3rd Annual Conference for Teachers on Brain Injured Children

3rd annual Conference for New York State Teachers of Brain Injured Children,
Speakers include:
Anthony J. Pelone, President of the Division of Handicapped Children
Dr. Richard M. Lubell, Assistant Superintendent of the Office of Special Services
Dr. Ray H. Barsch, Director of Teacher Preparation in the area of Physically Handicapped & Neurologically Impaired at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, and director of the Learning Disorders Clinic and the Laboratory for Research in Functional Vision.

Barsch recalls his career in the field and offers his insights on what brain science does and does not have to say about education. He sees the role of education as providing a way of "organizing" behavior for children, regardless of their "disability." He also discusses what variables teachers have control over in the learning environment.

There are audio problems from the original tape.




The theme of the conference is "New Directions for Teachers of Children with Learning Disabilites."

Dr. Dorothy Schafer goes through the clinics and panels, and the use of close circuit television.

The conference. co-sponsored by the Division of Handicapped Children, of the New York State Department of Education and the New York. Association of Brain Damaged Children.

Albert A. Hands of the Association for Brain Damaged Children, and Anthony J. Pelone of the Division of Handicapped Children each greet the attendees in sequence. Pelone speaks in greater deal about the aims purposes and goals of the conference.

Schafer introduces Dr. Richard M. Lubell, Assistant Superintendent of the Office of Special Services. Lubell is speaking in place of the Superintendent of Schools, Bernard Donovan.

Lubell speaks in praise of Donovan. Donovan was meeting with people concerning the city budget. Lubell talks about the history of funding of special education, which was state funded up until 3-4 years ago. When funding ceased there was a sense of gloom.
Lubell sees signs of hope regarding special education due to the board of educations understanding and interest.
1. They have never been turned down.
2. He also praises the people who espouse the cause of special education.
3. Lubell sees a greater availability of federal funds
4. New York City is not content to rest on the first 3 factors.
He talks about the expansion of programs and services for brain damaged and handicapped children.

Schafer praises Lubell for speaking so well extemporaneously.

Schafer introduces Dr. Ray H. Barsch of the University of Wisconsin, who will speak on "New insights into the Learning of Neurologically Impaired Children."

Barsch asks the crowd their backgrounds as to why they might be in attendance. He jokes to the attendees for a bit.
He talks about going through a routine on a brain injured patient 17 years ago. The patient had an "asymmetrical brain," something he had not heard of. He decided to study up on brain science. He talks about the controversies within neurology at that time. There are 30+ theories of perception, leading to problems in classification. He talks about the problems facing teachers in light of this who are given a variety of "similar" students (in terms of their brain injuries) who were in fact quite different.
He discusses the importance of taking to parents about their children's difficulties. They often have insights that will be helpful to the teachers.

Barsch sees "three or four" things that he has arrived at personally:
1. The identification of the injury has no significance to the child's education. Once that premise is established. If we can point to how an injury produces certain effects, which could be planned for. There is currently too much conflict in the field.
2. No single technique has universal application. Each individual will express to his teacher what he needs. It's more individualized.

He goes into the degree to which brain injury effects his ability to organize.
He is looking to develop a system to derive a set of principles, turning each classroom into a laboratory. There are two principles here:
1. The child must become organized
2. He is organized to conform towards societies standards. We must understand society and its norms.
This will lead to further independence, which is an important goal.
Perception is used to gain information.
[tape problems at ~55 minutes]

There are 6 basic questions that every organism has to answer.
1. Who am I?
2. Where am I?
3. What is it? One must name things.
4. When am I? Thinks happen in time and one must manage themselves in time.
5. Howness. How do I change/relate to the things around me?
6. Whyness. Why things happen. Barsch feels this is neglected in American education.

Barsch notes that teachers have control over certain things:
1. Teachers can organize space. It serves to control identification and spacial organization.
2. Teachers can regulate time. They can control this variable for the child. The child must learn to span time. He talks about the problem of distractability. Education should be temporally tolerable.
3. Teachers can determine the level of knowledge learned. Where does the child line-up in terms of complexity? That is where teachers must teach from.
4. Teaching situations contain multiples. Teachers can control this. There are also multiple aspects to a lesson that the teacher and child must contend with. There can be a "too-much-ness." There can be "diminishing control," which can lead a child to fail. He remarks that the organizers of the conference didn't know how popular their conference would be. A similar problem can happen with children.
5. Teachers can control language. Barsch feels that language can be used "against" children. Barsch gives the attendees a test which illustrates the problems with language. He describes a woman working with aphasic children, who didn't zero in on the lesson hoped to be learned. He stresses using critical words to communicate to the child - these can often be learned from parents.
6. Teachers can control their relationships with the child. You need to convince the child that you will help him organize.

Barsch feels that:
1. teachers should be less concerned with the pathology of the injury than with the meaning of the human organism.
2. teachers should be conscious of designing a world that makes learning possible. They must concerned with the physiology of the child, especially their vision.

Teachers must consider what they control rather than things they cannot. The answer to their questions should deal with their relationship with the child.

Barsch's lecture ends.

Schafer thanks Barsch. Barsch provides organizational information for the attendees.

Audio courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives WNYC Collection

WNYC archives id: 150611
Municipal archives id: T2619