Every Tenth Child

Faigel, Harris

EVERY TENTH CHILD JEWISH EDUCATION FOR THE LEARNING DISABLED HARRIS FAIGAL Jonathan. He was almost 15 when I met him, struggling with public school, feeling outcast and alone. Jon came from a...

...It certainly does not have the luxury of extensive testing facilities, tracking, creating individual programs, hiring specially qualified professionals...
...Most of the youngsters managed to chant only the b'rachot...
...Although these professionals may not know about Jewish education, their skills are extremely important to the Jewish educator...
...His parents took the advice...
...Finally, Alan's father had never been bar mitzvah, and Alan felt it was particularly unfair to put that demand on him...
...That is what happened to Alan...
...Native intelligence obscured, these children, too often, are treated as mentally retarded or severely brain-damaged...
...The trouble is the same, only more so, because Hebrew schools have inherent problems that often make teaching/learning a struggle, and because even parents of "normal" children have their own conflicts and motivations regarding Hebrew education...
...They based their decisions, however, on their perceptions of his behavior— not on his work...
...Psychological testing showed him to be angry, hurt, and resentful about his failures, which, of course, tied in with the expectations of his teachers and family...
...Each of these boys eventually became a bar mitzvah—on a weekday which coincided with a civil holiday...
...There is a second kind of handicap, related not so much to brain waves and intrabrain connections as to timing...
...Nonetheless, its passage has encouraged teacher training programs which offer an increasing number of related courses—and there is every good reason for Hebrew school administrators to encourage their teachers to attend these courses...
...She tells me things are far from perfect...
...Jon became the first boy in his family who did not become a bar mitzvah at 13...
...Perceptually disabled youngsters are included in the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (P.L.94-142...
...The age when these events occur depends on an inherited rhythm we call the biological clock, which is (also) unrelated to intelligence...
...After three years, Jon's parents were advised by the head of the school to enroll Jon in public school...
...It can be done...
...Despite evidence suggesting unrealistic goals, Alan's parents wanted him to become a bar mitzvah...
...The term dyslexia actually refers to these disabilities...
...Borderline students like Jon are dismissed as either poorly motivated or not too bright...
...His parents, resigned, had surrendered their plans for a joyous celebration...
...Harris Faigel is Director of University Health Services at Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts...
...A child may have one area which is inoperative, or many areas may be affected...
...Apparently, he was a very active, sometimes rambunctious boy, always in trouble with his teachers because of his behavior...
...As with Jon, the villain of the piece is invisibility—there are no physical signs of impairment, no crutches or braces or hearing aids or thick glasses...
...During our conversations I pursued the question of Alan's Talmud Torah education...
...she uses more repetition and reinforcements, relying on homemade tape recordings...
...For example, in order to read this article silently to yourself, you are first sending the information from your eyes to the part of the brain which registers the information and then to another area which recognizes the information...
...Where, then, does the onus of responsibility lie...
...In the past we used the catchall label "dyslexia" to describe nearly fifty different handicaps...
...This percentage includes those who are bright and those who are dull, those who study and those who don't...
...Certainly the problem needs to be acknowledged, so that a workable program, with realistic expectations, can be developed...
...there was no evidence of handicap...
...He was called to the Torah, finally, one Monday morning and recited the appropriate blessings from memory...
...Past failures promote the expectation of future failures...
...Ellen is a Hebrew teacher in a suburban Talmud Torah...
...Jon began Talmud Torah studies the same year he entered public school and had even less success there...
...Most babies begin to walk when they are approximately one year old...
...Often, bar mitzvah becomes the specific problem—not because the rituals and material that must be learned are so difficult (no one really expects a thirteen year old to be a cantorial singer) but because of the pressure that results from having to learn and having to perform...
...Initially, however, Alan's Talmud Torah teacher resisted changing his methodology—until he understood Alan's frustration and realized that Alan was better at listening than he was at either reading or writing...
...For the children who suffer from both slow clocks and learning disabilities (whether permanent or not) the situation often approaches the tragic...
...With the public school system, to ferret out the problems...
...Simply, statistics show that any Hebrew school with thirty students includes three perceptually handicapped children...
...His teachers liked him, but eventually everyone despaired of ever being able to teach him...
...Or they withdraw, becoming unhappy and depressed children...
...The acquisition of a Hebrew education (viewed physiologically rather than sociologically and certainly not reduced to denominational preference) involves the same skills that acquisition of English demands...
...Vision and hearing are normal but the ability to perceive, understand, and then apply what is seen or heard is mildly/moderately/severely impaired...
...He was 16...
...After Alan had repeated the first grade, his parents were told he was a slow learner...
...If their ego defenses are well developed they lose interest in school, act out in antisocial behaviors...
...Children who turn English letters upside down or backwards or are confused by the difference between script and print have the same troubles with the Hebrew alphabet...
...The public school established a separate, highly structured program that provided academic success and served to boost his self-esteem...
...The learning disabled sit in nearly every classroom in nearly every Hebrew school and for the unwary or the inexperienced they represent booby traps, invisible threats...
...Recently he became a bar mitzvah, chanting both the maftir and hafto-rah from memory...
...it includes Jewish and non-Jewish children...
...The youngster with a slow clock, who has outgrown the specific learning problem by the time bar/ bat mitzvah approaches, may still view the task with a self-fulfilling prophecy of defeat...
...And there are any number of diagnostic tests (Jon went through 20) to determine the nature of a child's disability...
...You then connect this to visual memory, to auditory memory, and, finally, to language areas which will convert the images to sounds so that you can speak these words silently in your mind...
...Some walk earlier because the connections between the brain and the leg, which are incomplete at birth, form sooner than the average...
...We define a learning disability as a specific handicap independent of native intelligence which limits the rate of learning, or the ability to learn specific academic materials, or both...
