Paraphrasing the Hydrocephalus Association Teacher's Guide: Learning Disabilities (Part 2)

 I'm going to be splitting the section until 3 different parts because there are sub-sections that I want to make sure that I understand more before I paraphrase it. I've mentioned in previous posts that whenever I mention "Children" in these posts it doesn't necessarily doesn't mean adults too. I've been trying hard to focus on the teacher's guide, other than digging up other sources, or especially not assuming. 

 

The three sub-sections I'm going to focus on memory, math, and attention. Children with hydrocephalus can throw off their teachers or parents with the ability to memorize facts via root learning. But at the same time not being able to explain the material or answer questions about it. With math the teacher's guide is specific with it not being a problem with all children with hydrocephalus. They are usually able to understand the general concepts, but are stumped by things like sequencing and rote tasks, and things that involve their fine motor skills. I'll be talking about fine motor skills in my next post. They used the difference between learning the concepts of multiplication, and being able to recite the multiplication table. With some students math learned in higher grades like algebra may be impossible. So it's important to see if something can be done about in with the child's IEP if it's a problem. Some children with hydrocephalus possibly regardless of having nonverbal learning disability considering the way the teacher's guide have trouble staying focused in class. This may either having trouble focusing/staying on track in class and/or getting lost in instructions or with complex language. This can be seen as bad behavior. The teacher's guide used the words lazy, dreamy, unmotivated, and inattentive.

 

For me the memory problems was only ever a major issue in church. So instead of going off topic I'm going to post a link to a post talking about it on the bottom of this one. With both math, and attention my experiences partially has to do with me no longer wanting to put an effort in School through most of Junior High, and High School. But I've realized that it has way less to do with it after reading through the teacher's guide. When it comes the multiplication table, it was a bigger issue trying to memorize. Compared to how long it took my siblings, it took a lot longer than either of them, but I can recite a lot more of it than they can now. With Algebra I was flunking it badly weeks in. I couldn't understand the concepts, but I also refused one on one tutoring, I also constantly forgot to do my homework which wasn't something that was fixed until I had a teacher that forced me to do all of my homework during her class. When it came to attention I thought it had to do completely with not wanting to put in the effort. I got "kicked" out of Algebra after flunking the first semester. I got an "A" in Pre-Algebra the next semester. Then they had me skip between complex math classes, and eventually ended up getting stuck in Special Ed math until I finished school.  I would lose track of note taking so at some point I decided to put in the effort. I've spoken with at least two people who attempt to write everything down out of fear of forgetting it, and end up crashing mid-day because of it. When it comes to instructions the experience that sticks out the most is in web design class my last semester of high school. Since it was a complex situation I couldn't understand the first step, and didn't have time to get help before I got way behind in the steps. It was curriculum needed for the second semester, and I had finished my credits so it wasn't necessary to go back and get help at all at that point. 

 

 

 https://www.hydroassoc.org/docs/A_Teachers_Guide_to_Hydrocephalus.pdf

 

 http://timothy-landry.blogspot.com/search/label/Faith

Paraphrasing the Hydrocephalus Teacher's Guide: Learning Disabilites (Part 1)

 

I've been paraphrasing the Hydrocephalus Teacher's guide section by section. I was lacking motivation to do it after the first post, but I'm fairly confident that I'm ready to start posting every other week, or every week depending on my days off, or if I need a break. The next section I'm going to focus on is learning disabilities, and I'm going to be splitting it between multiple posts. I'll be focusing on mostly nonverbal learning disability. There a 4 different specific learning disabilities that's the most common. The first is Nonverbal learning Disability. The others are difficulties in understanding both complex and abstract concepts, and retrieving stored information. The last one is spatial/perceptual disorders, 

 

When children with hydrocephalus have learning disabilities it usually doesn't become apparent until the 3rd or 4th grade when the learning material becomes more complex and abstract. Children with hydrocephalus are likely to have learning disabilities involving processing information as well, and this also becomes more common around the 3rd or 4th grade as well. 

 

People with Nonverbal learning disability have problems processing nonverbal information. They struggle with learning new concepts, which definitely isn't limited to school work. It causes them to need to have the new concepts multiple times, and it takes them longer to pick up the pace if needed. Same with picking up social cues. Children with nonverbal learning disabilities tend to do well in early Elementary school with a few exceptions including fine motor skills. It becomes far more apparent later,  possibly as late as the beginning of Middle School when they are left to handle tasks on their own. The Teacher's Guide lists a lot of common things that happen at least during these years that may appear to be laziness, but isn't necessarily, These include not being prepared for class, missing assignments/homework, having trouble understanding texts, Social Studies specifically. Other common things are misunderstanding directions and their teachers and peers.  Again these behaviors may seem like bad behavior, but it's actually the result of child struggling. When it comes to verbal abilities usually have a easy time learning words and pronunciations, but have trouble understanding the meanings via text. 

 

Two other things that were mentioned was children with nonverbal learning disability often being in denial or their learning disabilities, or even their Parents. Also it mentioned that they are commonly anxious in public, and angry at home. 

 

Coming from my own experience I started falling behind in the 4th grade. I might have in the 3rd grade, but I had a great teacher who helped me a lot more than the last 2 teachers I had in Elementary School. I was failing almost all of my classes in the 6th grade mostly because of the sudden work load. I worked what I definitely felt was a lot harder that some of the kids in my friend circle, and ended up only getting C's. My biggest issue was not remember what I would read in my textbooks. Then retaining that information until I took my test, and needing to do the same thing again for the next text. So in a sense I gave up, and put very little effort into until my junior year. Somehow I managed to only be one semester behind, and half a credit from graduating on time.

Paraphrasing the Hydrocephalus Association's teacher's guide: Social and emotional issues (part 2)

I'm going to try to pick up the pace, but I've been very slowly going through the hydrocephalus association teacher's guide and paraphrasing it to save others from having to attempt to read the whole thing. I've going through the sections with what is least known instead of from front to back. I'm going to focus on social cues and skills. My last post from 5 months ago was based on depression and isolation.

 

Many Children (and Adults) with hydrocephalus may having learning problems, and that might include Nonverbal learning disability. One of the symptoms of NVD is the near inability to recognize verbal and nonverbal cues. This results in missing social cues like facial expressions, gestures, and tones of voice. That results in taking things like sarcasm literally that has to do with the tone of voice. If it's not explained it can be very hurtful if not explained. Problems with social cues is not limited to facial expressions and tones of voice though.

 

Other social problems that some children with hydrocephalus is being very talkative, but there conversations aren't very thorough and they may process information slower than normal, which might cause problems with their peers. This results in it being common for them to befriend children younger than them. 

 

The last thing is that they might have problems with distance and spatial issues, resulting in them either being too close or too far away. If they're too close it tends to result in the person wanting to get away from them right away, and if they're too far away eye contact is difficulty, which results in them getting ignored. All of this isn't limited children. But since I'm paraphrasing I don't want to get off topic doing more research at the moment, and I definitely don't want to assume things.

 

Hydrocephalus Association Teacher's Guide:  https://www.hydroassoc.org/docs/A_Teachers_Guide_to_Hydrocephalus.pdf

The first post in my series of posts:  http://timothy-landry.blogspot.com/2020/05/paraphrasing-hydrocephalus-associations.html