“There is also some promise in computer-assisted instruction”. How can this sentence be written without changing the meaning of the sentence?
Directions: Read the passage and answer the following question.
The reasons some children perform at a lower academic level than intelligence and educational opportunity predict are still under study. We reference the relevant and conflicting research later, but clinically it is clear that learning disorders are associated with disturbed behavior and with psychiatric symptoms. It is our contention that youngsters with this group of difficulties require dynamically informed psychotherapeutic help if they are to utilize any academic approach. Without psychotherapy, they are often unmotivated and tend to avoid academics, using other techniques-often maladaptive-to maintain self-esteem. This tendency accelerates as they move into and through adolescence. It is also important to remember that some academic problems are primarily psychological inhibitions of curiosity (Blanchard, 1946; Buxbaum, 1964) or performance (Berger and Kennedy, 1975), and it is crucial that these are not confused with learning problems that have a cognitive origin. In addition, even in those instances in which there are cognitive problems, the final presentation is a complex interaction between neuropsychological deficits and emotional factors (Rothstein et al., 1988; Swanson, Harris, and Graham, 2003). In brief, learning problems can be the result of psychological conflict, or psychological conflict can occur secondary to neuropsychiatric deficiencies. Two of our case examples will illustrate these two possibilities, whereas the third will show how difficult it can be to make that differentiation with some adolescents.
Recent literature has contained very few essays addressing dynamic psychotherapeutic approaches to the adolescent population. Most treatment accounts describe cognitive models (Flavell, 1979), cognitive-behavioral models (Borkowski and Burke, 1996; Hallahan, Kauffman, and Lloyd, 1996), and task-analytic models (Rosenshine and Stevens, 1986). There is also some promise in computer-assisted instruction (Hall et al., 2000). There is objective evidence of success with many of these cognitive remediations, especially from the task-analytic approaches, even though a significant number of students do not respond (Torgenson, 2000). Simmerman and Swanson (2001) have pointed out procedural flaws in some studies but do not question the proven value of the procedures employed. It should also be noted that these approaches have been most successful with young children, suggesting that they may not be sufficient for adolescents. Garber (1992) describes the maneuvering and testing that these students display. After years of negative school experiences, they have taken refuge in a variety of defenses designed to hide their learning disability from others and from themselves. Garber (1992) says, The various maneuvers are means of dealing with an environment that may be ambiguous or confusing. The more intelligent the adolescent, the more complex the testing maneuver. These testing maneuvers, which try the patience of parents, teachers, and therapists, often obscure the learning-disabled adolescent's strengths and capabilities (p. 344). Palombo (2001) has provided a detailed description of the impact of learning disorders on the development of the sense of self and self-narratives. He also provides a thoughtful guide to treatment that recognizes the differential impact of the youngster's neuropsychological deficiencies as opposed to psychological issues on the development of transference. Arkowitz (2000) has suggested that dyslexia can lead to a generally over stimulated state by interfering with organizing, containing, and distinguishing among crucial features of affective experience (p. 1493). Needless to say, these adolescents are not eager for psychotherapy, viewing that prospect as a major threat to their precarious self-esteem. Still, other cognitive remedial approaches are impossible to implement when the adolescent is truant (if not from school, then often from the classroom), is unable to admit that remediation is needed, and actively avoids it. Although the effort to help adolescents with school problems is definitely multidisciplinary, the psychotherapist often has to prepare the student to accept help and also to coordinate the professional team, while maintaining the student's cooperation (Meeks and Dupont, 2003).