...Jon knew how to behave in class...
...And that structure has problems enough...
...the one who can't remember sounds can read...
...If those areas do not work well, or if the circuits which connect them do not work well, a child will have trouble learning such things as arithmetic (dyscalculia), orientation, map reading, and other reference skills which depend on understanding spatial relationships...
...Specifically, there are several areas of the brain which, together, handle the relationships between size, shape, and space...
...In talking with them outside class she often felt they were brighter than their work indicated...
...She finds she is able to be more experimental and less judgmental...
...Ordinary perception depends upon the operation of the different areas of the brain and their connecting circuits...
...Such children face daily frustration and pain because they cannot do as well as their classmates...
...In fact, we need all the help we can get...
...Unlike the others, however, he did poorly there, becoming increasingly withdrawn and unhappy...
...His abilities—and disabilities—had never been accurately assessed...
...The visual memory, auditory memory, perspective, and temporal relationships affect our ability to read and write...
...Attending the bar /bat mitzvah celebrations of friends stimulated his own interest and he began to discover that he actually could do it himself...
...With Newsweek or Time to alert parents and teachers to problems they may be overlooking...
...Jon is now enrolled in a vocational training program in a technical high school...
...history in public school have just as much trouble studying Jewish history...
...When these factors are under control such students can derive a good deal of personal satisfaction...
...The learned disabled sit in nearly every classroom in nearly every Hebrew school and, for the unwary, the untrained, or the inexperienced they represent booby traps, invisible threats in what may already be untenable educational atmospheres...
...Learning disabled children need not be lost to us...
...Jon is an example of the ten percent of all school children who are learning disabled...
...he was quiet, well-mannered, controlled (and therefore, bright...
...Jewish parochial schools, like their non-Jewish counterparts, have the option of sending their "problem" students back to public schools, but such an alternative does not exist for the afternoon Talmud Torah...
...And yes, there are those children whose electrical connections are irreparable...
...Their parents occasionally mentioned similar problems in public school, but, if corrective help was sought, Ellen never knew about it...
...And certified specialists are available for consultation...
...Extensive testing showed that Alan had average intelligence, good auditory memory, poor visual memory, and a good sense of spatial relationships...
...This legislation, however, does not impact upon religious institutions...
...Children who suffer both from slow biological clocks and learning disabilities are too often treated as mentally retarded or braindamaged...
...He simply was unable to maintain the level of competence of his classmates...
...There is an observable adolescent growth streak—but it may happen in the tenth year, it may happen in the sixteenth...
...Even though no physical blocks to learning remain, the student needs a support system of family and teachers who are aware of his old problems, who are sensitive to his fears and who can, con-sequendy, lead him through the performance to success and a sense of accomplishment...
...A battery of tests revealed a poor visual sequential memory, poor spatial relationship understandings, and poor auditory memory skills...
...Jon's teachers helped him as much as they could and promoted him...
...Example: some babies begin to walk at the usual age, but, because something is permanently wrong with the way the centers and circuits of the brain and nervous system control the legs, they have a limp...
...Alan was 12 years old, in the sixth grade, when his parents came to me, unsatisfied with his progress in public school...
...Ellen, by now alerted to the problem (recent legislation in some states now requires testing of slow learners, and several of her students were so identified), has taken courses and attended a number of seminars on learning disabilities...
...Picture the brain as a highly sophisticated electrical switchboard...
...But the child who has problems with both or whose difficulty is with the connecting links between these areas will not be able to prepare the traditional materials without special help...
...some walk later because the connections are formed later...
...Each year, there have always been one or two students in her classes, usually boys, who seemed to struggle with the language more than the others...
...Academically, he was doing fifth grade work in math, but only third grade work in reading and spelling...
...Without these options, regardless of intelligence, such children face chronic failure in their early learning and may become both apathetic and hostile to any learning situation...
...While tests and definitions may be generalized, each diagnosis and treatment must be specific...
...Hebrew was so difficult for him to master that he only pretended to pay attention...
...Equally important, the students must be given encouragement and emotional support...
...And without specific diagnosis and treatment the disabled child cannot benefit...
...With parents, to be sufficiently attuned to their children's educational development that the slightest aberration may be detected immediately...
...Because of this, isolating the source of the disability becomes a tricky business...
...Alan's work was tape recorded and he learned all his material by rote...
...Just having peripheral knowledge of the kinds of handicaps under which her students may be laboring has made it easier for her...
...When the biological clock runs slow, the child may not be ready to learn in school, even if the calendar demands it...
...Still, she says, things are getting better...
...Jon came from a religious family and, like all his siblings, began his schooling at the synagogue nursery school, then went on to a private religious day school...
...There was no party, little pride, no simcha...
...Children who cannot read U.S...
...Maps are maps...
...Similarly, some children learn with a permanent academic limp because something is wrong with the way the associated centers in the brain control learning...
...For a moderately disabled youngster, with either a poor auditory memory or a poor visual memory, emphasis can be placed on teaching through related strength: the poor visual student may compensate by learning by rote...
...He did a superb job...
...Special help must be provided to teach them to use alternate pathways to learning...
...A detour around a partial obstruction will slow you down—a break anywhere in the chain will make it impossible to read...
...Since most children with slow biological clocks have made the necessary electrical connections by the time they reach Talmud Torah at age nine or ten, the teacher isn't dealing with a learning disability as much as with residual emotional scars and attitudes...
...She wishes there were more work being done to train Hebrew teachers to deal with the learning disabled and she wishes she were better at it...

Vol. 4 • December 1978 • No. 2


 
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