Q: My son is a very bright child with a learning disability. He’s in special classes at school and sees tutors several times a week. Even with the extra support, school is still a struggle for him. What else can we do to help him succeed?
A: Special educators and tutors seek to help struggling children access the same curriculum other children are learning. Every effort is made to direct this access through the child’s strongest learning modalities whether visual (learning by seeing), auditory (learning by hearing), or kinesthetic (learning by doing) or a combination of the three. Making compensations allows students to succeed with outside help, but leaves them limited in what they can do on their own. While this approach is successful for many children, many don’t respond to this intervention alone. Deficit stimulation allows students the eventual freedom of succeeding on their own as independent learners. One organization in the Coachella Valley, Integrated Learning Institute (ILI), takes this approach. Cynthia Moses from ILI explains it this way, “Our work at ILI is to stimulate and develop weak learning processes, not compensate for them. Students become independent learners who are able to learn in any vocational or educational setting without extra help.” Together, compensation and deficit stimulation are a great strategy to effectively approach your son’s learning disability.
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