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Troubled Teens or Learning Different

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by Dawn McMullan

A few decades ago, kids used the term “retard” to make fun of kids with learning differences. These days, it’s “sped,” which is short for special ed. Teachers and parents add to the problem with something called “spread” -- assuming the child will be weak in all areas when he or she has one learning problem (i.e., spreading it out).

“It’s simply no fun to be different,” says Dr. Arlyn Roffman, professor of special education at Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass. “Conformity is at its peak in early adolescence. It’s no fun to struggle to work at things others find relatively easy. I’m afraid too often school systems — and often parents — focus on what students cannot do rather than on what they can.”

“I have yet to find a child, in all my years of working with them, that can’t learn,” says Dr. Carole Lampert Barrish, a New York educational psychologist. “We haven’t always unlocked the materials that they have to learn with, but the challenge is really ours.”

Parents of LD teens have a lot of sleuth work to do. Your child’s strengths, weaknesses, struggles, successes, treatments, and labels are all pieces of the puzzle you and your teen are putting together. As more pieces come into place, the big picture becomes easier to see. But it’s those details and your advocacy that bring it all together.

Common Learning Differences

All these learning differences are neurologically based, meaning something in the brain isn’t functioning at its highest level. Treatments try to change that, whether through medication or other therapies.

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): Inability to pay attention, focus. ADHD kids are often impulsive, hyperactive, and act inappropriately for their age.

Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD): The lack of focus and attention without the hyperactivity.

Auditory Processing Disorder (APD): Inability to process and interpret spoken words because the ear and brain aren’t connecting properly.

Decoding: Taking the written word and translating it into speech.

Dysgraphia: A processing disorder involving the motor movements needed to write letters or numbers, making it difficult to write.

Dyslexia: A processing disorder resulting in difficulty with written language, particularly reading and spelling.

Strategies for LD Teens

Help them be independent. Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic offers textbooks that let kids read along while they listen to someone else reading through a CD or MP3 player. Hearing the words spoken aloud can make a big difference in comprehension.

Help set the course for organization. A big desk calendar can help your teen plot down on paper each step between the assignment of a research paper and its due date. Write in pencil and factor in a catch-up day.

Teach teens the details of their learning difference. Understanding and being able to explain it will teach them to ask for the help they need.

Encourage them to get a job or volunteer. This helps with strengths and weaknesses and shows a child how to interact with a community.

Let them be in charge of their homework. It’s their job, not yours.

Get them involved in what they’re good at. Often, sports are a good outlet for energy and kids who struggle in school. If being a quarterback requires processing too much at once, try rock climbing. Music is also a wonderful outlet. If reading notes is a problem, find a teacher who teaches by sound and repeating melodies and chords.

Issue: December 2007

Judy Davis, Ogden 12/03/08

There is also a possibility of diabetes. My daughter is 15 and did very well until sixth grade. At this point her teacher quit asking for assignments to be turned in. She felt the kids needed to learn how to do this for themselves. In many cases this is true. However, she was diagnosed with hypoglycemia this October. Research taught me that the fact that she can't remember things for more than five minutes is a HUGE! symptom of low blood sugar. The brain isn't getting the sugar it needs to function properly. She also cries for no reason and walks into walls. A new study called the dawn mind project is showing that it isn't just low blood sugar that can affect the brain. All diabetes can. It is difficult to get a Teacher to accept this. They don't understand enough about it. Don''t worry, I am teaching them.