Rehabilitation of Educational Disabilities
A History in Three Parts

By Robert Zenhausern
Department of Psychology
St. John's University
Jamaica, NY 11439
Email: drz@sjuvm


Part I
The Past

Everyone has heard the horror stories from the past about how the insane were beaten, the deaf considered retarded, and many other disabled individuals "abused" in one form or another. The past is not entirely gone, however, for at least one rather large segment of Handicapped Community, the Educationally Handicapped.

Learning Disability may be the only handicap in which the afflicted individual is held responsible for the problem. No one says to a blind child "If you try harder, you will be able to see." Rather we make accommodations in recognition of the specific disability and provide alternatives approaches. We rehabilitate by teaching them to reach the same goals as the non-handicapped using alternative approaches, e.g. Talking Books, Closed Caption, and Computers.

The LD child, on the other hand, is often accused of being lazy and not paying attention. The child is told,"If you work harder, you will see it". Only recently has there been grudging acceptance of the need to accommodate the LD individual. On the elementary and secondary levels, for example, there have been accommodations in terms of increasing time to complete tests. The type of accommodations used in Learning Disability, however, have not always served to improve the education of the LD, but seem more cosmetic. The aim seems to be to allow the children to "pass" by giving them lower goals rather than maximizing their potential.

Accommodation may have come late, but Rehabilitation barely exists. Rather than Rehabilitation, the Educational Community has stressed Remediation, the process of giving children more practice at what they cannot do. An interesting contrast can be seen in the use of technology in Rehabilitation for the Blind and Remediation for the Learning Disabled.

Rehabilitation of the Blind can range from the High Tech solution of Voice Box Synthesizers that allow the Blind to communicate internationally across the Computer Networks to the No Tech assistance of a Seeing Eye Dog. High Tech Remediation for the LD child is all too often the substitution of computer drilling for the traditional workbook. Low Tech Remediation is the workbook without the computer.

There is a need for less Remediation and for more Rehabilitation. Less on drill and more on creating alternative approaches to learning. There is a growing recognition that perhaps the term Learning Disabilities should be replaced by the term Learning Differences. Tom Holloway, for example, of project Chatback spoke about the Center for Learning Differences in the UK. In the May log of Altlearn@sjuvm (log9105) there is a discussion on the nature of Learning Disabilities that was punctuated by some heated discussion. There was considerable disagreement on many issues, but all participants agreed on one thing: an LD child must be taught in the way he or she can learn and it was up to the educators to find that way.


Part II
The Present

This section of the paper will illustrate some specific alternative approach in Education with which I have personally been involved. The cases will be presented in a framework of increasingly higher levels of technology. The emphasis will be on the Computer Networks.

Alternative Approach 1 -- No Tech

Markman and Zenhausern (1989) found that about half the children in a mainstream class and 85% of LD children can not use verbal rehearsal to learn material and the classic "Cat, C A T, Cat" actually interferes with learning. An alternative strategy is to teach such children to learn rote material by imaging the letters or numbers and retrieve that image when it comes time to recall.


Alternative Approach 2 -- Low Tech

The Direct Access Approach to reading is based on the finding (Kalisky, Zenhausern, and Andrews, 1990) that most children we have termed reading disabled cannot learn to read using the traditional: convert the written word to its sound and from that sound get meaning. The Phonetic Disabled reader has difficulty with the first step, converting the written word to its sound. The Semantic Disabled reader can convert print to sound, but that does not lead to meaning. Direct Access is an alternative approach: if a child cannot read by converting the printed word to its sound and then its meaning, then teach the child to read by going from word to meaning to sound.

Direct Access at simplest level involves Low Tech in that words and corresponding pictures are on separate index cards. As soon as the child learns to pair the words and pictures the child understands the word. The words and pictures cards can be arranged in different sentences and the child can write stories without having to create every letter and can concentrate on ideas.


