What a Student with Learning Difficulties Might Say

Things to look for in your conversations with students.

You can learn a lot about a student from the comments that they make about themselves. This PowerPoint presentation can be used as a structure for a group or individual interview or conversation. Students might respond with comments to the effect “oh yea, that’s me,” which provides a good jumping off point for discussions.

You might consider use of this PowerPoint as part of your initial student interview, making notes of student’s replies and questioning them about those items that the indicate are like them. It is a tool that you can use to touch upon many different symptom areas in a very short period of time. This PowerPoint can also be used as a guide for an individual discussion, especially in cases where reading problems might be a problem. The questions are the same as those on the printed format, thus, the response scorer could be used to obtain a student profile.

Richard Gacka Ed.D.

Director: PA ABLE LD Project rcgacka@stairwaysbh.org or http://web.mac.com/ldconsultants

Cross referenced with Beta 2 of the Scorer: 11/1/10

I think that I’m smart, but things just don’t

seem to work out well for me.

My reading and math skills are not as good as I know

they could be.

I often start something, but without knowing it my attention switches

to something else.

My mind is always going at full speed. Sometime I wish it would slow down.

I often make bad choices.

I have trouble remembering more than one thing at a

time.

I always end up chewing hard candy,

like a Life-Saver. I just never seem to be able to let the whole thing melt in my mouth.

I start jobs but don’t finish them.

When I was in school, I was in

Special Education classes.

There is a big difference between my math skills and my reading ability.

I have a very hard time making friends.

I have a hard time expressing

my ideas

When I was young, I had to go to speech

classes.

When I have to quickly determine Left or Right, I

will move my arm or shake my hand and that

helps me choose.

Sometimes when I write, my hand

makes a different letter than what my brain is thinking.

I doodle a lot during classes or when I have to sit

for a long time

I have a really hard time just

sitting and doing nothing.

I have the worst time following

directions.

My grades in school were inconsistent – in some classes I did poorly but

some were OK.

I was never very good at sports. I’m

pretty uncoordinated.

I’m much better working with my hands than I am working with

my brain.

I like to be doing 3 or 4 things at the same

time.

I prefer animals, computers or

machines over dealing with people.

People have told me that they know that I am not “slow” but that I just don’t try hard enough.

My writing is messy and I have

trouble forming the letters.

It seems like I’m always messing

things up.

People have told me that I have

ADD.

I often get into arguments or

fights.

I’m different

I do much better with people than I

do with books.

I hate to read

People talk too fast, I wish they would just slow

down.

I can’t read more than a few lines without my

mind jumping to something else.

I hate math, I really hate it!

It’s like the new information pushes

out the old… my memory is really bad.

The words on the page just get all

blurred or they seem to move around.

I know a lot more than I can explain

in words.

I have trouble remembering facts

like my times tables or lists of

things.

I have trouble sounding out new

words

I need to be shown how to do things, not

told how to do it.

Other kids made fun of me when I was

young.

I have a learning disability.