Local News

Sept. 7, 2006

School programs confront learning challenges

By Andrew Junker
The Catholic Sun

CHANDLER — Twenty years ago, Sr. Mary Norbert Long, SC, principal of St. Mary-Basha Catholic School, saw the need for a counselor at her school.

A counselor began that year, offering “help and direction and focusing,” Sr. Mary Norbert said.

Providing a full time counselor at a time when few elementary schools offered such resources set the tone for St. Mary-Basha. Now they have a reading specialist and speech pathologist on staff.

The goal, Sr. Mary Norbert said, is to meet as many children’s needs as possible at the school — needs that Phoenix diocesan schools are better understanding.

MaryBeth Mueller, superintendent of Catholic schools, said a greater knowledge of learning challenges and disabilities creates new problems to solve.

“When you’re working with a classroom of students, to try to give extra attention or try to use other strategies” for the students falling behind forces the teacher into a difficult “juggling act,” Mueller said.

Many schools — like St. Mary-Basha — are assisting the sometimes over-burdened teachers with specialists.

Eileen Marfè, a speech pathologist at St. Mary-Basha, has seen results from working one on one with students.

“I see a lot of kids because there are a lot of kids that have developmental issues,” Marfè said. “But a lot of those kids are completely remedied by second or third grade.”

Marfè works with children who have speech or language problems. She is wary of labeling any speech difficulty a child has as a learning disability. Many times children have trouble articulating sounds because of hearing problems associated with ear infections, or because their oral cavity is not fully formed.

Addressing the child’s problems at a young age may save the student grief in the coming years.

Addressing issues early on

“If it’s not corrected, then down the road it could end up affecting their learning,” Marfè said, noting that if a child cannot pronounce a word properly, he or she likely will have trouble spelling or reading that word.

“It’s wonderful that I’m allowed to do the early intervention here,” Marfè said. “Early intervention is the best.”

Rob Crawford, president of the Arizona affiliate of the Learning Disabilities Association of America, said that early intervention is a way to confront a prevailing problem in dealing with learning challenges and disabilities.

He described the faulty practice as the “you need to wait till they fail before you can diagnose” method. Such delay in providing help to the young student can be very harmful to him or her, Crawford said.

“From the child’s perspective, their ‘job’ is to be successful at school,” Crawford said.

“So put yourself in their shoes. If you’re going in everyday to a place where you’re not being successful, how does that affect your desire to want to go to school? How does it affect your perspective on what learning is all about?” he asked.

Early intervention can help change that perspective. Educators also emphasize keeping open lines of communication.

Communication

“When there’s a good relationship with the parents, the teacher is ready to go the extra mile. The parents go the extra mile,” Mueller said. “You do whatever you can to make it best for the kids.”

In addition to needing open communication between teachers and parents, Marfè said communication between specialists and teachers is key, too.

“We make sure that we’re talking all the time about what’s going on with the kids,” she said, noting the overlap that often occurs with teachers and specialists.

If Marfè is working on speech issues with a child, she may refer him or her to the reading specialist for help in that field. And if the challenges have affected the child socially or emotionally, she will contact the counselor.

Sr. Miriam Richard Soisson, SC, St. Mary-Basha’s school counselor, considers “the social part and emotional growth very, very important towards the success of the students.”

New opportunities and better communication have allowed Catholic schools to serve more and more students with different needs. Sometimes, however, the needs are just too great for schools with limited resources.

“It saddens me that we are not able to deal with all the learning challenges,” Mueller said. “We’re just not able to.”

If that becomes the case with a child, Mueller said it is very important for parents to know their rights with regards to federally mandated testing and services.

Know your rights

Crawford said that parents are their children’s greatest advocates. He encourages them to find out what their rights are.

Mueller agreed.

“They need to know that they’re entitled by law to have their child evaluated,” she said. “I think many parents don’t know that.”

She added that after the child received an evaluation, the parents, school administrators and teachers should sit down and decide on a course to follow in best serving the child.

The final decision may be difficult for all parties involved, but Mueller said the Catholic schools have the interests of the child at heart and work hard to make their education a success.

“We are the teaching mission of the Catholic Church,” she said. “It behooves us to do everything we possibly can.”