[NLA] Discussion: Adult Learners with Trauma]

Wed Feb 5 15:55:32 EST 2003

Nancy, the resources are available and you may want to contact your State
TBI Association or the National organization. You will also find some
resources on the web under education and brain injuries.

Your questions are also problems in that these are some of the same
questions I asked and found few answers to when I was initially doing my
research.  My son was 26 at the time of his accident in 1998 and was
planning on returning to school when he got out of the Navy. He had learning
disabilities as a child and I wondered how the TBI would impact his ability
to learn. My research took me to Harvard and beyond and I could not get a
straight answer because no research had been done. I eventually found one
document that indicated that the TBI survivor's prior knowledge was not
lost, however the way in which the person learned had changed. I have since
met many researchers who were testing the waters and found that this is
true. My research was not and is not focused on strictly children but
adults.

We must also acknowledge that although students are covered under ADA etc.
the problem is that rehabilitation has not advanced enough to do any
substantive testing. Up until as recently as three years ago it was
generally assumed that TBI survivors and they were much fewer in number than
today just died or were shipped to nursing homes or institutions or families
kept them home providing palliative care. Teachers who accepted that a kid
was disruptive or uninterested in school work for whatever reasons. Never
probing into the cause. It was not uncommon for their parents to sign them
out of school because of their misbehaving.

Along came new drugs and families who said we want a quality of life for our
loved ones, we want them back in school, retrained and  able to live on
their own etc.  SPED knew of the laws but unless the family advocated
nothing happened and still doesn't. There are drugs today to help with short
term memory and to control other TBI related problems and there are
education programs for survivors.
The majority of 19 - 24 year olds in jail have some form of TBI and have
been away from TBI rehabilitation for so long that they are unaware that
they could be helped. A whole other issue.

Bottom line, TBI survival to the point of being retrainable is still a
fairly new concept. There are resources available and yes we may in fact
have students in our program who has survived and they may and may not be
aware that they now have a different way of learning. Depending on what part
of the brain was injured, they will not have lost their prior knowledge and
will probably be aware of family stories about their "escapades" as a child.

Of how much interest is this topic? I would be glad to share more and if you
prefer to contact me one to one I can be reached at
carchambault at haverhill-ma.com  or 978- 469-8706.

Connie Archambault
-----Original Message-----
From: nla-admin at lists.literacytent.org
[mailto:nla-admin at lists.literacytent.org]On Behalf Of Nancy Hansen
Sent: Monday, February 03, 2003 6:05 PM
To: nla at lists.literacytent.org
Subject: RE: [NLA] Discussion: Adult Learners with Trauma]

Connie wrote responding to Harry Seda's post:
<<There is resource information out there and maybe we
need to ask our students more specific information
than "do you need any special accommodations?",  given
the fact that so many individuals are not even aware
that their ability to learn has been compromised by a
TBI.>>

I would like to hear more from Connie about this
"resource information" that she listed, relating it to
>adults< with TBI.

Realizing her expertise and interests are with Even
Start age students may mean this is not available for
adult programs, but it makes me wonder if one of our
registration policies should be to include questioning
in our intake interview process regarding remembered
head injuries.

The next question for me will be this:  Will a 50 year
old be able to recall a concusion if he was an active
boy-child?  Hospitalization would be more of something
an older adult wouldn't forget, but a bop on the head?
 Maybe not.

