Welcome to Disability Perspective, a new forum and reflective space for ideas in instructional strategy and opportunity.
My name is Mark, and for now I'm the sole author and administrator of this site, but I would love to have additional contributors and regular submissions. As this blog grows, I'll be incorporating journals entries from my own experience working with students with learning differences, reviews of instructional / learning resources, and hopefully some interviews with experts in the field.
I work as an Tutor for a company in Northern California, providing academic support, executive function (think "higher-order organization") instruction, and social development coaching to an amazing group of young adults with Asperger's Syndrome, high-functioning autism, and traumatic brain injury.
I love my job.
In addition, I volunteer with a technical vocational training center for adults with disabilities, and also tutor students privately: a six-year old boy with a writing delay, and an adult woman learning conversational Spanish.
Previously, I taught self-contained and inclusive elementary school classrooms in New York City. It was, frankly, a rough neighborhood where students struggled with severe poverty, homelessness, domestic abuse, and appalling community violence in addition to learning difficulties like reading delays, undeveloped number sense, bipolar disorder, and ADHD. I learned that in inner-city neighborhoods, kids lacked a sense of security and would do almost anything to avoid attention. Standing out as a child who sucked at reading often made you a magnet for peer abuse, but the children's social development needs came in second to the dreaded Statewide Reading and Math Tests. This is a problem with America's tunnel-vision perspective of the merits, organization, and best practices of public school education, and I don't expect it to change soon.
I've got a wealth of experience in the field of education, but I'm always, always, always seeking to learn more. I welcome reader's contributions, resources, and opportunities. Thank you for visiting. Comments are always welcome!
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