@prefix vivo: . @prefix edm: . @prefix ns0: . @prefix dcterms: . @prefix dc: . @prefix skos: . vivo:departmentOrSchool "Education, Faculty of"@en, "Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of"@en ; edm:dataProvider "DSpace"@en ; ns0:degreeCampus "UBCV"@en ; dcterms:creator "Stanley, Leonard Dean"@en ; dcterms:issued "2009-09-25T22:03:11Z"@en, "2000"@en ; vivo:relatedDegree "Doctor of Philosophy - PhD"@en ; ns0:degreeGrantor "University of British Columbia"@en ; dcterms:description "The purpose of this research was to explore the experiences of children with learning disabilities, with a focus on the day-to-day activities of reading and writing at school. Eight children, aged nine to thirteen were interviewed, from three to six sessions each. A phenomenological interviewing and interpretation process was undertaken, and common experiences among the children were extracted from the interview transcripts. Their common experiences included feeling more similar to than different from their peers, success in school subjects and other areas, progress in their literacy skills, enjoying literacy, teachers making a difference, not enough time, frustration, confusion, and computers making a difference. Nine common experiences were combined into two general themes: \"OK Experience\" and \"Impact of Teaching Style and Programme\". In several respects the results echoed previous research concerning children and adolescents with learning disabilities. Familiar themes such as frustration and the importance of the relationship with teachers and peers emerged in this study as they have in the literature. However, unlike previous literature, the current study found that some children with learning disabilities have positive experiences in school, even in areas with which they struggle. Previous literature tends to emphasise the difficulties and the experience of difference and stigma, while the participants in this study seemed to downplay the difficulties and differences between themselves and peers. The \"learning disabilities\" label did not seem to have as significant an impact as has been found in previous studies, and self-esteem did not appear to be a problem. Also unlike other studies, the current research found common themes in the experiences of enjoyment of reading and writing, not enough time, confusion, progress and the importance of computer technology. These findings were considered in light of possible implications for further research and practice. It was suggested that future research might replicate and/or extend this study to further explore the common experiences of children and adolescents with learning disabilities. To the extent that the results would be supported by future research, they might contribute to practice in education and counselling. Something is evidently \"working\" in the way the participants are being supported, because they appear to be experiencing school as positively as the school system would hope. Perhaps early identification and intervention are effective. Perhaps the implementation of a demystification process is helping the children to feel good about themselves. There appears to be some room for improvement in specific cases, to help reduce confusion, frustration, and concerns about time limits, as well as increased attention to math and computer technology. The role of the counsellor as a proactive partner in the support of children with learning disabilities was discussed. To maintain the positive outcomes observed in this study will involve continued advocacy, support for families, case management, and liaison with other agencies. Counsellors can also provide direct support in the form of demystification and strategies to reduce confusion and frustration."@en ; edm:aggregatedCHO "https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/13196?expand=metadata"@en ; dcterms:extent "10164681 bytes"@en ; dc:format "application/pdf"@en ; skos:note "THE READING AND WRITING EXPERIENCES OF CHILDREN WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES by L E O N A R D D E A N S T A N L E Y B.A. , The University of Victoria, 1985 M.Ed., The University of Regina, 1988 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL F U L F I L L M E N T OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE F A C U L T Y OF G R A D U A T E STUDIES (Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology & Special Education) We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH C O L U M B I A October 2000, © Leonard Dean Stanley, ,2000 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of ^ < / c / g » 4 ~ u / r f i y c A t &*5>/?rif«J £d*c*f»o^ The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada Date '2^Z?- /Z • DE-6 (2/88) 11 Abstract The purpose of this research was to explore the experiences of children with learning disabilities, with a focus on the day-to-day activities of reading and writing at school. Eight children, aged nine to thirteen were interviewed, from three to six sessions each. A phenomenological interviewing and interpretation process was undertaken, and common experiences among the children were extracted from the interview transcripts. Their common experiences included feeling more similar to than different from their peers, success in school subjects and other areas, progress in their literacy skills, enjoying literacy, teachers making a difference, not enough time, frustration, confusion, and computers making a difference. Nine common experiences were combined into two general themes: \"OK Experience\" and \"Impact of Teaching Style and Programme\". In several respects the results echoed previous research concerning children and adolescents with learning disabilities. Familiar themes such as frustration and the importance of the relationship with teachers and peers emerged in this