Educators have perhaps grown tired of talk about the importance of individual learning needs or, possibly faced with an array of new pressures, just can’t focus on such distinctions. But advocates for individual learning approaches say counselors are in a great spot to take up the battle.

In their interactions with students or as advocates throughout the school, counselors can use their awareness of distinct learning styles — from theories about gender differences to the advantage of individual education plans — to help students and keep schools mindful of the importance of such distinctions, experts say. Some advocates contend that such attention might pay off in better performance, fewer behavior issues and better counseling services for students.

Leslie Babinski is associate director of research, program evaluation and information at All Kinds of Minds (AKOM), a program that advocates for the unique learning needs of children. AKOM has trained approximately 24,000 educators through its Schools Attuned program. Babinski, formerly director of the school counseling program at Bucknell University, said counselors are in a good position to promote individual learning needs in a number of ways: “They can work directly with students, work with teachers to support students, work with parents around their child’s learning needs and work with school administrators to design programs and services that meet the diverse learning needs of students.”

Michael Gurian, author of several books on the differences in learning styles between boys and girls, also believes counselors can make a difference. “Counselors need to understand the brain biology of boys and girls, and they can then begin to do counseling with boys differently,” said Gurian, whose latest book, The Minds of Boys, includes techniques and data counselors can easily use. “Then they can also be advocates for a different way of thinking by teachers and parents.”

Gurian believes there is a “crisis” in education when it comes to educating boys. “More and more boys are doing poorly, dropping out and beginning their lives handicapped without the education and skills they need to succeed in a world that is increasingly demanding and competitive,” he said.

No matter what the specifics of the approach to learning distinctions, advocates say that schools must pay attention to the distinct learning styles of students to be successful (even given schools’ need to efficiently produce students who test well). And counselors who possess a good understanding of learning style distinctions can keep their schools on track, these advocates say, while having more success with their students.

Working with the student

“A school counselor can do a lot to just help a kid understand their own strengths and weaknesses,” said AKOM founder Mel Levine, a widely known advocate for learning differences and the author of several books on innovative approaches to education. “They don’t need to deliver a sermon, just help them understand their distinct ways of learning and their strengths and what they have to offer.”

He said counselors can point out children’s special abilities and help them feel good about their prospects for the future if they use their unique talents. Counselors can also help children analyze their behavior and develop a “behavioral policy” to guide them when issues arise that cause them problems, he said.
Levine also contended that counselors with an eye for the distinct ways that kids learn can do their jobs better in several ways. “The counselor becomes the main person in the school to educate the kids about themselves,” he said, “and it really doesn’t take more time or resources, maybe just a shift in focus. And this is a real service to the kids. Every kid should leave a counselor’s office feeling revived.”

Dorothy Terry Schultz, an advocate of Gurian’s approach to the differences in students based on gender, said she’s seen many opportunities for counselors to have an impact during her 23 years as a school social worker in Texas. “I discovered that school personnel were receptive to the concept that there are differences in learning styles and behavior,” she said, “but there was little that could be done about it within the prevailing administrative structure or teaching practices. Teachers must have pragmatic direction approved by a higher authority.”

Avoiding misdiagnosis

Specifically, Schultz and Gurian said that too often teachers and counselors don’t appreciate the different ways in which boys learn and behave. School counselors often deal with boys when they are referred for a learning or behavior disorder or a nonacademic counseling session, Schultz and Gurian said, when the real issues lie in their inability to handle an educational structure that does not meet their needs.

“Even those students referred to as having ADD (attention deficit disorder) or ADHD-like (attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder) behaviors were primarily male,” Schultz said, supporting the thinking that the diagnosis has its place but sometimes evolves from a male student simply reacting to his situation.
Gurian encourages counselors to take the time to perceive how a boy’s inability to function in the existing school structure is often misdiagnosed. “Undermotivation is being handled by many school systems as a conduct disorder, ADD/ADHD or a discipline problem,” he said.

Gurian’s book has a number of alarming statistics about the experience and performance of boys in school. For example, of the total number of children on Ritalin or similar drugs, 80 percent are boys (5 million of them.) Likewise, 80 percent of school dropouts are male, and 80 percent of children diagnosed with behavioral disorders are male.

“Many of our sons can indeed learn in nearly any environment. They are gifted. They win spelling bees and debate contests. They read the newest Harry Potter book in a week,” Gurian said. “Nevertheless, the vast majority of children who are not succeeding, in class after class, are boys. The struggling dysfunctional and failing students for whom parents and teachers request extra academic help are mainly boys.”

Schultz said that the teachers and counselors who work best with boys tend to have more experience being around males (women who grew up with brothers) or more professional experience generally. “They did not have different standards for boys and girls,” she said, “they were just flexible in how their standards were met.”

