Re: An LD Student Who Needs a "Scribe"

[Sara Kimball <skimball@uts.cc.utexas.edu>]

Suzanne, the concern was intended as more general, and wasn't meant as a
criticism of your suggestion that the student try producing text manually
to see how it works for him.  A sample of the attitudes I'm referring to,
however, is available in one of the Chronicle of Higher education 's
online Colloquies from the summer.

I agree too that LD students can be treated in ways that hinder them.  For
example, I think that student services can sometimes do a lot more to help
students become their own advocates.  But as I said previously, the
frustrating part about LD is that it's sometimes things that other people
consider easy that form the stumbling blocks. And students need to be able
to make realistic decisions about what's appropriate for them, given their
goals and their various obligations.  If transcribing the text
with a pen or keyboard--even with practice and patience--takes up an
inordinate amount of time or keeps getting in the way of ideas, it may not
be worth it, given that there are other options available.  As I noted
previously, it's our own culture (and maybe school culture at that)
that equates transcription with composing.
Sara


On Tue, 5 Oct 1999, Suzanne Diamond wrote:

> Dear All:
> 
> One member of our community has written:
> 
> I get concerned at perceptions of students with LD as trying to put
> one over on the system and at assumptions that reasonable accommodations
> will somehow cripple them for "real life."  In fact, people with LD often
> end up working harder than others on the things that cause them
> difficulties.
> 
> I do hope it's clear that I certainly didn't doubt this student's
> sincerity and that I hope to do my best for him.  I wonder, though,
> whether sometimes it might actually *be* crippling for some students
> to be dissuaded--that was the issue in the instance I mention--from
> trying to produce what they might produce on the page if given
> patience and the occasion to do so?  This student has been in to see
> his tutor since I posted my original note, and she reports that he
> told her "nobody has allowed him to write since he's been in
> sixth grade."
> 
> It seems safe to assume that most of us are doing our best as educators
> in this community, and that when we somehow or sometimes are not
> doing the best that can be done, enlightenment form colleagues helps
> so much more than chastisement (however well-founded the latter
> might sometimes be).  When we share our ideas, even our frustrations
> and the limits these might betray, we are asking for help, affirming
> our own community, right?  We are allowed to be limited or
> baffled or just plain wrong sometimes.  The responses I am reading this morning
> are most informative, and I thank you all.
> 
> Yours,
> Suzanne
> 
>