Working with the Learning Disabled

In running a PHP Outpatient Program for mood disorders and chemical dependency many different populations enter the program for treatment. Recently a person with a Learning Disability entered the program and even though I had worked at a facility that treated the Learning Disabled years ago, I was reminded of the basic fact that the message sent is not always the message received. Dang.

I have taken it as an opportunity to slow down, avoid the assumptions that everybody is going to understand the topic at hand, and came to realize that everybody in the room was actually Learning Disabled but not officially.

For people entering a treatment program, they are usually impaired - not just from heredity but by a substance, or simply by their mood. As I slowed down and presented that material in many different methods the individual, and the entire group, reported more of an understanding.

In working with the Learning Disabled at the Independence Center in West Los Angeles our job was to support them in learning basic living skills. There, I learned to present material in numerous ways. I'd take them for walks, exercise with them, cook with them, sing Karaoke with them, all in hopes that the message sent was being received. Today, instead of having my client read a book, which was a huge difficulty for them, a staff member was asked to read the book to them. Staff made analogies about how the subject appeared in the person's life, and asked open ended questions to test comprehension, and the once difficult school experience of shame was replaced with smiles and a thank you.

Every day I make it a point to improve my program and sometimes this takes place in small ways but the smile showed that a person that once had a big issue can resolve it through alternate measures.

Dr. Scott Alpert is the Clinical Director of Basic Steps Mental Health in Mukilteo WA. For more information check out www.basicsteps.life.