Tero Toivanen's List: erityispedagogiikka

• In an interesting study by Rosalie Fink, interviews of 66 successful adult dyslexics currently thriving in reading-intensive fields such as medicine, law, business, or physics, found that a common factor in everyone's history was their discovery of a burning passion as a child or young adult "Each individual had had a burning desire to know more about a topic of passionate personal interest. Spurred by personal passion, curiosity, and intrinsic motivation, they all read voraciously...they read everything they could find in order to learn more about a topic that fascinated them..." -(High Interest Reading)

  • Kiinnostuksen kohde ja flow saavat oppimistuloksen parantumaan dramaattisesti dyslektisillä aikuisilla.

• My relationship with reading started in kindergarten when I was unsuccessful in learning the alphabet. The school wanted to hold me back, but my parents wouldn't let them.
• In the fall of first grade I was diagnosed as "learning disabled." I was now required to attend special education along with all the other children whose problems dwarfed mine.
• The Pathfinder teachers told my parents that I was not disabled, I just had a different learning style.
• But at Pathfinder I was never taken out of class or mollycoddled with books for fourth-graders. The difficulty of work was unfathomable compared to any public school class; normal or special ed.
• I read, I made mistakes, I dissolved into tears, I worked my brain raw, and then I understood. The social stigma of being learning disabled had been the last locked door. My label had become my disability. Once I overcame that, I was free.
• I battled through the barriers in my mind to read at my grade level. I was in sixth grade and I read at a sixth-grade level. I wasn't the sixth-grader receiving the praise of a fifth-grader. I had achieved what the public school system had made impossible by telling me I was disabled. I am different but I am not disabled.

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• He had to work hard. He often woke up early to study before school and studied for hours in the evening. He went to summer school and retook tests.
• On Monday morning, he joined his younger sister, Rachel, on a stage at the Daughters of the American Revolution Constitution Hall and became a graduate of one of the nation's top high schools.
• Thaller's story is familiar to many students with learning disabilities who must work two or three times harder than their classmates, often with less results.
• He repeated kindergarten, then first grade, until he was in the same grade as his younger sister. But he continued to lag far behind his peers. By the time he reached sixth grade, he was still reading on a first- or second-grade level.
• Low scores on cognitive tests prompted many medical professionals and educators to say it would be impossible for Thaller to ever attend college. Many suggested he pursue a diploma with fewer requirements or transfer to a special school with a less academic focus.
• A major breakthrough came in middle school. Thaller's mother would read him chapters from the Harry Potter series at night. He was so impatient for her to get to the next chapter that he started reading ahead, pushing himself to understand the vocabulary and follow the story.

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• "I found my first dinosaur bone at the age of eight during a fossil-hunting trip with my father...Kindergarten through eighth grade was extremely difficult for me because my progress in reading, writing, and mathematics was excruciatingly slow. I would never stand to read out loud in class, even if the teachers threatened to give me failing grades...Eventually, I managed to graduate high school, but just barely, having received Ds in all required classes, including English, in which my grade was a D minus, minus, minus. The teacher told me that this was essentially an F, but that he never wanted to see me again. That was indeed the last time I saw him, but I did send him a copy of my first book!
• There was, however, one area of school besides P.E. in which I excelled: science projects."

• Perhaps the most important finding in Bunge’s data is that the training helped the neediest kids the most. The farther down a child started on the rankings, the quicker and greater was his cognitive improvement. This is extremely rare in education interventions. Usually, smart kids benefit most, and the kids who struggle at the beginning only fall farther behind.

• In the 1970s, a group of deaf Nicaraguan schoolchildren invented a new language.
• It was the first time that deaf people from all over the country could gather in large numbers and through their interactions – in the schoolyard and the bus – Nicaraguan Sign Language (NSL) spontaneously came into being.
• NSL is not a direct translation of Spanish – it is a language in its own right, complete with its own grammar and vocabulary.
• Its child inventors created it naturally by combining and adding to gestures that they had used at home. Gradually, the language became more regular, more complex and faster. Ever since, NSL has been a goldmine for scientists, providing an unparalleled opportunity to study the emergence of a new language.
• those who learned NSL before it developed specific gestures for left and right perform more poorly on a spatial awareness test than children who grew up knowing how to sign those terms.
• The idea that language affects thought isn’t new. It’s encapsulated by the ‘Sapir-Whorf hypothesis’, which suggests that differences in the languages we speak affect the way we think and behave.

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• There are so many thoughts going through my mind as I write this post one year later. So many things I want to say, but again I find myself sort of at a loss for words. I’m overcome with emotion as I reflect on the last year and how our life has changed (in a good way) because of our son Noah. We had a few scares over the last year, learned more about Down syndrome in the last year than most people learn in their life time, and most of all; we’ve had a blast being first time parents! I mean seriously, I knew I was gong to enjoy being a father, but this is ridiculous. I absolutely love it!
• Today on our son’s first birthday I’d like to share a few things I wish I could go back in time and tell myself when we first learned of our son’s Down syndrome diagnosis.
• Noah being born with Down syndrome doesn’t mean he’s sick or unhealthy.
• Noah’s not going to be a vegetable. In fact, far from it.
• Noah’s going to laugh and play just like every other kid.
• Noah shares more things in common with a child without Down syndrome than differences.
• In a few weeks your son having Down syndrome won’t be a big deal.
• You’re going to have the ability to make a huge impact in the world.
• Your going to have so much fun with your son. In fact, you’re going to have even more fun than you ever imagined!
• You aren’t alone.
• Your didn’t just exchange a happy story for a sad one.
• Other people’s stories aren’t your stories.
• Stay off internet.
• You and your family are going to be just fine.
• Rick, things are going to be just fine, trust me. This next year is going to be the best year of your life. I know it doesn’t feel that way now, but trust me on this one!

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