Rankin Inlet (June 04/03) - Patricia Hatt is a walking testimonial to the fact learning disabilities can be overcome.

Hatt was born and raised in Toronto and still lives in her childhood home today. P> Widowed, and a mother of five, Hatt battled learning disabilities throughout her school years and still reads at a Grade 2 or 3 level.

Oh, yes, she also has an undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto and a master's degree in learning disabilities from York University.

That's not to mention her Ontario teaching certificate, specialist in special education certification and 30 years worth of experience in her field.

Hatt was brought to Rankin Inlet last month by the Nunavut Literacy Council to conduct workshops with a number of different groups, including teachers, day-care workers and adult educators.

She says people with learning disabilities are of normal intelligence, but process information differently.

"They may have difficulty recognizing what they see or understanding what they hear," says Hatt.

"They could understand it if their brains would make sense of it."

Hatt, herself, didn't realize she had learning disabilities until well into her 20s.

"Like many people whose learning disabilities are not properly diagnosed, I often thought I was stupid or lazy."

Hatt says in medical terms, people with audio or visual learning disabilities have nothing wrong with their eyes or ears.

"Their learning disabilities are often undiagnosed because the kids compensate or figure out how to do things on their own.

"But, they hit barriers in school because of the way the information is taught or the way they're being evaluated."

Hatt says literacy is a huge problem for people with audio and visual learning disabilities.

She says the challenge in helping these students can be broken down into a number of components.

Information must be presented to them in a manner they can absorb and their progress must be evaluated effectively.

Hatt says the first key is to ensure it's their knowledge being tested, not their disabilities.

Students who don't understand what they hear have to be presented with written information.

Hatt says people who have problems with processing visual information learn how to scan text, even though they've never been good readers.

She says the object of her workshop is to expose educators to teaching methods and remind them to be aware of students with learning disabilities.

"I do it because I have taught and worked in the field of education for 30 years.

"I also do it because I, myself, have significant learning disabilities that prevented me from being successful in school.

"I hope my accomplishments show that kids can make sense of information on a different basis."

Learning to succeed

Hatt says she has learned to skim written material like good readers and, instead of trying to read everything, picks up on what is most important.

That way, she learns without wasting a lot of time.

"Since you can't read like other people, you learn to be a more effective and efficient reader."

These days Hatt is heavily involved in the research and development of manuals to help with various aspects of special needs and learning disabilities.

She says teachers have to help special students to find out what's going on in school, understand what there is to learn, and how to do things the way the school system wants them done.

"This helps them be successful and gives them choices when they finish school to do whatever it is that they want to do.

"With a helping hand along the way, many of them will reach their goals."