Every day, more and more parents are deciding to homeschool their children. While they are excited about the newly opened opportunities for them and their children, the decision to homeschool is often accompanied with some anxiety for parents who have a student with a learning disability. I was delighted to have the opportunity to sit down with Andrew Pudewa and hear his thoughts about why IEW’s materials are effective for all students, including students with learning disabilities.
In recent years the number of homeschooling families has soared. Some of these families have chosen to bring their children home because the schools were unable to address the children’s unique learning needs. How does IEW’s Structure and Style approach work to meet those needs within the home environment?
IEW helps parents understand why children do not like writing or struggle to write. I may be going out on a limb here, but I would say 100% of the time that when children hate writing, it is because they are overwhelmed with the complexity of the process. This overwhelming feeling can be worse for a child who has attention issues, has dyslexia or dysgraphia, or has any other challenge with printed information.
The Structure and Style method begins with source text key word outlines. Then as we move on, we include a concrete checklist and word lists that expand active vocabulary. In the process we are taking what for many kids was an overwhelmingly complex process and breaking it into much smaller and usually more manageable chunks. Then we can take a small chunk and break it into even smaller pieces to meet the needs of that particular child. Students who use Structure and Style are not overwhelmed because this method takes a huge process and breaks it into small pieces, making the task of writing much more manageable.
How does a parent go about selecting the appropriate writing curriculum for a student with learning disabilities? What considerations should parents have?
I would tell a parent that it is better to err on the side of selecting something simpler than to err on the side of choosing something more complex. It would be better to have source texts that are below the reading and comprehension level of the students than to have source texts that are above their reading levels because then they’re going to have a hard time just understanding the words in the sentence and its ideas. It’s always better to err on the side of making things a little simpler, especially for students whom you perceive have challenges in general with academic stuff, whether it be in literature, science, math, or whatever. The problem is, though, that almost all parents feel compelled to attach a grade-level expectation to a particular age.
That leads to my next question: for parents who worry that their children are behind their peers, what advice would you give them?
My response to that parent would be to ask, “Behind whom?” You could walk into any classroom in any school, public or private, and you would find two–maybe three or more–grade levels of difference in ability and aptitude when it comes to reading, writing, and general knowledge. Even when we segregate kids by age and try to teach them the same thing in the same way according to the same schedule, we still have those differentials. The most important thing for a parent to ask is not “Where is my child’s ability compared to other children his or her age?” The most important thing is to ask “Has my child improved in relation to himself or herself?” So, progress is the goal, not catching up to some nonexistent standard that you imagined in your brain about other kids approximately the same age.
If I have a high school student with severe dyslexia who has not done much writing, where would you recommend beginning?
I would suggest a Level A course because you select materials based upon reading level, not age. I would say that pretty much all of the Level A source texts are not juvenile. They respect the intellect of children of all ages. I’ll give you an example. I have used Aesop’s fables to teach seven-year-olds and to teach college students. A fable is not juvenile in that it would be insulting to a teenager. We have worked hard to create source texts that are lower in reading level and complexity yet substantial enough in content that anyone can use them. That’s why a Level A course would be just fine for a teenager who has been really slow to acquire reading and writing fluency.
In fact, you experienced teaching your son with dyslexia and understand the concerns and worry that a parent feels when a child can’t read or write. What encouragement would you give to a parent in the same situation?
It goes back to Error #2 from my article “Four Deadly Errors of Teaching Writing.” Don’t withhold help. In Chris’s case he really couldn’t read anything at all until he was almost eleven years old, and then he didn’t read a book until he was twelve years old. By age fourteen he was reading books all the time. As Chris exemplified, very often there’s a long period of seeing no progress, and then there’s kind of a breakthrough and a rapid catch-up going on.
There are two thoughts to consider. Number one is to guard yourself against anxiety, despair, and a sense of failure. Number two is that it’s okay for kids who can’t read with their eyes to read with their ears. Do a lot of reading out loud and use audio books as a technological supplement although you don’t necessarily want to give up on continuing to teach reading with the eyes, either. Find a program such as Barton or Lindamood Bell, something that has a proven track record, to teach reading. And remember this: children who struggle to learn something are very often doubly blessed in that they not only learn well the things they are trying to learn, but they also learn how to do something hard in life.
What other elements can a parent include that support comprehension and language acquisition besides writing?
Three thoughts come to mind. First off, understand that you must furnish the mind. See the article “One Myth and Two Truths.” You cannot get something out of a brain that isn’t there to begin with. You can furnish the mind through books and reading and stories, either through the eyes or the ears.
Secondly, minimize screen-based entertainment. I don’t believe I would have said this twenty years ago, but it is clear to me right now that there are very few if any children who are not negatively influenced by screen-based entertainment technology in their lives. The more you can minimize screen-based entertainment or education software time in a child’s life, the more likely that child will be more literate in the sense of engaging with higher, more sophisticated forms of language.
Finally, understand the truth that all children are different. In However Imperfectly, I emphasize that all children are different and we can really be free from the idea that there
is a performance expectation attached to an age. When you understand this, then everything gets better. We can lower anxiety. We can properly assess where a student is in relation to himself. One of the advantages of having a child who has a clearly diagnosed learning disability of some sort is that you are almost automatically freed from that expectation. There is a blessing in it, and that blessing can extend to the other children in the family who may not have clear issues or challenges–although in reality everybody has challenges. When we look at each person as an individual, we are able to operate from general principles, which is fine, but we apply them in an individual way. Then we’re free of the anxiety of not having everybody being the same.
