FAT City

I am right now in the middle of my Special Education class. Today, we are watching a video called FAT City (and performing "exercises" from the video). FAT is an acronym for Frustration Anxiety and Tension, three common characteristics of the experience of learning disabled children. FAT City (and the accompanying exercises) is designed to help us (prospective educators) experience what it is like to be a learning disabled child. The most recent exercise involved having us trace a picture (a six-pointed star) by looking only at its reflection in a mirror. Sounds easy? Believe me, it ain't. Once you "lose your way," it is a funny Rorshach (sp?) back, I can tell you! My image (which I hope to upload later) was one of the "worst" (best) examples of what visual/motor dysfunctions can result in.

Common strategies to "right" oneself (demonstrated by several students, including myself) included self-talking, "pressing harder" (some children with learning disabilities "write through the paper"), and (the strategy that worked best for me) going faster. Surprisingly, moving the pen faster led to more accuracy and control. The last part of the exercise required us to write our names. That was particularly easy. I suppose the hand has a muscle memory for rote and repeated tasks, and for me, it was simply a matter to tell myself to write my name. The image in the mirror, I suppose, was bypassed...

If nothing else, this class demonstrates that children with learning disabilities CANNOT simply "get over" their disabilities (i.e., they cannot simply be MOTIVATED to accomplish a task). There have to be dispensations and accomodations for their disabilities.

[GREAT CLASS!]