Video Response Sheet - Misunderstood Minds

Misunderstood Minds is a 2002 PBS documentary on children with learning disabilities.  It followed the stories of five adolescents, from the point of them learning about their disability and their reactions to this news, to a follow-up months later to see how their treatments have gone.

Detailed information on the five subjects can be found at:  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoodminds/

The documentary can also be viewed on YouTube at:

Questions:


1.  Hearing the term "misunderstood minds" makes you think of what possible learning and social problems?

The term leads me to think of people with problems such as dyslexia, bipolar disorder, aspergers, ADHD, and autism.


2.  Understanding kids who struggle to learn takes what skills on the part of teachers?


A teacher would needs skills such as patience and understanding at first to help the student adjust to the classroom.  For instruction, the teacher would need to have skills in differentiated instruction to ensure that the learner's needs are being met.


3.  What learning specialists do you know who could assist you with those with learning problems?

In our school, we have a counsellor to assist students with learning problems so they could be my first port of call.  


4.  View the video and identify the various learning difficulties that are described.  List these and as well list any strategies you are informed about.

Nathan V - Phonemic awareness - placed in school resource room and given tasks and strategies to tap his strong verbal skills to compensate for his reading difficulties.  He achieved a perfect score on his grade four standardised test.


Lauren - Attention Deficit Disorders - was placed on medication which she described as being able to keep her in tune without changing her personality.


Sarah Lee - Expressive Language Deficiency - was prescribed a full and ongoing language immersion program.  


Adam - difficulty decoding words


Nathan S - Attention Deficit Disorder - enrolled in military school and was excelling.  

5.  Write a brief evaluation of the video, "Misunderstood Minds"

I found this video to be useful to see how students saw their learning disabilities in their own words.  The frustration that the parents and the students felt before any answers were known, and the relief they felt after a diagnosis was quite interesting, and this showed me that parents are looking for an answer to the problem.