The first time I watched Rick Lavoie’s FAT City, during one of my undergraduate courses two years ago, I slept through almost the entire film. As an individual whose heart was set on entering a helping profession, and not on becoming a teacher, I did not find the concepts discussed in this thirty-year old documentary relevant. Now I realize just how significant the topics he discussed actually are to a school counselor-in-the-making.
Lavoie transforms a panel of primarily general education teachers, parents, and school faculty members into a room full of students with learning disabilities. He uses techniques such as fast-paced interrogation, anxiety-provoking activities, cognitive manipulation, and rhetorical questioning to create nearly impossible learning situations for any learner. As a typical learner, I had never
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Is my ego coming into play, or do I truly want him to challenge himself?”
• “Am I asking him to look me in the eye to show me the respect I deserve, or do I truly want my student to gain the adequate social skills to interact with others?”
These are examples of where an abuse of the hierarchical relationship between a counselor and student may come into play, and are the exact areas in which I hope to distance myself from in my practice. The idea that every conversation I have should end with the other party feeling empowered is one that really resonates with me, and a goal I will continue to strive towards.
When I watched FAT City the second time around, I made sure to stay awake! I paid close attention to the genius of Rick Lavoie’s experiment. He manipulated the operation in a way that enabled every participant, spectator, and at-home audience to identify with a student with learning disabilities, which is the most effective way to empathize and improve one’s interactions with students with learning
“The Short Bus: A Journey Beyond Normal” by Jonathan Mooney is the story of his journey around the U.S. in short bus nonetheless to meet with different children and their families who have faced challenges in school due to ADD, ADHD, Autism, and other learning disabilities. Jonathan Mooney himself faced the disability of Dyslexia and often had to deal with many challenges in school himself, but he appears to be one of the more fortunate ones, who was able to grow from his disability and ultimately get a degree in English. Needless to say, his book and journey lead the reader to question what really is “normal”, and how the views of this have caused the odds to be stacked against those who don’t fit the mold. Throughout, this story, for me personally however, this story gave several events that I found moving, and had the potential to influence my further work in education.
F.A.T. City is a workshop held by Richard Lavoie, an expert on learning disabilities, that let’s an audience experience the frustration, anxiety, and tension children with learning disabilities deal with every day. In this video, Mr. Lavoie does several activities with the audience to let them experience what it’s like to be a child with a learning disability in the classroom.
Alison’s story is the perfect example of what many families must go through when faced with the possibility of having a child diagnosed with a learning disability. Alison was not diagnosed with visual and auditory dyslexia until the summer before entering college. However, while still a toddler, her symptoms had been brought to her mother’s attention by her sister’s teacher. Alison’s mother then noticed her habits in repeating words incorrectly and how Alison would need tactile clues to follow directions. At the recommendation of her kindergarten teacher, Alison was tested for learning disabilities and the results from the school psychologists were that she was acting stubborn or disobedient. Her family did not stop with the school’s diagnosis. They had private testing completed that confirmed Alison did not have a specific learning disability. The final word came from a relative that happened to be a psychologist. He insisted Alison would grow out of her difficulties. So Alison continued on with her entire elementary, middle and high school journey as a student and daughter with an undiagnosed learning disability.
A counselor should always keep their thoughts to themselves and remain open-minded about the situation. The only time a counselor should share their thoughts is if it helps the client with their situation that they are dealing with. “Counselors must practice only within the boundaries of their competence (Standard C.2.a.), and, if they “determine an inability to be of professional assistance to clients” (Standard A.11.b.), they should facilitate a referral to another provider. (Kocet, M. M., & Herlihy, B. J. (2014). Addressing Value-Based Conflicts Within the Counseling Relationship: A Decision-Making Model. Journal Of Counseling & Development, 92(2), 180-186 7p. doi: 10.1002/j.1556-6676.2014.00146.x).” Keeping your thoughts to yourself is
Will, M. (1986, November). Educating students with learning problems-a shared responsibility. Washington, DC: Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.
