F.A.T.

City
Problem Ownership

What might this look like for a student with learning disabilities?

Experiencing
Frustration and
Anxiety

Anxiety effects performance. Teachers should never force a student to look

at them when causing anxiety. It is a natural reaction to look away from the
source of your anxiety.

Processing (Pace)

Students with a hard time processing language have twice the processing
load. The teacher asks a question and the student with the learning disability
is processing what the question was and then the answer vs. a student
without a learning disability is just thinking about the answer. A way to
reduce stress based on being asked questions in class; Talk to the student in
question and tell them you will only call on them when standing in front of
their desk.

Distraction

Students with learning disabilities are distracted because they are focusing
on everything instead of focusing on one thing.

Risk-taking

When students are only punished or humiliated if they get the answer wrong
and get no positive reinforcement. There is no reason to take the risk and
volunteer because there is no positive outcome.

Additional Notes:
Learning disabilities are not only a problem in school but in every part of the childs life.
Sometimes the greatest gift you can give a student is time.

General Notes/Suggested Accommodations

Visual Perception You cannot bribe students or punish students into understanding.
(blurry picture)
Teachers should never blame the victim by saying things like:
they arent trying hard enough or they arent motivated
A learning disability has to do with perception of the image instead of the
literal vision of the image.
Reading
Comprehension
(two stories, one
with known vocab,
one without)

Comprehension has more to do with background than vocabulary. Even if a

person understands every word in a passage they might not understand the
passage. However, not having the vocabulary makes it even harder to
comprehend. Students need direct instruction.

Visual Perception Students might not understand what they have done wrong or that they did
(title for a story)
something wrong. Students might misperceive stimulus and will act
accordingly.

Visual Motor
(handwriting in a
mirror)

Sometimes students have a visual motor integration problem. When this

happens students cannot connect what they see with what they write.

Oral Expression
(story without a
the letter n)

Dysnomia is a word finding problem that some children with learning

disabilities have. There is a problem with storage and retrieval of names or
words. A person can only do one cognitive thing at once and two associative.
Note taking may be a cognitive experience for one student and associative
for another.

Reading and
Decoding
(story with
interchangeable
pdbq)

Spacial orientation typically does not change identification. However,

spacial orientation does change letters. Students must forget everything they
know about spacial orientation because it does change the letter (pdbq).
There is also a difference between decoding and reading/understanding.

Auditory and
Visual
Capabilities
(story understood
by listening)

Audio input can be extremely important when students visual capabilities

make it harder for them to understand something.

What is fairness?

Fairness is not giving everyone the same thing. Fairness is everyone getting what they need to succeed.
Fairness can create a safe classroom where every student knows the teacher will help them be
challenged, engaged, and comfortable.