So glad you asked! Obviously the individual receives the most direct benefit from becoming an independent learner. His improved confidence and competence will benefit him in every endeavor. Additionally, consider all of the people who will come in contact with this individual over the course of his lifetime. His parents, siblings, friends, teachers, spouse, children, employers, neighbors, church and larger community will all benefit from this individual’s ability to meet his responsibilities and make positive contributions to their community.
The underlying principles of NILD Educational Therapy©, coupled with evidence-based strategies for individuals with autism, can be used to guide therapists in creating a program that meets the individual needs of the child. We have seen marked improvement in impulsivity, language, auditory processing, perspective-taking, reading comprehension, and cognitive flexibility in our students with autism.
Succinctly stated, a tutor focuses on what the student is learning, while an educational therapist focuses on how that student is learning, strengthening their ability to learn. NILD Educational Therapy© is intensive remedial intervention which addresses underlying learning skills such as auditory and visual processing, language processing, working memory, attention, executive functions, and cognitive flexibility; as well as academic skills such as reading, math, and writing.
How a student feels about learning is also emphasized, including giving personal meaning to learning, working through emotions associated with learning challenges (fear, anxiety), developing an awareness of self-change, and producing a sense of competence. Metacognition is taught, as well as self-regulatory skills, goal setting, and effective interdependent skills. Students are also guided to transfer learned concepts and principles to other contexts and situations. The target is to develop independent learners.
NILD Educational Therapy© is delivered by a specialist trained in learning disabilities, and one who intentionally creates a safe, trusting learning environment to promote the willingness to work through difficulties.
Tutors, on the other hand, provide support for specific academic subjects, focusing on re-teaching classroom content. They help with homework, organizational skills, and time-management; all for the purpose of helping the student keep up with their classes.
NILD Educational Therapy© is intensive mediated intervention which strengthens underlying learning skills such as auditory and visual processing, language processing, working memory, attention, executive functions, and cognitive flexibility; as well as academic skills such as reading, math, and writing.
There are two basic approaches to dealing with learning disabilities.
Compensation
The first and most common is compensation - helping students work around their deficit areas by utilizing their strengths. In an academic setting, this usually takes the form of tutoring and classroom modifications such as untimed tests and reduced workload. Compensation allows students to succeed with outside help, but leaves them limited in what they can do on their own.
Direct Intervention
The second approach is direct intervention - helping students strengthen their areas of deficit so they are no longer handicapped by them. Teaching students HOW to learn allows students the eventual freedom of succeeding on their own as independent learners. Both approaches are generally necessary in dealing effectively with a learning disability. Compensation allows students to succeed academically until the necessary skills are developed for independence. Direct intervention and the resulting competence and confidence allow students to gain the skills needed to become independent learners for a lifetime. NILD Educational Therapy© is an effective method of delivering this direct intervention.
Although learning deficits are as individual as thumbprints, most fall into basic categories such as those listed below:
Skill Areas
Academic Areas
Students with learning disabilities experience an imbalance in their own ability levels. They are very good at some things, very poor at others and feel the tension between what they can and cannot do. Frustration is a hallmark of a student with learning disabilities. Typically such students will either be failing in one or more academic areas or be expending excessive amounts of energy to succeed. Also, they are also highly inconsistent, able to do a task one day and unable the next.
People with learning disabilities have average to superior intelligence. Many are gifted in math, science, fine arts, journalism, and other creative fields. A list of such people would include Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Winston Churchill and many others who have changed the course of our world.
However, their tremendous strengths are offset by noticeable weaknesses - an inability to read or write, memory problems, and difficulty understanding what is heard or seen. These difficulties stem, not from a physical problem with the eyes or ears, but rather from the basic neurological functioning of the brain. Every human brain is created with a unique pattern of strengths and weaknesses. We each have certain areas that make sense to us easily as well as areas of difficulty that require outside explanation and extra effort to understand.
A learning disability is an area of weakness or inefficiency in brain function that significantly hinders our ability to learn or to function in life. It is a pattern of neurological dysfunction in the brain that causes a person to have difficulty correctly receiving information coming into the brain (perception), correctly processing that information once it is received (cognition/thinking), or satisfactorily responding to the information once it has been processed (written and verbal expression, visual-motor coordination, memory, etc).
It has been said that it is easier to build children than repair men. While that may be true, research and experience have proven that the neural plasticity of the brain continues for life. Our adult students are delighted to be free from the troubling effects of their learning difficulties.