study as they have in the literature. However, unlike previous literature, the current study found that some children with learning disabilities have positive experiences in school, even in areas with which they struggle. Previous literature tends to emphasise the difficulties and the experience of difference and stigma, while the participants in this study seemed to downplay the difficulties and differences between themselves and peers. The \"learning disabilities\" label did not seem to have as significant an impact as has been found in previous studies, and self-esteem did not appear to be a problem. Ill Also unlike other studies, the current research found common themes in the experiences of enjoyment of reading and writing, not enough time, confusion, progress and the importance of computer technology. These findings were considered in light of possible implications for further research and practice. It was suggested that future research might replicate and/or extend this study to further explore the common experiences of children and adolescents with learning disabilities. To the extent that the results would be supported by future research, they might contribute to practice in education and counselling. Something is evidently \"working\" in the way the participants are being supported, because they appear to be experiencing school as positively as the school system would hope. Perhaps early identification and intervention are effective. Perhaps the implementation of a demystification process is helping the children to feel good about themselves. There appears to be some room for improvement in specific cases, to help reduce confusion, frustration, and concerns about time limits, as well as increased attention to math and computer technology. The role of the counsellor as a proactive partner in the support of children with learning disabilities was discussed. To maintain the positive outcomes observed in this study will involve continued advocacy, support for families, case management, and liaison with other agencies. Counsellors can also provide direct support in the form of demystification and strategies to reduce confusion and frustration. iv Table of Contents Abstract ii Acknowledgements vii Table of Contents iv Chapter 1 - Introduction 1 Purpose of the Study 2 Conceptual and Operational Definition of LD 4 Target Population 7 Choice of Method for the Study 8 Chapter 2 - Review of Related Literature 9 Characteristics and Experiences of Persons with LD 10 Anecdotal and Case Reports of Persons with LD 13 Adult Retrospective Accounts 15 The Experience of Adolescents with LD 17 The Experience of Children with LD 24 Rationale for the Study 26 Chapter 3 - Method of Investigation 30 Research Question 31 Researcher's Involvement 31 Theory of Phenomenological Method 36 Selection of Participants 38 Confidentiality and Consent 41 Ethical Considerations 43 The Participants 46 Data Collection 49 V Data Analysis and Verification 57 Principles of Interpretation 57 Validity '. 60 Delimitations 67 Anticipated Outcomes 68 Chapter 4 - Results 70 The Participants 70 Common Experiences 92 O K Experience 92 Experience of Being More Similar Than Different 93 Experience of Success 101 Experience of Progress 107 Experience of Enjoying Literacy 112 Summary of OK Experience 115 Impact of Teaching Style and Programme 116 Experience of Teacher Style Making a Difference 116 Experience of Not Having Enough Time 129 Experience of Frustration 134 Experience of Confusion 139 Experience of Computers Making a Difference 144 Summary of Impact of Teaching Style and Programme 150 Summary of Results 151 Summary of the Experience of Learning Disabilities 152 Chapter 5 - Discussion 155 Comparison with the Literature 155 vi O K Experience 156 Impact of Teacher Style and Programme 165 Possible Explanations for the Results 172 Strengths and Limitations 176 Implications for Future Research 180 Implications for Practice 188 Counselling Implications 198 Conclusion 204 References 206 Appendix A - Introductory/Recruitment Letter 224 Appendix B - Demographic Questionnaire 225 Appendix C - Informed Consent Form 226 Appendix D - Interview Protocol 228 Appendix E - Field notes 230 Vll Acknowledgements I wish to express my appreciation for the efforts of my committee members, Dr. Richard Young, Dr. William Borgen, and Dr. Deborah Butler who have patiently and expertly guided me through this study from the conceptual stages to the details. I would also like to acknowledge the efforts of Dr. John Allen, who got me started, but retired and was unable to complete the study with us, and thank Richard for generously stepping in when I needed him. I would like to express my appreciation of the children who participated in this research, and their families. They made their experience available to me, which took courage and patience, for which I admire them, and took time, for which I am grateful. Thank you to the school district for permitting the study and the special education staff for assisting in contacting the participants. I wish to acknowledge the lifelong support of my parents, siblings, extended family, and friends who are always there. Special thanks to Diane, who loaned me her magic. Most importantly, I wish to thank my own family, my precious daughters Madeleine and Sara, and my wife Karen, who for ten years has been there, struggled alongside, loved and supported me in every way. 1 Chapter 1 Introduction Children with learning disabilities (LD) have been reported to experience an assortment of difficulties, often including school failures, social and behavioural problems, and emotional difficulties (Bender & Wall, 1994; Bryan & Bryan, 1981; Kronick, 1978). Hundreds of research efforts have explored these problems, and given the general impression that these children are in for a difficult