Activity B

Meeting someone with a learning disability

It is important to look beyond the handouts or activities and find a real person. In some way, shape or form, tutors need to meet someone with a learning disability to develop a better understanding and to connect the unit to reality.

Option 1 Interview

Why choose this option?

This is the best option but will require quite a bit of preparation time. You may also have some trouble finding a learner who is willing to talk to tutors.

Materials and equipment

Handout 10.7: General Characteristics of Learners with Learning Disabilities

Preparation

See if you can get someone who has a learning disability to come and talk briefly with your tutors.
Go over possible questions with this person before the session. A few questions are suggested below, but it would be best to work with your guest to develop more relevant questions that your guest is comfortable answering. Your guest may also want to give tutors some other information on his learning disability and may need some time to prepare.
Copy handout.

STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS

  1. Introduce your guest and ask questions as you have arranged in advance. If your guest is a confident speaker, you may feel that tutors can be invited to ask questions also. Check this out with the speaker in advance. Delete questions that the learner is not comfortable answering. Follow the guest’s lead.
    • What are your strengths?
    • When did you first think that you had a learning disability?
    • Please describe, in your words, your learning disability
    • How did your learning disability affect your self-esteem?
    • How did your learning disability affect your school years?
    • How does it affect your work?
    • How does it affect other parts of your life?
    • How do you cope with this disability?
    • Do you have suggestions for tutors working with someone who has a learning disability?
  2. Thank your guest. After he has left, ask tutors to read over the handout General Characteristics of Learners with Learning Disabilities and think about what characteristics your guest mentioned as some of his learning problems.
  3. Discuss the tutors’ ideas.
  4. State that the characteristics on the handout are very general and some may not reflect the learners that tutors will work with.

Variation

To further understand the significance of these processing challenges, you could open a dialogue with tutors about how these challenges would impact the everyday life of an individual. They could look at the impact on a child, an adolescent and an independent adult or senior with a learning disability. If working with three or more tutors, each person or group could brainstorm ideas about the impact within one of the three life stages. This discussion would provide a valuable backdrop to watching the video or meeting an individual with a learning disability.