Nancy Jones has devoted decades to making sure no child feels left out of the learning process.

She sees to it that any child with a learning disability gets the help they need to feel included among their classmates and go on to become a success.

“The way to teach kids with learning disabilities is to catch them before they actually fail,” said Jones, director of Special Services in the Tahlequah school system. “In other words, we’re keeping a lot of kids from being actually labeled as learning disabled.

“That’s our best bet right now, is keeping kids from ever being labeled that, because we’re doing early intervention and addressing specific needs as they happen to improve the likelihood that child will be successful. That’s my best hope for every child.”

The Learning Disabilities Association of Oklahoma defines a learning disability as any of various cognitive, neurological, or psychological disorders that cause a difference in the way the brain functions. Individuals may be as smart as their peers yet may have trouble learning to read, write, spell, recall information, or do math.

According to the LDAO, at least 2.7 million children in the United States are receiving help because of a learning disability.

Jones said the most important thing educators can do for children diagnosed with learning disabilities is to refer back to the documentation of testing that the child has had in the past.

“Because a comprehensive evaluation will tell you specifically where areas of weakness are and work to teach toward those areas of weakness,” she said.

Too often it means giving the child an alternative form of expression. Children with learning disabilities have a normal IQ, she said, but need to have their education custom tailored.

“If a child has difficulty in written expression, that would be putting pencil to paper and writing, you might look at incorporating a typewriter or a computer or letting them verbally tell you answers,” she said.

Because they can not write it down on paper does not mean that they don’t know it, so you have to come up with different avenues to get the information you need.

“Sometimes writing is so hard for a kid, if you asked them to write a story about their family, you might only get a couple of sentences,” Jones said. “But, if you asked them to talk about it, they can go on and on. When you have a learning disabled child, it can be written, reading, math or a problem in one or more of those areas.”

Jones said the elementary levels use peer learning groups. These are for all students — those with disabilities and those without.

“So, if two boys, one regular and one special ed, are having problems with a certain area or a concept, they are pulled from their classes and worked in a small group situation where we can bring them up to the level of knowledge that the rest of the class has in that area.”

Children’s self-esteem is kept strong by pulling out and helping regular and special ed kids in these peer groups.

“Because it’s like everybody goes to these peer groups,” she said. “If you remain positive and help the child feel positive about the skills and things they’re good at, it is very helpful.”

Children also build confidence by learning to speak up for themselves.

“They need to develop advocacy skills,” she said. “If they need help with their writing and they have a substitute teacher one day, the child needs to have advocacy skills for themselves. They need to speak up and say ‘My teacher says I need to do this.’ So the substitute can look in a book left by the regular teacher that lists what every child needs and say ‘Oh, OK, I see it here, I just missed it.’”



The average person would be surprised to learn there are people they know who have a learning disability. You can’t pick them out of a crowd, and they find jobs where they can use their strengths.

Linda Modenbach, state president, Learning Disabilities Association of Oklahoma, said people with learning disabilities can be very successful given the right educational opportunities.

“We know many people with learning disabilities are in their professions because they can learn; they just learn in a different fashion,” she said. “I think it’s important for people to learn that a learning disability is a distinct disability. It’s not to be confused with mental retardation, or an individual who is not learning because of other reasons.”

Modenbach estimates the number of students with learning disabilities as 10 to 11 percent.

“So if they have a disability with reading and writing, it’s really going to affect their life in school and the outside world, because so much depends on the written word,” she said.

Modenbach said self-esteem can become a problem for students with learning disabilities.

“And they (teachers) can help that child identify on their strengths so that he can build on that self-esteem in other areas,” she said. “They may be the best athlete but have difficulty reading, so we let them be a good athlete and support them in every way we possibly can with their reading skills, or written expression skills, or whatever the struggling area is.”

Many different teaching methods exist that are effective, Modenbach said. The key is to find the one that is most effective for that particular individual.

“I think some of the things that happen, because they usually are as bright as their peers, they because extremely frustrated because they’re trying hard but they’re not seeing the successes their peers are seeing,” she said.

Modenbach said if the students are not receiving the specialized instruction they need, they are probably not meeting with a great deal of success.

“Individuals with learning disabilities are possibly going to have trouble with reading, and if asked to read aloud and they can’t read very well, they could become extremely embarrassed,” she said. “If they’re supposed to write something and their writing is not good because that could be a characteristic, they are going to be again embarrassed and feel that they don’t measure up. Even though they are not lower in intelligence, they may feel stupid and inadequate, and their self-esteem often suffers if they’re not identified and educated properly.”

Modenbach said the goal is to give confidence to children with learning disabilities, using a variety of methods.

“And when we talk about accommodations in the general education classroom, it might be that this student is given additional time, because processing information is sometimes difficult for children with learning disabilities,” she said. “Again, leveling the playing field so that he has the opportunity to be successful with the ability he already has.”



Facts about learning disabilities



• 80 percent of students with a learning disability have trouble reading.

• From 93 to 95 percent of students will read within the normal range by the end of second grade if they receive appropriate instruction.

• An estimated 75 percent of children who do not receive help until after the age of 9 will have some difficulty reading throughout life.

• At least 2.7 million children are currently receiving help because of a learning disability.



Source: Learning Disabilities

Association of Oklahoma

Reach Keith Purtell at 918-684-2925 or Click Here to Send Email