In his books and presentations, Gurian offers a variety of specific techniques that teachers and counselors can use to pay closer attention to the unique learning and behavioral patterns of boys. Counselors should consider moving around when they meet with boys, talking as they walk, he said, and allowing for lack of eye contact. Boys feel more comfortable talking when they are shoulder-to-shoulder and when moving, Gurian contended, and may not speak freely if they have to maintain eye contact.

Counselors also might consider art or sand therapy, allowing boys to use their hands as they talk, Gurian said, or cinema therapy, where clips from movies serve as the source of discussions. He also advised helping boys explore single, simple, specific feelings and “feeding” them feelings or suggesting how they may feel.
“When I talked to boys, I would just get them up and go for a walk,” said Kass Mason, a former teacher, counselor and principal in Northern California schools who has used Gurian’s approach. “The physical movement would often allow them to open up. Sometimes just explaining the differences in boys and girls would cause them to heave a sigh of relief.”

Boys may also need help in better planning and organization. Counselors should help them point to at least one measurable success while also exploring the patterns in their failures, Gurian said.

Kids need “knowledge of themselves,” Levine said, and that is where counselors can play a role. Students should not be obsessed with which college they will attend, he said. Rather, Levine believes, school should prepare them for life, which does not relate to test-taking. Part of the AKOM program is an assessment of students, which leads to a customized learning plan, all of which can and should involve students, he said.

Ursula Camp, a school psychologist at McNeal Elementary School in Bradenton, Fla., as well as at several other schools, said school counselors can play a primary role in a school’s efforts to look at students’ individual learning needs. At McNeal, a relatively new school, the staff is in its third year of involvement with AKOM’s Schools Attuned program. Camp said the program helps with student performance and classroom behavior. She believes it could also benefit counselors in their work on individual education planning for students with learning or behavioral problems or other challenges. “Just having an understanding of these ideas and knowing the language would make it easy for them to use it and to encourage its use,” she said.

Mindy Swartling, a fourth grade teacher at the school, said the evaluation process includes profiles of the students by the teacher, the parents and the students themselves. A counselor could be involved in the development of those profiles, she said. “We talk about strengths, write a prescription and meet to see if it is working,” she said, noting the information would be very helpful to someone offering counseling services.

Teachers who become aware of the process often use it less formally, recognizing that a pattern exhibited by a student is familiar and that they might respond to a certain technique. A counselor who is similarly aware, Camp said, would be in a better position to understand their students and help them more readily. The program also could provide abundant information for classroom guidance sessions, she said.

The teachers’ approach

As an administrator and counselor, Mason said she often talked to teachers about differences in how students’ brains work. Counselors could fill that role. “I gave teachers coping strategies, and I shared ideas on how to go about improving test scores and talked about the issues that had to be addressed about learning in the classroom,” she said.

Levine suggested that counselors play a role in getting teachers together to review cases and talk about students who seem to demand attention. That way, he said, counselors can get teachers to look at the repeating patterns of individual students and perhaps think about their needs differently. “In that setting, a counselor can try to explain why a kid reacts a certain way,” he said. “They shouldn’t lecture the teachers but collaborate with them and offer a different way of looking at a student.”

“School counselors have opportunities to provide both formal and informal support to teachers through student study team meetings or even lunchroom conversations about individual students,” Babinski said. “Counselors can also support teachers in their efforts to adapt their instructional practices to meet the special needs of students.”

Gurian added that specific techniques can often be recommended for the classroom, while making teachers aware of the different needs of boys and girls.

Parental awareness is key

Levine recommended that counselors help parents develop a management plan for their child based on a learning profile that the parent manages. “We have to get parents involved in understanding their child’s unique needs,” he said. He suggested that counselors be part of a “parent-led team” that works on the needs of the student.

Advocates for the examination of individual learning styles said that parents should be made aware of their child’s unique needs early on and should be given an opportunity to get involved in a plan that will support those needs.

Counselors’ meetings with parents can also be more productive when discussing a learning need that has been identified specific to the student rather than simply beginning with reports on behavior or performance, advocates said.

Giving schoolwide attention to differences

Babinski said counselors can promote these approaches in schools through study teams (which educate teachers as they deal with specific issues pertaining to a particular student), through classroom guidance programs, by having input into policies regarding discipline and through character education efforts.

Gurian said, “We need to be thinking about character development in schools.” He believes basic ethical and moral standards should be put forward and enforced, and that they are valuable regardless of the way a student learns. But even with such important fundamental moral and ethical standards put forward, Gurian and others noted that administrators must be aware of student learning needs and the efforts under way to address them.

Levine said schools must be encouraged to change their thinking about individual students. “We have to stop equating a symptom as a diagnosis,” he said. “We have to get everyone to think differently. As opposed to saying, ‘This kid is disruptive,’ we need to note that he is, then think about why.”