Life Success
For Students With Learning Disabilities:
A Teacher Guide
Consider Multiple Settings
Since teachers primarily work with students within the classroom, it is easy to forget that students have a life outside of school. Like everyone else, students with learning disabilities must function within home, social/recreational settings, and some older students, also in the workplace. They must interact with family members, peers, community members, and in some instances coworkers.
Research indicates that children and adolescents with learning disabilities experience difficulties not only in school, but in these other contexts, as well. For example, within the home, research has indicated that having a family member with a learning disability may have a negative effect on both parent-child and sibling relationships. Furthermore, children with learning disabilities are often socially rejected by both their peers and adults. Similarly, difficulties in reading, writing, spelling, math, organization and memory can cause problems within the workplace.
As students grow and move into adulthood, the difficulties they experienced in the school years often follow them - learning disabilities are a lifelong condition. For example, problems arise in such areas as independent living, romantic relationships, marriage, child-rearing, and postsecondary education.
Considering the many settings in which students with learning disabilities have to function, as well as the difficulties they may encounter within these settings, it is important to think beyond the school in planning an intervention aimed at fostering life success. Therefore, activities aimed at developing the success attributes must take into account the importance of these attributes in multiple settings and the manner in which they can be utilized to enhance positive outcomes within the various settings. For example, perseverance is not only important in achieving academically, it is also necessary for enhancing family and social relations. Similarly, one must not only learn to develop emotional coping strategies for school-related stress, but also for handling problems within the home and workplace.
Therefore, students need to participate in activities that get them thinking beyond the school setting and envisioning how the attributes relate to the various environments in which they will function during the course of their lives.
Next: Use Multiple Formats
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