Teaching Adolescents with Learning Disabilities: Strategies and Methods

Christopher Lee was the author’s student at The University of Georgia, and Faking It: A Look Into the Mind of a Creative Learner is the story of his struggle to come to terms with learning disabilities. Using modifications and accommodations and putting in lots of hard work, Christopher graduated in 1990, and this book was published in 1992. Christopher looked forward to graduating because he thought his major struggles with LD would end with school. However, he quickly realized that the world of work offered a whole new array of challenges. He has spent the last eight years reframing his disability into something positive and has learned how to use assistive technology to compensate for problems with reading, writing and spelling in the workplace.

How and when does a child begin to make sense of the world? Why does a lively preschool child so often become a semiliterate and defeated school failure?

Developmental psychologist Margaret Donaldson shows that much of the intellectual framework on which we base our teaching is misleading. We both underestimate the astonishing rational powers of young children and ignore the major stumbling block that children face when starting school.

Given a setting and a language that makes sense to them in human terms, very young children can perform tasks often thought to be beyond them. The preschool child learns everything in a human situation. Only in school is he asked to acquire skills―reading, writing, arithmetic―isolated from a real-life context. This transition is difficult.

The author suggests a range of strategies that parents and schools can adopt to help children. She argues that reading is even more important than we have thought it to be, since learning to read can actually speed children through the crucial transition.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) offers education professionals a conceptual framework to create flexible, equitable, and accessible instructional techniques that accommodate individual learning differences in a classroom setting.

Socially ADDept helps parents teach the hidden rules of communication to children who are having social problems. The manual is in a workbook format and guides parents through each topic through a series of exercises and suggested dialogue. Some of the topics covered are how to handle teasing, use appropriate body language, comprehend jokes and sarcasm, and join groups effectively. Socially ADDept is easy to read and use.

Note: This is the bound book only and does not include access to the Enhanced Pearson eText. To order the Enhanced Pearson eText packaged with a bound book, use ISBN 0134471881. A practical approach to identifying, understanding, and helping students with language difficulties achieve success in school and beyond. 

With an emphasis on the connection between language and literacy, Teaching Students with Language and Communication Disabilities explores language development and language disorders within the context of specific disabilities. The book is designed to help teachers and other professionals acquire knowledge about language, language development, language disorders, and evidence-based practices for enhancing language skills that will enable them to become more effective teachers and/or clinicians. Student vignettes, teacher perspectives, activities, and literacy sections foster the application of concepts to real classroom situations.

The Fifth Edition includes reconceptualized chapters that use the Response to Intervention (RtI) model as as the framework for classroom-based language assessment and instructional methods. Expanded discussions of emerging teaching technologies and the latest research literature are included throughout the book. The Enhanced Pearson eText version of the text features embedded videos, check your understanding quizzes, and application exercises. Improve mastery and retention with the Enhanced Pearson eText The Enhanced Pearson eText provides a rich, interactive learning environment designed to improve student mastery of content. The Enhanced Pearson eText is:

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An engaging must-read for any parent, educator, or counselor of smart kids who face learning difficulties. The authors, who have more than 20 years experience working with and advocating for gifted and learning diabled children, provide useful, practical advice for helping smart kids with learning challenges succeed in school.