Finding the strengths in students who struggle

Almost all children experience learning difficulties of some degree during their school years since different students learn in many ways

From Parenting Correspondent Pat Etheridge

November 3, 1999
Web posted at: 11:05 a.m. EST (1605 GMT)

BAHAMA, North Carolina (CNN) -- Just as instructors have unique teaching styles, so do pupils learn in many different ways. While children with unique educational needs can struggle in traditional teaching environments, some students have flourished in a program that examines the unique characteristics of each child, minimizing their weaknesses and maximizing their strengths.

"I think we pay a heavy price for misunderstood kids," said Dr. Mel Levine, who founded "All Kinds of Minds," a non-profit institute for children with learning challenges.

Educational professionals at the University of North Carolina helped developed the common-sense program that recognizes student differences and avoids potentially damaging labels. And financier Charles Schwab, who has struggled with dyslexia, donated $10 million to Levine's program.

"I think there's a real time bomb ready to go off when a child grows up disappointed, disappointing to his parents, disappointing to teachers and perhaps more than anything else, disappointing to himself or herself," he said.

A third-grader who struggles with reading uses a bookmark to handle the assignment one line at a time

Levine has introduced the concept in classrooms across the country through a program known as "Schools Attuned." Some of the results have been encouraging. At Mangum Elementary School in Bahama, North Carolina, Tania Molinatto struggled with reading. The third-grader found pages full of words frightening. A simple "bypass" strategy helped her keep her place in her reading material: using a bookmark, a strip of cardboard, and placing it under the line she was reading.

"It's a relief for children to know, 'OK, there's nothing wrong with me. I may have trouble with this particular thing, but I'm extremely good at this,'" principal Settle Womble said.

Through a series of playful tests, Levine unlocks some of the mysteries behind why students struggle, a process he calls demystification. Parents watch the entire evaluation process behind an observation window. Levine, perhaps asking a child to look at the ceiling through a make-believe telescope, may discover a child is right-handed and right-eyed.

"We teach the child about his own strengths and weaknesses, and we give words they need for the things they need to work on," Levine said.

Virtually all children experience some form of learning difficulty during their school years, ranging from the slight to the significant. Levine, however, is "absolutely" convinced that every one of them can succeed.

"There's a formula for every kid to make it," he said.