time, not only in the context of their schools, but in their homes and communities, and perhaps throughout their life-span (Gerber, Schnieders, Paradise, Reiff, Ginsberg, & Popp, 1990). Children with learning disabilities are statistically more likely than their normally achieving peers to have problems with self-esteem and perceptions of academic competence, make external attributions (locus-of-control) for success, experience more depression, anxiety, and loneliness, exhibit low academic motivation, and have lower social competence and be less socially accepted. They tend to have greater deficits in adaptive behaviour, to exhibit more misconduct (acting-out or disruptive behaviours, delinquency, violent crime, negative aggression), and more impulsivity and other symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder than their normally achieving peers (Bender & Wall, 1994; Bryan & Bryan, 1981). Children with learning disabilities have been found to live in families with poor communication patterns, more conflict, and a variety of dysfunctional dynamics. Many of the social and emotional difficulties of children with learning disabilities are apparent in the pre-school years, and are found to persist into adulthood (Bender & Wall, 1994). It 2 is u n l i k e l y that any g iven c h i l d w i t h L D w i l l experience a l l or even most o f these diff icul t ies , or at least not to the degree they are found i n the identif ied popula t ion . A l t h o u g h some previous researchers have described the characteristics and behaviour o f ch i ldren w i t h L D i n general, i n terms o f pre-defined constructs (e.g., self-concept, mot ivat ion) few have sought the perspectives o f the ch i ld ren themselves, and a fuller understanding o f their actual experience o f their situations, f rom the students' point o f v i e w . It is important to explore ind iv idua l cases, to discover the experiences o f ch i ld ren i n specif ic contexts, and provide a di rect ion for interventions to be pursued. Purpose o f the Study T h i s study sought to explore the experiences o f ch i ld ren w i t h learning disabi l i t ies and to identify c o m m o n themes w i t h i n those experiences, w i t h an emphasis o n the context o f l i teracy. It a l l owed the ch i ldren to speak for themselves, wi thout the f i l ter ing o f abstract constructs and the mel t ing o f indiv iduals into general groups. It is hoped this research contributes to the general literature about chi ldren w i t h learning disabi l i t ies , by more c lose ly examin ing and deepening our sensit ivity to what it is actually l i ke for ch i ld ren w i t h learning disabil i t ies as they go about their da i ly activit ies. P r io r to conduct ing this research, I felt that i f ch i ldren w i t h learning disabi l i t ies indeed experienced some or a l l o f the outcomes described i n the literature, then l i fe w o u l d be expected to be diff icul t for them i n many ways , i n a var iety o f contexts. Therefore, as practitioners w o r k i n g w i t h ch i ldren w i t h learning disabi l i t ies , w e needed to be more aware o f these potential outcomes, and develop sensi t ivi ty to their situations, as w e l l as strategies and methods to support them. Schools typ ica l ly offer a range o f 3 support for children identified with a variety of learning and behavioural problems, such as specialised curricula, behavioural programming, individualised attention from teachers and paraprofessionals, resource rooms, and counselling. Children with learning disabilities may benefit from some or all of these interventions, depending upon the difficulties they experience as individuals. While each child presents with a unique \"package\" of strengths, weaknesses and needs, and has to be supported accordingly, there may be some common experiences among children with learning disabilities that could help guide us in developing the models of support, and what to make available to such students. I expected that this research would help confirm and \"flesh out\" previous findings, by allowing the participants to express their personal views of their daily experiences, and distilling the common experiences, and comparing them with those found by previous researchers. I expected that this would yield implications for further research and for counselling practice. Having worked with children with learning disabilities for more than a decade, I had encountered many children who seemed to experience some of the outcomes described in the literature. I wanted to somehow retell their stories, by combining the voices of children currently experiencing life with learning disabilities. Perhaps if I could listen to their perspectives about situations that they encountered every day, I could discover the things that \"worked\" and those that did not work, and reveal some direction for every day practice. 4 Conceptual and Operational Definition of L D Although the field of learning disabilities is a century old (Hinshelwood, 1895; Morgan, 1896), there remains a significant lack of agreement on key definitional issues (Kavale & Forness, 2000; Shaw, Cullen, McGuire & Brinckerhoff, 1995; Siegel, 1989, 1999; Swanson, 1991; Tomlan & Mather, 1996; Wong, 1988). Researchers from various disciplines have studied the difficulties of children with learning problems, including researchers from medical, psychiatric, educational, cognitive, behavioural, and social theory backgrounds. To a large extent, these researchers have been identifying, examining, and describing similar kinds of problems, but have advanced differing conceptual and operational definitions that have affected research in the field (Doris, 1993; Kavale & Forness, 2000; Siegel, 1999). It is important in the research context that conceptual and operational definitional issues