Another perspective that I have regarding students with disabilities is that they do not need to be rushed to answer or respond to a question. They need to be provided with ample time to respond, so that they can think without just blurting out something. Providing ample time for them to respond will also make them feel more comfortable about being in a classroom surround by other students, who may learn differently. Allow students to use their thinking caps. The students in this video did not even have time to be creative. It was like the teacher asked one question after another. The style and rate at which the class was being taught was like at the AP or Pre AP level, which even those classes should not be taught like this. The speed or rate was hasty. I like the examples and comparisons that the instructor gave of students. I have never considered evaluating a class in that manner, but I will moving forward. This will definitely help with students’ comprehension levels and my ability to teach all students, regardless of how they learn. The teacher explained the difference between the channels in which a student’s brain functions as far as a student that may be easily distracted and a student that may have a short attention span. He explained the breakdown of how the function. The explanation is listed
Perhaps if everyone realized the wisdom in the famous proverb, “before you criticize a man, walk a mile in his shoes”, people would have more empathy for those who may seem to be atypical. The video How Difficult Can This Be? The F.A.T. City Workshop presented by Richard D. Lavoie effectively gets participants to experience the feelings and stress of children with learning disabilities. Lavoie draws his participants into the classroom experience with well developed exercises that elicit the frustration, anxiety, and tension of children with
Students with learning disabilities can learn; each student has his or her own strengths and weaknesses. Educators must continue to focus on the strengths of each student and building on them, creating a stronger student and person. Identifying the weakness is at the core of getting a student help with their learning disability, but after this initial identification and placement, the focus should shift to the strengths and adjusting the student’s schoolwork to reflect these strengths. For instance, if a student is weak in reading but has wonderful group interaction skills and is good with his or her hands, the students' reading tasks should then be shifted to reflect these st...
Taking the techniques of counseling class was a great course that contributed to my evolution as a perspective therapist. Certain skills I already possess such as, great communication, being empathetic, and open to learning. However, throughout the class I learned different therapy policies such as confidentiality, attending skills, and self-awareness. Having knowledge of these basic practices and skills has contributed to me becoming well rounded, self- aware, and a competent perspective counselor. I have made moderate progress towards the learning goals I established for myself in the beginning of the semester. During the beginning of the semester I anticipated learning different counseling approaches, becoming culturally competent, and learning how to be more confident. Throughout the course not much was mentioned about theoretical approaches and how to incorporate the framework into therapy. Nonetheless, the content that I learned allowed me to be more culturally competent, self-aware, and confident. To be culturally competent, it is essential to know basic background information about a client before assisting them. It is imperative to know basic information about a client such as age, sex, and nationality to determine how to assist the individual. Not knowing certain information may contribute to unethical work and a disservice to the
The impact of having a learning disability are lifelong. A student with a learning disability may always need extra help to get through certain aspects of life after they graduate high school. If the student is going to college accommodations and specific learning strategies will need to be used to help them through their courses. Their personal lives may also be affected due to a learning disability. “For example, Johnson and Blalock found that, of the 93 adults studied in an LD clinic sample, 36% continued to receive counseling or psychotherapy for low self-esteem, social isolation, anxiety, depression, and frustration.” (1987) The difficulties associated with learning disabilities can affect them daily and their past experiences with it can follow them into adulthood and bring up unhappy memories of struggling with learning disabilities as a child.
3.) confrontation of a discrepancy between how the counselor experiences the client and how the client experiences self.
According to standard 1, “beginning special education professionals understand how exceptionalities may interact with development and learning and use this knowledge to provide meaningful and challenging learning experiences for individuals with exceptionalities” (CEC Initial Level Special Educator Preparation Standards). This is shown through teaching students mastery, and using accommodations to do so, for students to achieve on level learning. More important than creating accommodations for students, is to understand where they come from. Mrs. Ottlinger new all her students and family to an almost personal level, she liked to know what was going in their life, and how she used the information to her advantage, on how she would teach a lesson, and give homework. She also was able to read the frustration level of her students, and when it was becoming too much for the student she would suggest a break, or a small activity that acted as a break without the student knowing. For example, one day, while doing Phonics First practice, a student was growing very frustrated while recalling the Latin roots of words (flashcards, which are part of the Phonics first method) an activity that was supposed to act as review. After writing the roots in the sand, Mrs. Ottlinger suggested that the student go wash his hands. As he left, Mrs. Ottlinger told me that this student never
It is a very important for counsellor to understand that counselling relationship is not an equal and the counsellor has a position of power while the person seeking for help is usually in the position of influence (Gerald & Gerald 2012, p. 373).
Everyone needs to have an understanding of what a disability is and how to help people who have them. I learned that among the students at Towson University with disabilities, most of them have learning disorders, followed by ADD/ADHD. There are many resources on campus for students with disabilities, but many students do not know about them. Although there were some individuals in the audience who admitted to being diagnosed with a disability, almost all of those who said they didn’t have one, said they knew someone with a disability. This doesn’t mean that no one else in the audience has a disability. It’s possible that there were people in attendance who were previously too afraid to seek help, or did not know where to go to get help. This workshop could potentially help those students who were initially afraid to get help. It can also help those who know someone with a
This course not only gave me the knowledge I needed to understand students with learning disabilities, I was also able to empathize with these students through active participation in the sensitivity activities. Participating ...