Teaching theory to a person with learning difficulties.

[KenGordon]

Does anyone have any solid advice or references as to how to get the entry level theory over to a student with significant learning difficulties? There is family support I can take advantage of, the father is being trained as well.

This is a person who is very good in the water, pretty calm and capable physically but with a short attention span such that typical presentation style lessons are not viable.

So far I have done practical demonstrations, so taking a 5l sofnolime container to the bottom of the pool to show it partly crush, balancing that with lead, using a 1l cylinder to demo the faster consumption at depth.

I am very open to suggestions as to getting scuba information over in short and simple bursts.

 

[txdamselfish]

Through Diveheart here on the forums, they got me in touch with a local adaptive scuba team (EDIT - Adapt-Able – I can, You can, Together We Will )where you can certify to be a buddy to assist those with different abilities and even become an adaptive instructor.

I also met a young smart man in college with Asperger's on our St Croix liveaboard trip. If your potential student has Asperger's, I could get you two connected.

It is amazing how you can help others enjoy the freedom of being underwater by adapting techniques.

 

[sea_ledford]

I think it entirely depends on the age/maturity of the student and their level of self awareness of the learning disabilities they have. If they are pretty solid at knowing what works for them, just ask they how they learn best, what type of reinforcement they like and how they prefer to be corrected.

As someone with learning disabilities myself, I support making adjustments as necessary, but the reality is they'll have to get some mental tools to overcome the particular issues to the best of their abilities. Diving may be an opportunity to develop some of those tools in an enjoyable way!

I had a student that was certainly on the spectrum, whether or not he was aware of it or not, I don't know. He struggled with some aspects of training, particularly paying attention to briefings. This was a college student in engineering, so he wasn't lacking in intelligence. He made it though OW, advanced and the scientific diver course. He also took the Divemaster class. He made HUGE progress in that class, especially in his briefing skills, having gone from hardly being able to sit though a briefing to giving quite good briefings. Where he ran into problems that we couldn't overcome in the timeframe of the class was adapting to changing situations underwater. If he planned it out before hand, he was good. If it was a novel problem he hadn't though of, he just couldn't get the mental flexibility to adapt to the situation.

Not sure that is at all helpful for your particular situation, but hopefully a reinforcement that it can be done!