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| But what if you
start late? |
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The world's greatest
catch-up programs - and why they work
Until she was 10, Helen Keller was
deaf, blind and mute.
But by 16 she had learned to read in Braille, and to
write and speak well enough to go to college. She graduated with honors in 1904.
Fortunately her first teacher had never heard of the
term "learning disabled".
Unable to use her sense of sight or hearing, Helen
Keller learned first through touch. And the good news is that modern breakthroughs have
now provided the tools for all of us to "switch on" to easier learning, even
those who may have been labelled "backward" or "slow".
Almost a century after Keller's graduation, her
message to the world is still clear: everyone is potentially gifted - in some way.
Obviously, the earlier you start to develop those
talents the better. One Fortune survey has concluded that every dollar spent on
good care before birth saved $3.38 on intensive care in a hospital neonatal unit. And
every $1 spent on the best head-start programs before school "lowers expenditures for
special education, welfare, teen pregnancy and incarceration of criminals by $6".1
But even if experience in infancy is poor, can children
still catch up at primary school? Fortunately the evidence gives an overall
"yes." This is not to deny that some people have learning difficulties. But
labeling them "learning disabled" must rank with I.Q. tests as one of the great
educational tragedies of the century. The very act of labeling often adds to the stress. Our
research convinces us that any person can learn - in his or her own way. And those ways
are many and varied.
Contents Page Preface
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