be resolved, to facilitate communication among researchers, and ensure that findings are meaningful (Kavale & Forness, 2000; Siegel, 1999). But, while many educational jurisdictions have agreed on common conceptual definitions of learning disabilities, most have developed local operational definitions and criteria for identifying children with learning disabilities. The result is that children with a broad range of difficulties are included in the L D category, and researchers in different geographical areas, and/or operating from different theoretical orientations, may have conducted their studies on somewhat different populations (Morris et al., 1994). In some cases, the level of severity of difficulties required for identifying a learning disability makes a significant difference in terms of the nature of the group sampled. In some educational jurisdictions, for example, a discrepancy of one standard deviation between achievement and IQ is 5 considered to be indicative of a learning disability, while in British Columbia, the discrepancy must be at least two standard deviations (B. C. Ministry of Education, 1995). It can be expected that the severity of difficulty could make a difference in the experiences of children, so it is important that some homogeneity of severity be sought in sampling. In other cases, it is the placement itself that determines the inclusion in studies. Many special education programmes or classes have included any combination of children with various problems including A D H D , conduct problems, social skills deficits and emotional problems, in addition to, or in combination with academic difficulties, and some researchers have drawn their samples from these programmes without regard to presenting problem or diagnosis (Bender & Wall, 1994; Morris et al., 1994). It is important to specify the type of difficulty the participating children have in common, so that readers are able to judge the extent to which the results might be transferred to children in their own experience. Several authors have offered standards for describing subjects of research on learning disabilities (Hammill, Bryant, Brown, Dunn, & Marten, 1989; Rosenberg et al. 1992; Smith, et al. 1984). For the purposes of this study, I have adopted the conceptual and operational definitions of learning disabilities employed by the Ministry of Education in the Province of British Columbia, where the current study was conducted. The definition was developed by the National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities (NJCLD, 1981), and represents what Hammill (1990) calls the \"emerging consensus\" in the L D field. The NJCLD (1981) definition is as follows: Learning disabilities is a general term that refers to a heterogeneous group of disorders manifested by significant difficulties in the acquisition and 6 use of listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning, or mathematical abilities. These disorders are intrinsic to the individual, presumed to be due to central nervous system dysfunction, and may occur across the life span. Problems in self-regulatory behaviors, social perception, and social interaction may exist with learning disabilities, but do not by themselves constitute a learning disability. Although learning disabilities may occur concomitantly with other handicapping conditions (for example, sensory impairment, mental retardation, serious emotional disturbance) or with extrinsic influences (such as cultural differences, insufficient or inappropriate instruction), they are not the result of those conditions or influences, (p. 77) The B. C. Ministry of Education (1995) adds that \"for the purposes of this document the term 'learning disability' includes conditions described as dyslexia, dyscalculalia [sic] or dysgraphia, and may include students with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD)\" (p. 77). The B. C. Ministry of Education (1995) further operationalised the classification by requiring that: • severe difficulties in the acquisition of basic academic skills and/or school performance persist after classroom-based remedial interventions, curricular adaptations and learning assistance support. The severity of these academic difficulties must be such that students demonstrate: • persistent difficulties in the acquisition of pre-academic skills such as recognition of letters and numbers in the early primary years; and/or • persistent difficulties in the acquisition of reading, writing and/or arithmetic skills in the later primary years; and/or • a discrepancy of 2 standard deviations between estimated learning potential and academic achievement as measured by norm-referenced instruments in Grades 3-12; and • there is a significant weakness in one or more cognitive process (e.g., perception, memory, attention, receptive or expressive language abilities, visual-spatial abilities) relative to overall intellectual functioning, as measured by norm-referenced assessment instruments, which directly impacts learning and school performance, (pp. 77-78) 7 For operational purposes, the B. C. Ministry of Education has determined that 1% - 2% of children will experience learning disabilities severe enough to require support beyond regular school programming. By contrast to the expected prevalence of learning disabilities in British Columbia, Finlan (1992) published a review of prevalence in the fifty United States. The prevalence of students identified with L D ranged from 2.19% to 8.66% among children aged 7 - 1 6 years. Forty-one states had prevalences within one standard deviation of the mean of 4.78% (3.69% - 5.87%). The differences in prevalence of identified children were in part attributed to the selection method or criteria used. Those with the lowest percentages tended to adhere to discrepancy formulas (achievement