What I learned from Sarah

I was just thinking about past years as this one comes to an end, and I thought back to some of my most memorable moments with students. I thought I would share this story about Sarah. She taught me more about language disability than most of the coursework I have taken.
Sarah was pretty blonde who struggled in school from the very first days of Kindergarten. I first saw her when she arrived at my school where I was a special ed teacher. She was 9 years old, quiet, and tall for her age, which made it more difficult for her to melt into the woodwork, where she felt most comfortable. I, like so many teachers who encountered Sarah, thought she was painfully shy because she didn't talk much, and didn't like to maintain eye contact for very long.
My partner and I did an initial assessment as nothing had been done in the previous school. This is a real danger for quiet little learners, especially girls, who have learning challenges- they fall through the cracks because they don't draw attention to themselves. Our testing showed that she was virtually a non-reader. Her spelling and writing skills were extremely weak as well. We referred Sarah for Ed-psych and language testing, but went ahead with some remedial group work in the meantime. This was before we started using Lindamood program, so the results were less than impressive. Sarah still didn't talk much, but during out months together I saw a very bright light in Sarah when she could express herself without language. She was keenly observant, intuitive,and very aware of how people were feeling. I also learned that she was good in math and loved science.
That first year we called Sarah's mother in, and met a shorter older version of Sarah. Her mother didn't seem comfortable with lots of "chit chat" and got frustrated with herself at times as she tried to explain how hard things were for Sarah. She was well aware that teachers thought Sarah was a slow learner. She knew, however, that Sarah was not. She had been trying to get more help for Sarah, but she admitted to having a hard time expressing herself, and she lacked confidence to disagree with the professionals.
Sarah was tested and found to have a severe language deficit, as well as a phonologically based learning disability- dyslexia. She had what I call a "double whammy". The testing showed that while she didn't talk much, she could think very well. When the Lindamood program got underway, we put Sarah in it, and at least for her grade 6 and 7 years, she started to make some gains.
Around this time I left the system. During a 3 month trip to Australia with my family, I studied another powerful program that I had taken some training in, the Visualizing and Verbalizing Language Comprehension Program, or, V&V. I wanted to improve and expand the services I offered through my reading clinic. I practiced on my son.
I called Sarah's mother when I got back and told her I thought this program would be really good for Sarah. She started the very next week, and came to the reading clinic for two hours a day after school. As I thought it would, this program had a dramatic effect on Sarah's expressive abilities, and her ability to understand what she was reading.
During this time I discovered first hand how Sarah's slow processing speed gave the impression that she either didn't hear something or didn't understand it. One day we were were creating detailed images from a social studies text book, since volume was a real problem for Sarah. I asked her a question about a detail, something like,
"How will you know that the country is Mesopotamia?" (meaning she needed to put something in her mental picture to remind her of the name). Sarah just looked down at the table, her mouth slightly open, and as I waited, nothing seemed to be coming. I assumed that she needed some clarification, and so after a moment or two, I started to rephrase the question. She abruptly held up her hand, which almost startled me it was so quick. Then her eyes slid over to look at me, and she said,
"It's coming." I shut my mouth and waited.
After another moment she proceeded to tell me in rich detail a funny and memorable addition to her picture that assured that she would remember the name, Mesopotamia.
This was a wake up call to me and I hope to anyone else who works with diverse learners and reads this. I wondered just how many times a day Sarah didn't get to finish a thought or a sentence- and I already knew that many teachers didn't think she was very bright.
I asked Sarah about it after the session was over. She told me that when teachers called on her for an answer she could hear the other students in the class grumbling and calling out, "Not her- she takes forever" or "Hurry up Sarah!". This embarrassed her and eventually she quit trying to speak in class. She learned to say "I don't know" quickly, even when she did know the answer, to avoid being humiliated by the other students. How sad.
Since working with Sarah, I now give students as much time as they need to complete a thought or an idea- and I don't mind the dead silence. I have found that students, at least in our one on one format, will tell me when they don't know something- and until they tell me, I wait.

Happy New Year to you all.