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F.A.T. City Workshop: How Difficult Can This Be?

by Richard Lavoie

F.A.T. City
F__________Frustration______
A__________Anxiety________
T ________Tension_________
Processing:
Name 2 ways delayed processing effects a students performance
1. Students with learning disabilities have difficulty processing information. Students with learning
disabilities have a tendency to take twice the amount of time to process information in comparison to the
normal students. While normal students are processing to retrieve the answer, students with LD are
still processing the question.
2. Students with learning disabilities are distractible. They focus on everything. Students with LD have
too much information to process because they're trying to pay attention to everything.
Risk Taking:
Name 2 ways you as a teacher can reduce the fear of academic risk-taking during class.
1. People with LDs do not like surprises. Students with LD need to be prepared for questions so they
have lower levels of anxiety about struggling in front of their peers.
2. The importance of reinforcement. At school, students with LD have learned that they will not receive
any positive reinforcement if they get a question right and tons of negative reinforcement if they get it
wrong. This leads the student with LD to not want to answer at all. Both options dont have great
outcomes. Students with LD have learned that its better not to volunteer at all.
Visual Perception:
A) What do teachers often do when a child cannot do academic tasks students say they cannot do?
1. The teacher asks the student to look at the picture harder or try harder
2. The teacher bribes the student and offers to give them something if they can do it
3. The teacher blames the student for not being able to complete the task at hand.

What is the picture?

Two cats? An otter?

A: Its the face of a cow


B) What is the difference between seeing & perceiving?
1. Seeing is looking at something physically, with your eyes.
2. Perception is knowing what it means and understanding what the information is.
Reading Comprehension:
What is necessary for children to be able to comprehend?
1. Comprehension has much more to do with background, not vocabulary. Background and training
enables people to comprehend something. Just because a person can understand every word in the
passage means that they can understand what the passage means.
2. Students need direct instruction
Effect of Visual Perception:

Write a title for the picture.

Pirates of the Caribbean;


Skull Island

Actually a classic picture


called Vanity.

List 2 tasks that are difficult for children with learning / mild disabilities.
1. Visual-motor integration problem: Mixed messages from her eyes and her hands. Its a major problem
for students with LD and this is what makes up the writing process
2. Children with LD often dont know what they did wrong. They have a tendency to misperceive the
intended stimulus.
Cognitive Processing:
Explain the difference between an associative and a cognitive processing.
1. Associate Process / Activity is an activity that you can perform at the same time of doing another
associative process
2. Cognitive Process / Activity is an activity that you can only do by itself. For students with LD
speaking and listening can be a cognitive process which means they cant take notes or perform a second
task at the same time.

What are the two lessons when the group is telling a story?
1. Students with LD are very quick to turn people in. Since so much attention is placed on their
mistakes, they become obsessed with others making mistakes.
2. Students with LD feel anxiety because teachers are waiting impatiently, snapping their fingers,
tapping their foot, etc. It is very difficult to talk when you have a LD, it takes a lot of time and effort.
Auditory / Visual Learners:
List two examples of problems or struggles associated with auditory vs visual learners:
1. Often, students with LD cannot understand directions or stories when they have read them. This is
because they spend too much time trying to read the words and process them. At the end, they are often
exhausted and still have no idea what they just read. They read but do not comprehend.
2. Students with LD may require auditory input because they need to get information through hearing as
well as seeing.

Fairness:
What does fairness mean?
Kids learn according to what they see. Fairness does not mean that everyone gets the same. It means that
everyone gets what they NEED. In order to be fair, students with LD have to be treated differently so
they get what they need.
Paragraph Reflection:
F.A.T. City Workshop
The F.A.T City Workshop video did an effective job in demonstrating what its like to have
certain disabilities. As the workshop host spoke at a million miles per minute and picked on participants
who hesitated to respond I was able to feel what children with disabilities may feel in the classroom. I
believe that watching this video has increased the amount of empathy I will have for future students who
may struggle with tasks that are considered normal and easy.
A part of the video that really struck me was when the workshop host had the participants read
sentences that were jumbled up. The sentences represented what students with LD see as they attempt to
read and process information. At the end of the paragraph, the workshop host asked the teachers if they
could remember any of the details. None of the participants could, and I realized that I couldnt either.
Both the teachers and I had been so focused on deciphering the words that no attention could be spared
to comprehend the content.
Another portion of the video that I found enlightening was the workshop hosts simple strategies
to assist students with LD in regards to participating in class. As a student, I know how humiliating it is
when the teacher calls on you and you are unable to give the correct answer. I cant even imagine how
students with LDs feel if they are consistently unable to provide the right answer and then belittled or
yelled at by the teacher. The workshop suggested that teachers pull aside the student and indicate that
when you were planning to call on him/her, to go stand in front of their desk. This would give the
student some time to rethink and formulate a response. Its amazing how simple this strategy is and yet it
can truly change the students time spent in that class.

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