|
New Teaching
Approach Shuns Labeling Children
by Maia Davis, January 02, 2003, North Jersey News
For more articles visit
www.bridges4kids.org.
Sonia DeAgazio's Clifton third-graders listening to the words
as they followed along with the book, part of the Schools
Attuned method.
You know the boy who can't sit still in class?
Or the girl who fails the test no matter how much she studies?
The teacher decides the first child is a troublemaker and the
second is slow. The school sends them off to special
education. And the children learn they have a "disability,"
confirming their own secret fears that something about them is
deeply wrong.
But a new teaching approach developed by a best-selling
author-pediatrician has a message for these educators and
parents: Look closer.
The boy might have a minor problem with attention, and the
girl a problem with short-term memory, according to Dr. Mel
Levine, whose theories are now being used in public and
private schools around the country, including Clifton and
River Edge.
Give the boy a Nerf ball to squeeze so he can release energy
to stay focused, advocates of Levine's method advise. Let the
girl take open-book tests while helping to strengthen her
memorization skills. Most important, teach the children how
their minds work to protect their fragile self-esteem.
Levine has popularized recent research showing that brains are
wired differently. Rather than grouping children under broad
labels such as "hyperactive," "learning disabled," or
"attention deficit disorder," he urges educators to approach
children, as one of his book titles states, "a mind at a
time."
Since 1998, his non-profit All Kinds of Minds Institute has
trained 11,000 educators to become classroom diagnosticians.
Teachers who attend the weeklong training and follow-up
sessions, run in North Carolina and
elsewhere, learn how to evaluate children's skills in
everything from attention to social interaction.
"There are a lot of different ways to succeed in life and many
different minds out there," Levine says. "We all have to
strive to get to know a child very well and to make sure he
doesn't grow up frustrated and depleted of motivation because
his mind isn't fitting with what it's being asked to do."
Teachers and school counselors say Levine gives a scientific
basis to their own best instincts.
"It's not a cookie-cutter business," Clifton educator Sonia
DeAgazio says of teaching third-graders. "Sometimes you'd love
for them all to act the same, but that's not how it is.
They're their own individuals."
Some schools that have embraced Levine's methods, including
one Woodbridge elementary school, have dramatically lowered
the number of children placed each year in special education,
says Mary-Dean Barringer, national director of the training
program Schools Attuned.
Clifton had reduced its yearly special-education placements by
two-thirds even before some of its counselors and teachers
received Schools Attuned training several years ago, said
Barry Mascari, counseling supervisor for the district. Still,
some experts worry that schools might use Levine's approach as
a way to cut special-education costs.
"I'm afraid euphemizing disabilities may encourage parents to
gloss over the seriousness of their child's situation," says
Jane Browning, executive director of the Learning Disabilities
Association of America.
Reducing special-education referrals is an "unintended
outcome" of Schools Attuned, not a goal, says Barringer, a
former special-education teacher. U.S. schools refer too many
children to special education because they fail to clearly
understand their problems, she says.
That failure also sometimes leads educators to rush to put
children on Ritalin and other medications, Levine says.
Some children benefit from medication, but even they need
specific help in academic or social areas, he says. "To feel
medication is going to cure someone is an illusion and
possibly dangerous."
Every year, DeAgazio at School 15 in Clifton has one or two
students who are struggling. A boy who turns in half-finished
work might have trouble copying instructions from a
blackboard, causing him to fall behind in his assignment. His
problem isn't with language, but with absorbing information
through certain mediums, a function of attention, DeAgazio
says.
Her solution? Allow that boy to copy from a sheet of paper
instead of the blackboard, or have another child make a carbon
copy of what's on the board for the classmate.
Some teachers resist making such accommodations, believing it
gives the child with the attention problem an unfair
advantage.
But Levine and his supporters say treating every student the
same invites failure.
"Equal is not fair," says Joan Ferrara Millar, a consultant in
Clifton's educational-support program.
Ilene Plotkin's son was one who got special treatment from
teachers.
The boy, whose name is being withheld at his mother's request,
is a bright child who has always made honor roll. But in third
grade, he began talking back to his teacher. He got upset if
he felt he didn't understand an assignment. He began to
constantly criticize himself.
Michele Petrelli, an educational-support consultant in the
district, found that the boy had certain weaknesses in how he
interacted socially. She asked his teacher to carefully
explain every assignment to him.
Now, he is a happy and successful middle-school student, says
his mother, who works for Clifton schools.
Levine worries that once school becomes a source of
humiliation, students might give up.
He once felt such pain himself.
Although he was a bright child, he was awkward in gym class,
inept at organizing his homework, and awful at art. He writes
that he still has trouble folding paper to fit neatly in an
envelope. His fifth-grade teacher regularly criticized him in
front of his classmates. Supportive parents helped him succeed
in school.
Now a professor of medicine at University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill, he opened the All Kinds of Minds Institute with
investor Charles Schwab in 1995.
Sabrina Dunier, pupil-assistance counselor for the River Edge
elementary schools, took two Schools Attuned courses this
year. When a child having trouble in school is referred to
her, she first completes an extensive written
neurodevelopmental evaluation. Parents and the child help in
the diagnosis.
"The child can often tell you what's wrong as much as anyone
if asked the right questions," Dunier says.
Once Dunier pinpoints the problem, she explains to children
their particular strengths and weaknesses.
"It makes them feel, 'There's nothing wrong with me,'" she
says. "That makes a great difference just in their wanting to
come to school and to perform and to be motivated."
***
Excerpted from "A Mind at a Time'' by Mel Levine, M.D.
1. Know thy child.
Know your children's strengths and weaknesses. How well, for
example, do they manage time, control their attention, write
and read?
2. Respond to gaps
If you suspect your child is weak in areas that may cause
problems later, seek assistance from a professional.
3. Foster strengths, knacks, talents, and interests.
Help children pursue their passions. Playing sports is not
enough. Children need both intellectual passions and
recreational pursuits.
4. Try not to harm
If children feel they are disappointing their parents, they
become emotional powder kegs. Give them lots of praise. Learn
to listen without giving canned lectures or sermons.
5. Support education
Find out what the school expects and support your children in
meeting those expectations. Help children enhance their skills
and knowledge of facts. Drill them on math, letter formation,
basic vocabulary, or spelling each night at bedtime, the best
time for storing information in long-term memory.
6. Maintain an intellectual life at home
Show a strong interest in what your child is learning at
school. Limit television. Make sure children have free time to
brainstorm, exercise creativity, and engage in imaginary play.
7. Foster optimism and a positive view of the future
Help children envision how they might use their strengths and
interests in the future. The vision of the future should help
to keep them motivated and ambitious.
Maia Davis' e-mail address is
davis@northjersey.com
|
