Learning Disabilities and the Writing Center

For several years now, I have often wondered about how students with learning disabilites study and learn in high school and college. As a tutor, I think that it would be an honor to help somebody who has any kind of disability that they are struggling with. I have always been curious to learn about their viewpoint in terms of learning. In "Learning Disabilites and the Writing Center", Julie Neff takes us through personal experiences with students with learning disabilites and offers some suggestions to tutors on how we can effectively help them out.

Neff takes us through the personal story of Barb and problems that she encounters in everyday life. In one instance, Barb is asked by her mother to put a roast in the oven at 350 degrees. Barb agrees, and does so;however, she unfortunately forgets to take the plastic covering off of the roast when she lays in the oven. Barb isn't blind or anything, but she makes it very clear to her mother, that she just didn't see the plastic covering.

I think that this situation displays the power and need for understanding the communication of language and how important it is in our daily lives. Had Barb's mother had told her beforehand, that the roast was covered in plastic, then she would have never made the mistake, but she did. When it comes to communicating with people around us who have a disibilty of some kind, whether we're at work, school, church, or home, we have to understand that we always have to depend on the usage of information through words, and not images.

One of the great aspects of this article, is that Neff has faith that students with disabilities can somehow find a certain way to learn efficiently through writing. Neff believes that freewriting for most disability students, can be a very difficult task. Conversation instead, can take the place of freewriting. I think that this should by applied in any meeting between a tutor and a student.

Another problem with students who have a learning problem, is the people around them, usually have a very negative attitude about the way they function in learning. This kind of thinking to me is very sad. I think that they should be able to learn in an atmosphere with individuals who at least try to promote a positive attitude, but I'm sure their are those who do not. We as tutors should help them to find an area where they can find ideas in writing that can help them became more aware of extending their writing techniques.