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Learning disabilities are a type of neurodevelopmental disorder in which a student that is of otherwise average of above average intelligence struggle with a sp
by htag 4y ago
Learning disabilities are a type of neurodevelopmental disorder in which a student that is of otherwise average of above average intelligence struggle with a specific type of material, commonly reading (dyslexia) or basic math (dyscalculia). The most effective treatment is early remediation, in which students in primary education are identified and given extra lessons and exercises on their weakness to help make them more well rounded so they do not struggle later in their education. This is super effective.
I can tell your frustrated with accommodations. I think your arguments against accommodations would be a lot stronger if you knew more about them. I think you might have some good points inside, but your frustration and ignorance prevent them from being compelling. I encourage you to do more reading, but let me point out a few mistakes in your post.
* You seem to mistakenly associate a learning disability with low intelligence. A person cannot have a learning disability and be below average in intelligence by definition. Struggling to learn how to read while being average or above average in every other subject is different than strugglingly to learn everything. The more a student struggles to learn to read while excelling at everything else, the more likely they are to be diagnosed. This means very intelligent students with a learning disability are more likely to be diagnosed than average students with the same disability.
* Extra time on test is an accommodation.
* Accommodations are not being handed out like candy for no reason. Anyone can buy candy. Accommodations require a documented disability.
* Many standardized test accommodations are very appropriate, such as blind people being offered a braille version of the test, or people with poor motor control having someone else physically fill in scantron bubbles.
* A student can be disabled based on low intelligence. It's not called a learning disability, because it's fundamentally a different thing.
- nradov 4y agoThat is not how it works in the real world. Affluent parents go doctor shopping to get learning disability diagnoses for their children. This has been going on for decades (I saw it with some of my classmates when I was in school) and the friendly doctors are well known in those circles. I am not claiming that learning disabilities aren't real or that students who legitimately have those conditions don't deserve some accommodations. But the reality is that the current system is totally broken and discriminatory.
- kthejoker2 4y agoI read extreme statements like this sand ask where is the proof? Not because I don't believe it but if these things are well known, why isn't some clickbait journalist all over it?
- Glyptodon 4y agoHi anxiety higher status parents (professors, doctors, etc.) with kids who aren't Einstein go doctor shopping and waste district time constantly to get their kids testing advantages even though their kids are often totally typical kids with 110ish IQs. Special Ed at the local district is sick of them because it wastes so much time and money and takes away resources from the kids who actually need. (Though many of these parents do cause their kids to develop actual real anxiety disorders...)
- faeriechangling 4y ago>A person cannot have a learning disability and be below average in intelligence by definition. Very aware of this, which essentially means that learning disabilities are a privilege for kids who are ALREADY ADVANTAGED over the other students, and yet a child with a 120IQ and dysgraphia gets to take 50% more time on their test than a kid with 80IQ basically without question, and if they press the issue they can probably get double time. That's my main issue. You need to be below 70IQ typically to be considered to have an intellectual disability. You know, because that's fair. It's an "accommodation" for a student who has already gotten higher grades than another student to one day be pulled into a doctors office, have it explained that they have this horrible problem, and now get 50% more time on tests than somebody they were already a solid grade point ahead of, a child who statistically we can predict will live their entire lives with higher socioeconomic status and higher quality of life already! When I noticed how a student who always got worse grades than me, who got no accommodations, I always saw him studying after school in the library and eventually realised "he must he here this every day for hours" I felt "wow this system is so fucking fair - because I lack ability, unlike him who definitionally cannot have a learning disability as he's below average intelligence, so he needs to do a harder version of the tests that I do". Extra time on exams especially a ridiculous number like 50% is the more ridiculous accommodation in all but the most extreme cases. I got 50% extra time for dysgraphia when I was leaving tests with written essay portions early - maybe to be fair it could have taken me say 20% extra time to write. Also - despite my issues being specific to handwriting - I still got the same accommodation for computerised exams! What a fair and balanced accommodation only an ignorant person would question. I was diagnosed with a disability by a doctor so the accommodation HAS to make sense ten years later in a totally different context!