Medium Tech

There is a type of reading disability where children can "read" aloud fluently, but have not comprehended what they have just read. We all experience this from time to time, but these children have this problem on a chronic level. They, especially, have been called lazy or inattentive and punished for their handicap. These are the children who can learn to read using the Direct Access approach, but for whom there is an instantaneous "cure" through the use of a Medium Tech alternative procedure. Let the child read aloud into a tape recorder and then play the recording back. The child will have comprehended the written words. If the child then follows along in the book this alternative approach can help children teach themselves to read.


A Myriad of Alternative Approaches -- The Computer Networks

The function of the Computer Networks is communication. This can range from simple email and file transfer between colleagues, to Distance Learning and Special Interest groups. My own work in reading disability has led me to develop the Direct Access approach which is pilot testing in New York City and is already established in North Carolina. I am also working with Rita Dunn the moving force behind The Learning Styles Network who teaches at St.John's University in New York. These interests led to the creation of Altlearn@sjuvm.bitnet, an electronic list devoted to the development and use of alternative approaches to learning for all children. One of the more interesting contacts to emerge from that list was from Jim Sinclair, a high functioning autistic. Not only has Jim provided unique insights into the conscious thought processes of autism, but he has developed the equivalent of the seeing eye dog, for the developmentally disabled and autistic. The Social Signal Dog can have such diverse functions as watching over a low functioning individual to signaling when a high functioning individual needs a reminder.

Big Computer Pals is a rehabilitation program that develops electronic relationships among the handicapped via Computer Networking. The Bicompal@sjuvm.bitnet list serves as a "personals" listing for the development of the relationships which usually are continued using private email. The beginnings of many fruitful relationships are archived in the Bicompal logs, but perhaps the most dramatic involves Nelson from rural Nottoway, VA. The story began with a description of Nelson by Anne Pemberton, a teacher of LD students, and a forceful and fluent advocate of computer networking. She described a 16 year old part Cherokee LD student who was good with his hands and already in trouble with the law and "challenged" John Carson to be a Big Pal for Nelson. John Carson taught welding and metal working at a High School in Darwin, Australia and as soon as Nelson heard that, he was at the terminal writing his first letter. For the first time, he was concerned with spelling and grammar. Mike Burliegh of Project Chatback teaches language disordered children and asked Nelson if he would like to be a Big Pal to those children. Not only did Nelson jump at the chance, but he also encouraged his classmates to join him and tutored them on computer access as well as grammar and punctuation. Nelson has gone from failing to grades of 85 and is well on his way to becoming a productive individual.

Another example of the power of the Networks in dealing with Educational Disabilities is less dramatic than Nelson but significant in its own right. It concerns four classes of Emotionally Disturbed Fourth Grade students in a special school in New York City. These children started writing messages immediately and within the first two weeks there were two very positive notes. The first was the obvious improvement in the spelling, punctuation and format of the messages sent by one of the children. The second involved a message by one of the children that he hit his teacher. The responses to this were sympathetic and the child said he felt bad that he did it. The teacher said this was the FIRST TIME the child had expressed any remorse.

The final example is one of an emerging international project, Chatback which was mentioned in conjunction with the story of Nelson. Chatback has been in existence in the UK for five years and only recently has had Internet access via guest accounts at St. John's University in NYC. Chatback is involved in many projects and I want to mention two of them. The Breakfast Table II Project is a continuation of a project where children from disparate areas wrote about what was on their Breakfast Table. The Time Capsule Project will create a physical time capsule in which children and teachers will decide to leave the children and teachers 30 years from now.

Part III
The Future

The Future of Rehabilitation in Educational Disabilities may be indistinct, but at least two basic principles are sharply defined. First of all, an educational disability must be considered in the same way as a sensory or physical disability. Rather than trying to change the disability, we must provide alternative ways for the LD child to reach the same goals as the child who does not have this handicap. We must recognize that the approaches we use in teaching are a means to an end and not an end in themselves. If a child cannot learn the way we are teaching, it is up to us to create a way for that child to learn. Second, all levels of Technology must be integrated into creating alternative approaches and access to the Computer Networks must be as much a priority for Educational Disability as for any other Disability.