On May 13th and 14th, I had the opportunity to attend the annual conference held by the Learning Disabilities Association of Nova Scotia. The following is a reflection each of the four sessions that I attended over the course of the two days.
Introductory Session: Sheree Fitch as the Key Note Speaker
Sheree Fitch was an amazing Key Note speaker, as she comes to the education system from the perspective of a mother who has a child with a learning disability. She is also an amazing author of books for children, adolescents, and adults. I found that I really connected with Sheree as she spoke, as she herself really looks at the education system from a human rights perspective. Her presentation made one even question the use of the terminolgy "learning disability", as in essence, there is "no land of perfect child". I enjoyed her emphasis on the fact that all children need a safe place to make mistakes, and that these spaces, in turn, become spaces of joy. We need to continuously remind ourselves that faster does not equate to smarter, and that "creativity needs to be accessible to everyone, as creativity is the essence of humanity". She closed her speech my encouraging us all to think of ourselves as permissionaries; people who give others permission to dream their wildest dreams. To give you an idea of how incredible Sheree Fitch is, check out this You Tube video under my links section.
Session 1 and Session 3: School Neuropsychology with Dr. Steven Feifer
Dr. Steven Feifer is a neuropsychologist who focuses on the functioning within different areas of the brain that enable students to perform mathematical, reading, and written tasks. I was able to attend the sessions pertaining to mathematics and reading, and left wishing I had also registered for his writing session as well.
Highlights from the Mathematics Session:
Dr. Feifer began his presentation by highlighting the the fact that Asian countries truly are dominating in the field of Mathematics, and that reasons for a decline in North American mathematics results include too little time working on math (only 45 - 60 minutes a day, on average), too much focus on the final answer as opposed to the process used to get the final answer, dry and boring material in the curriculum, and the idea that the language of math matters (this was in relation to the fact that not all schools are using language centered aronud a base-10 principle). Truthfully, I agreed with much of what he presented from the research. As a mathematics teacher, I am often frustrated by the mismatch between the curriculum and the real-life applicability which so many students need in order to be engaged. In addition, I find many of my students are focused on whether they got the "right" answer, as opposed to whether or not they actually understand the concept. Perhaps the focus on the "right" answer is enhanced by our educational system of testing, exams, etc. and how those assessments are marked.
The presentation then focused on the dyscalculia, and the basic computational skills that these students may have troube with, including language/verbal retrieval skills, working memory skills, executive functioning, and visual/spatial skills. he then related these skill deficitis to the subtypes of dyscalculia, including verbal dyscalculia, procedural code issues, and magnitude code issues. It was A LOT of information to digest in a 1.5 hour session, and I was so happy to hear that his slides would be e-mailed to us. I appreciated his closing comment of the session, which was "Instead of asking 'How smart are you?', ask 'How are you smart?'". He also suggested many interventions for students with dyscalculia, though interestingly, there were no interventions suggested that related to assistive technology. I'm curious to know if there is math-specific AT, and thinking that there must be, given the many AT programs designed for the processes of reading and writing.
Highlights from the Reading Session:
I found that Dr. Feifer did an excellent job of breaking down the complex process of reading. He likes to think of reading as a process that involves "taming" three monsters; decoding, fluency, and comprehension. We were then introduced to the variuos areas of the brain that are responsible for taming these monsters. I've been hearing so much buzz about "brain-based learning", and for me, this presentation really solidfied the importance of this research.
In terms of pratical application in my work setting, I am now familiar with the four subtypes of dyslexia that relate to decoding, fluency, and comprehension, and I felt that Dr. Feifer did an excellent job of suggesting assistive technology interventions which matched both subtypes of dyslexia and the age groups of students. He also seemed to be of the mindset that in the middle and high school ages, it may be more about accessing information, as opposed to remediation, as he had no real suggestions for dysphonetic dyslexia for students over the age of 12. However, for surface dyslexia (which relates to fluency of reading), he suggested the Wilson Reading System, Laubach Reading System, and Read 180. Some of these programs are, unfortunately, extremely expensive. However, I liked his suggestion of fundraising! We are often fundraising for extracurricular activities, however it's rare to see a school fundraising for items that will have academic significance.
Session 2: ADHD and Effective Learning with Dr. Gavin Reid
I'll be honest in saying that I was a little bit disappointed with this session. Dr. Ried come from Scotland, and he has developed a school that is specifically designed for students with ADHD. It was so inspiring to learn about the school, however many of the strategies he suggested for working with students with ADHD were truthfully strategies that was already aware of. In addition, he took a lengthy amount of time to outline difficulties that students with ADHD have (organizing, prioritizing, focus, attention, processing speed, frustration, emotional, working memory, accessing recall, and regulation), and again, this was information that I was already quite comfortable with. It was an enjoyable presentation, however I left feeling disappointed that I didn't have any new, practical strategies for my work setting.
Session 4: Executive Functioning with Dr. George McCluskey
This was a very interesting session that focused on the fact that the adolescent brain is not as developed as the adult brain, and as such, we have to act as their brain's executive functions (which relate to self-activation, self-regulation, self-realization, and self-determination). Executive functions are responsible for cueing the use of our mental abilities, and if our frontal lobes are not fully developed, then we need help in telling our brain what to do. It was an interesting discussion, and specific to program support, it was eye-opening to distinguish between students that have a learning disability versus students that have a producing disability (as a result of poor executive functioning skills).
That sums up my two day conference in May, though there is so much more that I could include in this reflection. It was truly a professionally enriching experience, and I hope to attend the conference next year!
