own world and language to reach them with. For example,
One of my first students struggled with pretty serious ADD (not ADHD). He once told me that he could sit and listen to people all they wanted, and even politely nod and smile, and not listen to a thing they said.
"The worst part is that I don't even know that I'm not listening, suddenly I realize that I'm thinking about guitars, and then the teacher says 'PAY ATTENTION' and then I start thinking about how I really need to pay attention, and all the trouble I'm having, how badly I'm doing in this subject, how much I hate math, and then I don't even pay attention because I've completely forgotten what we're doing, and I feel really crappy" he explained once.
"Please don't say 'pay attention', because I start thinking about how I need to pay attention, not actually paying attention to what I'm suppose to be paying attention to." This is my favorite quote from him.
I realized then this student did listen to what you said, but his attention was drawn to your actions and words, not consciously focused or controlled.
When this students starting getting distracted during a problem, I drew his attention back by snapping my fingers and hitting the paper that math problems were written on. Or starring at him, then the problem. This usually worked much more better at getting him to "pay attention" words which held a lot of anxiety and distraction for him.
What this student told me made a lot of sense, he naturally would thinking about paying attention, but the words didn't prompt him to think about math or what someone was saying short of pay attention. It's understandable to see how he would trouble in a traditional classroom (I met him in a homeschool situation where we were able to taylor the class to his needs).
More importantly, I learned that day the true way of dealing with learning disabilities. Listening. Usually students who are struggling that badly have spent way to much time listening to teachers tell them things, and things still haven't worked out for them. Usually they just needed to be communicated with using different words, or techniques than what their teacher or classmates are using (example, tapping the problem, instead or telling them to pay attention). What's going on is not that students are disabled, their just out of synch of the traditional classroom. They have their own learning language that no one else is tapping into. The solution for me as an educator is to listen to them, learn their language. Pick up their cues, their words, understand their reality, and approach learning from their world, not mine or the teachers. I see myself as a diplomat between my clients and academia, mediating and translating. Also usually people at this point really appreciate someone listening to them, listening to me a sign of respect, appreciation, and acceptance. Students spend way to much time listening to their teachers. I like a more even approach when possible.
When I look at the above problems I had with school, a lot of them were there because I was just mentally organized differently than those around me. I was into different things, and didn't value or really understand other's values at that age. What I learned when I overcame my academic problems, was not how to do specific things, but how to adapt. How to understand other mentalities and function in them, despite how ridiculous the seemed (in my opinion, the world of academia has to be the most ridiculous/silliest rules and reasoning I've ever encountered). In short, I thought differently, and couldn't understand why other people valued another thinking over the obvious.
The good news about this mentality is that people often credit you with "thinking out side the box." Because my mentality was often out of line with others, I wasn't always confined to their thinking. Randomly I would understand things that no one else in my family would get (I could often accurately guess the end of a mystery movie in the first ten minuets) solve certain puzzles better, come up with solutions no else even thought to think of. Most of my life I've labeled as creative, abstract thinker, and weird.
What I am trying to say is, intelligence is not linear. It comes at all different shapes and sizes and different forms. Even to classify intelligence it in the 'seven different areas of intelligence' is too limiting. A person's intelligence is like a funny shaped three dimensional object with multiple colors, floating around in the world with other intelligence shapes. What we often diagnose as 'smart' or stupid, is just a comparison of that shape to the another shape and seeing how they line up or match, or intersect like Venn diagrams. If the two worlds don't line up at all, we have miscommunication, and a lack of understanding, and learning issues are the result.
If I was given the choice to chose the shape of my intelligence, I would not have chose to be "smart" as people say. The ideal learning shape accepted in academia is pretty limited and to me, very backward and inconsistent. Though my learning life probably would have been much easier, and I would have more self esteem, it's really not a shape I like. I like the way I think despite the trouble it's given me in trying to deal with the problems I listed above.
