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Teaching Adults With LEARNING DISABILITIES Carmel Streater, PhD, DREI, CDEI

Teaching Adults With LEARNING DISABILITIES Carmel Streater, PhD, DREI, CDEI. What Are Learning Disabilities?. Learning disabilities are discrepancies between general intelligence and performance of specific learning tasks. Formerly Known As:. Lack of intelligence Lack of maturity

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Teaching Adults With LEARNING DISABILITIES Carmel Streater, PhD, DREI, CDEI

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  1. Teaching Adults With LEARNING DISABILITIES Carmel Streater, PhD, DREI, CDEI

  2. What Are Learning Disabilities? Learning disabilities are discrepancies between general intelligence and performance of specific learning tasks

  3. Formerly Known As: • Lack of intelligence • Lack of maturity • Laziness • Personality defects

  4. Adults with LDs Choose Real Estate • To make the most money possible without much formal education • To find a fulfilling career outside academia

  5. (Often) Who Are They? • Most are adults with undiagnosed learning disabilities present since birth • Adults with addiction problems (treated or untreated; past or present) • Adult workers who have problems with working under supervision

  6. Do We Have More Than Our Share? • Intake screening is practically non-existent • Most actual work time is unsupervised • Results count, but only favorable results are seen by brokers • “Set your own hours”

  7. Language Processing Difficulties “Normal” adults are processing answers while questions are being asked: • Who was first US president? A. George Washington.

  8. LD Students: Process question before processing answer: Q. Who was first US president? LD Process: Who means person Was means in past US, so not foreign President means past US president A. George Washington?

  9. Follow Up Question • “Normal” adults: • Who was Washington’s vice president? • John Adams. • LD adults: Q. Who was Washington’s vice president? A. George Washington?

  10. For LD Adults: Reading can be like listening to music with half the notes missing. They get parts of sentences, random words or even less. Some hear that way, too.

  11. Integration Difficulties Sequencing (arranging bits of information into generally understood form) S T O P TOPS POST STOP

  12. Abstraction Difficulties Abstraction is the ability to convert sequenced information into correct meaning. 1 apple + 1 apple = 2 apples 1 airplane + 2 airplanes = 2 apples

  13. Memory Difficulties Learning disability Age Related Learning Disability + Age Related

  14. Short Term Memory • Information retained as long as concentration is not disrupted • Affected by learning disabilities Long Term Memory • Information can be recalled at will • Usually not affected by learning disabilities

  15. Clues to: Language Disabilities Spontaneous Language • Speaker initiates conversation • Speaker selects topic • Speaker has taken time to organize thoughts before speaking

  16. Demand Language:Asking a direct question to facilitate learning “Normal” student: Answer or quickly admit they don’t know. LD student: Uses coping behaviors.* *Coping behaviors: changing subject, making jokes, leaving the room or conversation

  17. Clues to: Muscle Disability Lack of gross motor skills, usually seen as clumsiness Lack of fine motor skills, usually seen as bad handwriting

  18. Clues to Spontaneous Language Disability • Unable to concentrate on topic • Unable to answer questions even when topic was originated by speaker • Do not appear to understand the gravity or nuances of business situations

  19. Writing Understandable Instructions • Difficult but necessary • Can never be too elementary • CAN have too many steps • Can always be misunderstood

  20. Low Reading Level • Almost all learning disabilities result in low reading level • Very dangerous for real estate licensees • We can’t cure it

  21. But We CAN Help! • Simplify written materials and instructions • Use bulleted lists with lots of white space • Present verbally as well as in writing • Read materials out loud (instructor or students) • Leave instructions on screen or whiteboard • Use web site for supplemental learning opportunities

  22. Summary • Almost all of our students will have some type of LD • We can’t cure the LDs, we can only deal with the behaviors • We can offer learning aids built into our courses during development and added in the classroom and in online supplements

  23. Teaching is the art of making learning accessible to ALL students. For some students, extra effort is needed.

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