Nancy Hansen
sfallsliteracy at yahoo.com
--- Connie Archambault <carchambault at haverhill-ma.com>
wrote:
> Thank you for sharing Harry.  A most moving story
> that reminds me that
> trauma can in fact be interpreted in many ways and
> that we as adult
> educators no matter how large our waiting list need
> to look at each student
> and their needs and participation individually.
> As a parent of a son who was hit by a car, I have
> personal experience with
> Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and as an educator I
> wrote my graduate thesis
> on Traumatic Brain Injury and the impact on
> education. Research is ongoing
> and I have gathered many resources for educators on
> this subject and
> presented workshops as well.
> When you consider the population we serve and the
> number of challenged
> students in our programs the numbers impacted by TBI
> may well be staggering.
> Many of the students we encounter are probably
> unaware that their problem is
> TBI related. This is a popular scenario even in the
> public schools K-12,
> since it is more common than not to dismiss a bump
> on the head, etc. as
> "typical kids stuff". You will note that just this
> week the Natl. Ctr. for
> Disease Control and the Natl. TBI Assoc.  jointly
> have undertaken a project
> to educate sports coaches , PE teachers etc. of the
> seriousness of
> concussions and that the long term effects are much
> more serious than had
> been previously believed. As part of my research I
> had interviewed kids at
> risk and a brief sampling indicated that all were
> involved with the juvenile
> justice system to a some degree. 90% had been
> withdrawn from school at the
> recommendation of the school as too disruptive,
> etc.. Those with IEP's
> included no mention of a TBI yet all (100%)
> responded affirmatively to
> having been hospitalized, unconscious, concussion
> with some form of a TBI
> and yet their respective schools had never been
> informed. To say that the
> schools have much to learn is an understatement. I
> could go on and on.
> There is resource information out there and maybe we
> need to ask our
> students more specific information than "do you need
> any special
> accommodations?",  given the fact that so many
> individuals are not even
> aware that their ability to learn has been
> compromised by a TBI.
> Connie Archambault
> Haverhill Public Schools
> Even Start Program
> carchambault at haverhill-ma.com
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nla-admin at lists.literacytent.org
> [mailto:nla-admin at lists.literacytent.org]On Behalf
> Of Nancy Hansen
> Sent: Friday, January 31, 2003 5:06 PM
> To: nla at lists.literacytent.org
> Subject: Re: [NLA] Discussion: Adult Learners with
> Trauma]
>
>
> Hi Harry (and all interested in this thread),
>
> First of all, Harry.  I apologize.  This reply got a
> bit long!  Sorry.
>
> BUT Thank you so much for sharing your opinions and
> your personal experience.  Hearing the views of an
> adult in a literacy program is truly very important!
> Especially considering this statement that you
> wrote:
> "...As you know this is a very sensitive topic for
> adult students like me to share."  Yes.  I >do< know
> that. Thank you for leaping the barrier of fear!
>
> I'd like for you to add a few opinions at some time
> in
> the future directed to NLA subscribers on this
> listserv -- "later" being perhaps after the
> Congressmen contacts are made (Jon Randall's Alert):
>
> 1)  Would you please offer your opinion to the NLA
> subscribers >why< you agreed with the ideas posted
> in
> the emails?
>
> For example, have you used the method of teaching
> that
> one of the subscribers wrote about?  If you did, why
> did it work better for you personally?
>
> 2) I'd very much like to hear your opinion as to how
> you feel all these traumatic experiences affected
> your
> ability to >learn<!  Wow!  Did you go through a lot
> of
> them in your lifetime.  Thank you so much for baring
> your soul about them.
>
> 3)  Were you ever given a "break", a "time out" or
> something similar by a program when you were going
> through one of the traumatic times you listed? Some
> programs have policies they enforce due to Learner
> Waiting Lists - did yours?
>
> 4)  Do you feel that break helped you get back to
> learning again on a more "full-throttle" basis when
> you returned to your program?
>
> 5)  Which brings me to whether your current Tutor
> has
> been the only Tutor you have had throughout your
> time
> with the New York LVA - that versus being assigned
> someone new?
>
> Thanks again, Harry.  Besides the NLA?  Your story
> will mean a >lot< to the learners you shared it with
> at your website.  On >their< behalf, I say THANK
> YOU!
>
> Nancy Hansen
> Sioux Falls Area Literacy Council
> sfallsliteracy at yahoo.com
>
> --- "Harry I. Seda" <hiseda at warwick.net> wrote:
> > > When I read all the postings relating to the
> [NLA]
> > Discussion: Policy
> > > or Legal Challenges on behalf of (Adult Learners
> > with Trauma), posted
> > > on  <Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 05:50:17 -0500> by
> > David J. Rosen for
> > > Nancy Hansen Sioux Falls Area Literacy Council
> > > Sioux Falls, SD
> > > sfallsliteracy at yahoo.com
> > >
> > > Hi Nancy, David, Andrea, Janet and Deborah and
> > others:
> > >
> > > I read all the reactions of the posters.  The
> > studies that were done
> > > might not reflect all the traumas that students
> > are dealing with right
> > > NOW and the understanding is not there because
> > there was no follow-up
> > > to get more data.
> > >
> > > I do agree with everyone with some of what you
> > shared.  As you know
> > > this is a very sensitive topic for adult
> students
> > like me to share. I
> > > agree with some of the opinions with adult
> > student's needs and policy
> > > that can be put into place to better reflect the
> > needs.   As I am
> > > reading into the different programs I know that
> a
> > one-to-one program
> > > would be best for the population right NOW with
> > hard to teach adult
> > > students.  Then to further educate them I
> believe
> > that programs
> > > working together for the same common goal is
> best.
> >  Sharing resources
> > > would help programs reach the most students with
> > needs of having a
> > > better life being literate instead of
> illiterate.
> > >
> > > I would like to share my experience of being
> > traumatized in my life.
> > > Nobody has gone through as many "traumas" as I
> > have. Although I have
> > > worked with many different counselors, I have
> > found no sensitivity to
> > > my needs.
> > >
> > > This reflects what happened to me from
> > kindergarten to 12th grade in
> > > the New York City schools during the 1950's.
> > >
> > > NOTE:
> > >
> > > I am separating my responses into two parts. The
> > first will be a brief
>
=== message truncated ===

=====
Nancy Hansen, E.D.
Email:  sfallsliteracy at yahoo.com

Sioux Falls Area Literacy Council
Sioux Falls, SD 57104-1314
Phone: (605) 332-BOOK
Fax:  (605) 332-9389

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